Monday, December 15, 2008

Transition Continued

Ok. It’s been a couple of months since I left the previous product management position and plugged into the new one. What a refreshing change of pace! Granted, there are always fresh challenges with a new gig, but in this case, the transition has been quite nice. Earlier today, I colleague asked how I felt about this move relative to the previous two. I’d have to say it’s a distinct improvement!

Jumping from a large, publicly traded corporation which was hidebound in process and politics to a smaller, privately held firm unencumbered by such restrictions has been the difference between night and day. Albeit there are areas in which a little more structure or process would be helpful, on balance throwing off the chains of big company institutional inertia has been profoundly liberating. Hopefully, this remains the case well into the future.

Now, I can become more fully engaged in all pieces of the value chain. It’s possible to actually spend time on the manufacturing floor or in the test labs to get hands on time; to really ask questions. Being able to make decisions and re-direct the business quickly is a real kick in the pants! And benefiting from personal interaction, face-to-face, rather than voice mail to voice mail has been a boon to productivity. In short, all the things product management should be are at least possible in a smaller organization. It reminds me of my first product management job almost 9 years ago. Chalk one up for business retro!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Transition

It’s a fascinating process to leave a product management job with one company to take a product management job with another. It’s possible to see the old position from the perspective of an external third party or consultant -- almost. Without the day-to-day operational fog that normally enshrouds you, you can enjoy a simplified picture of the product and the business. Things become clear, uncomplicated, and straight forward. It’s unfortunate that perspective is the exception rather than the rule in product management land. Product managers and their businesses would be much better if it were the norm.

This clarified perspective may be what the folks at Pragmatic Marketing are angling for within the framework of their product management training seminars. Keep things simple, clean, and to the point. It’s far too easy as a PM to become embroiled in politics, turf battles, and the flotsam and jetsam of corporate process -- all to the complete detriment of your business. Finding a means of escaping it to focus in an unabridged manner on the fundamental business appears to be the holy grail of product managers everywhere.

What’s the solution? Pragmatic Marketing’s seminars help by delivering product management tools which are not complex or elegant, but appear to be effective. This is a start. Aside from that, I’m afraid the only other option is to bear down. Be proactive and persistent in your efforts to simplify, simplify, simplify. Become educated about your market, your business, your product, and your processes. Read! The more you understand about each, the easier it will be to cut to the chase, fashioning a more focused environment.

Of course, one could also spend time moving from one product management role to another to benefit from the aforementioned consultant style perspective. However, you need only do so a handful of times before witnessing a majority of the transition perspectives which are of value. From there it’s time to apply them. Thus begins the second half of the transition; the arrival at the new firm. It’s going to be fun!

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Good Information Leads to Good Decisions

Good information leads to good decisions is an aviation axiom. The corollary of this is that poor information leads to poor decisions. The unspoken but all-too-important point is that poor decisions can lead to tragic consequences when it comes to flying airplanes.

If good information leading to good decisions is at the forefront of the decision making process in an arena in which the consequence of failure may be catastrophic, then why would this reasoning be less than applicable in the role of a product manager? The answer is… it’s not.

While it’s true that good information does not guarantee good decisions, nor do good decisions guarantee good results, the fact is that this line of reasoning does improve the odds that good results will ensue. The alternative is to leave good results strictly to chance. This is NOT something one does when staving off gravity, nor should it be the norm when facing down critical business decisions.

Another way to look at this is to say that when decisions need to be made, information, data, and facts should normally win out over theory, speculation, or feeling. Granted, there are times when this prioritization may not be true, but across the set of decisions product managers make over the course of their careers, it constitutes best practice the majority of the time.

So how do product managers acquire good information – or at least the best information available? The same way pilots do… through research. In the case of product managers this means tapping into customer feedback, analyst reports, competitive intelligence, financial information, third-party publications, and any other source of data which can be compiled and intelligently applied within a decision framework.

In conducting research, the PM must be aware that there is no such thing as perfect information. And if one were to spend an unlimited amount of time trying to acquire perfect information, said PM would get nothing else done. As a result, there comes a point where the opportunity cost of doing more research is superseded by the need to make a decision and take action. Understanding where this point occurs is something that comes with product management experience and refinement over time.

Thus, good - but not perfect - information leads to good - but not perfect - decisions. This is what solid product managers should strive for. Given time and repetition under the guise of this premise, product managers who exercise their decisions in this manner will generate increasingly well run and successful products. And in the final analysis, isn’t that the goal?

Friday, August 29, 2008

Incremental Product Management

Is it possible to turn a bucket of fertilizer into a rose petal? Yes. It is. However, it requires time and effort. And progress is measured in small increments rather than large leaps. This, in a nutshell, is product management. It’s a process. It’s time consuming and most often measured in minor victories – hopefully steady ones. It’s rarely a home run let alone a consistent string of them. The earlier you realize this, the greater the brain damage you’ll save yourself.

How does one manage a lengthy process of tiny victories in order to achieve great success? Other than exercising a boat load of patience, that is? The key is to make good decisions consistently. While it’s true that you will, through your product management career, make many bad decisions you should continually work to reduce the number of bad decisions and increase the number of good ones you make in both quantity and quality.

While this is a worthy objective, it’s much easier said than done. Consequently, one must bear in mind that over time, the balance of favorable outcomes tips in your favor by making consistently good choices versus making a preponderance of poor choices. Also, for every decision you make, good or bad, you should learn something from it and apply it to the next decision point. This combination helps you replicate good decisions while reducing the poor ones, thus building your success.

By exercising the lessons learned from each decision, your judgment becomes more refined, helping you make better choices going forward. This process is cumulative. The more decisions you make, the more you learn and the deeper your experience becomes. The more of that experience you have at your command, the easier it is to make sound, future choices.

The more positive decisions you make, the greater the probability of successful outcomes and learning which can be built upon further. Truly, striving for consistent, sound decision making for your product or business is very much like compound interest. As Ben Franklin said, there is no greater force in nature than that of compound interest… paraphrased, of course.

The point is this; good decisions repeated improve your odds of success. Poor decisions repeated increase your odds of unemployment.

As a product manager, it’s imperative that you strive to make consistently good decisions by learning from all decisions previously made. Thus, it becomes a process of incremental improvement in your skill set much the same way in which a bucket of fertilizer, under the right conditions, is used to turn a seed into a plant bearing rose petals. It’s all incremental.

As previously stated, product management is slow, it’s incremental, and there are few home runs. But if you understand the basic premise behind the process and work to exercise the fundamentals – consistent good decision making and learning from each decision, then applying those lessons - you’ll see the results you hope for across time. Profitable products, happy customers, satisfied management, and bigger pay checks are yours for the taking – one incremental improvement at a time!

Friday, August 15, 2008

Olympic Business

The Olympics are on TV and I’ve been watching sporadically during the evenings. The athleticism, stamina, strength, flexibility, and quality of the competitors is amazing. They’re fun to watch and they make their performances look easy - deceptively so. This, despite the world records which are falling in droves.

Now what on earth could any of this have to do with business in general or product management in particular? Simple. The effort and practice put in by the athletes over the years is the key. The repetition. The mechanics. The consistency.

Striving for perfection, not by dreaming up elegantly complex routines or wearing the trendiest uniforms, but by drilling their minds and bodies to act and react almost instinctively. Again and again, with great precision, upon each repetition they refine their motor skills, their strength, their agility, their stamina, their mental toughness to ever greater degrees.

In short, Olympic athletes work tremendously hard on the value chain of their individual performance characteristics to align them perfectly and consistently. In doing so, they maximize their odds of success in order to become the best athletes the world has seen.

As a product manager, you will have a value chain of performance components you must strive to align consistently and well. Driving a business or product line to success requires performing fundamental business skills and activities over and over with precision. Like the Olympians, doing so maximizes your odds of success.

If you believe that writing the best business plan, crafting the most elegant strategy, or dreaming up a great value prop are all that are required to succeed as a product manager, you will fail miserably. Despite watching Olympians make their complex activities look armchair easy, nearly everyone knows that 4 years or more of diligent, concentrated, and difficult effort have been invested to obtain the results we watch on television.

Unfortunately, too many product managers believe they can generate great success with their lines without engaging in the hard, time consuming work needed to make less-than-sexy value chain activities line up and function well. Building cool strategy decks, grand business plans, or mind share grabbing value propositions is sexy and fun. But at the end of the day, no matter how great those things are, they won’t be sufficient to overcome poor customer research, flawed pricing, inefficient manufacturing operations, or inadequate sales support and training any more than sleek uniforms or great sound bites will translate into Olympic gold.

To be a successful product manager, you have to behave like an Olympic athlete in training, day in and day out. Take care of the fundamentals. Develop reliably consistent performance across your value chain and you can achieve greatness. It may not be fun every day, but the result will be worth it!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Process This!

Product Managers are often called upon to be process managers. Getting a concept from idea to dollars requires multiple steps, in the appropriate sequence, in order to ensure success. Consequently, a product manager must work to align the steps and help guide and propel the idea through those steps in a systematic fashion i.e., a process. This is a requirement. Nay, even a necessary evil it seems at times.

To the great joy (read consternation) of product managers everywhere, there frequently exists an internal functionary otherwise known as a busy-body, whose sole role is to impart additional process to the, ah…. process. These are the folks for whom process is the end-all, be-all of their existence. Or at least it should be from their blinder addled perspective.

These people believe that more process equates to heightened success and greater performance. This is similar to stating that market share exactly equals profits (Ask the airline industry or dot bombers how well this equation works!). But I digress.

The process police will put formula and propriety before the actual objective of you as a product manager. To them, checking the boxes is more important than generating revenue and profit. This is called, no value add. In less polite society, it’s also referred to as “Revenue Prevention.”

What’s the anti-dote to such an inane stance? Education. Facts. Persistence. In combination and large doses. And bribes - little ones, of course e.g., coffee, bagels, schmooze, etc. Those help – sometimes. If you can prove to the process police, via profligate fact that their desires stand in the way of great riches, rather than enabling them, you may have a chance of getting beyond their insidious clutches and extricate your product from the evil (not necessary evil, mind you) of undesirable process activities.

Remember, KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid. Your facts must be numerous, well organized, and simple to communicate / understand. Your delivery needs to be calm and reasoned. And above all, you must be persistent. For without these things, the unthinking, unblinking process will overwhelm all who stand in opposition. Your product will be left in the dust and those promising dollars will gladly head to your competitors, at which point in time even the, “I told you so’s” and the “process this, will ya!” won’t do you or your product any good.

Thus should be your mantra… KISS. Simple facts to educate in a persistent manner. Because at the end of the day, cash is fact, profit is theory, and process should be nothing more than a means to those ends, not the end itself.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

A pig in drag

There are times during your PM career in which you may be handed, or unwittingly volunteer to take, a product of someone else’s handiwork. Often times, what you receive will be well thought out, diligently constructed, and artfully run. In this case, all you have to do is to make sure you don’t auger it into the turf. That’s the best kind of inheritance!

However, there are other situations in which you may find yourself suddenly clutching one large pig in serious need of enormous quantities of lipstick. And despite applying said beauty balm generously, the result still ain’t gonna be pretty! Upon receipt, you will quickly find there was no business level forethought, little structure, and even less of a clue on the part of the preceding parties about how to build and run a product. Thus, a pig.

You will find that fundamental business concepts have been completely ignored with this pig. Economies of scale in manufacturing? Piffle! Sales cycle and coverage? Yeah. Right. Simple, clean, orderability? Non-sense! Clear-cut position - both competitive and relative to product line or portfolio? Ha-rumph! Margin? What’s that? You get the picture.

These kinds of issues are usually the result of having had nooooo adult supervision within moon shot of your new fangled pig! As the PM, you will be tasked with finding, assessing, and fixing all the issues. Unfortunately it will take tremendous work and patience… very much like that which is required to turn a bag of all-natural fertilizer into a rose petal. It can be done, but it won’t be quick. And you’ll sweat a lot! Or more likely you’ll swear a lot. Either way, you’ll earn your keep.

What’s the key to all this you ask? As soon as I figure it out, I’ll let you know. For a dollar… or maybe a beer.

Truthfully, the key is simple. Not easy, but simple. It’s patience. And a LOT of sound business practice application. Go back to the basic building blocks you learned (hopefully!) in business school. Make sure you’ve covered the fundamentals - thoroughly. And did I mention patience? You’ll need both.

Also, you’ll be wise to find a sounding (venting?) board to offer support. This will be crucially important on those days when the business infidel are many and your patience is shot. Without a cool hand, applying sound business principles to spruce up your farm animal will be more than most mortals can accomplish.

Good luck with your pig!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Good ideas... Hard choices

In big company parlance, the land of good ideas is sometimes known as corporate row or the C Suite. This is the ethereal plain on which grand strategies are hatched and good ideas propagated downward to the masses. It’s also the area which suffers a disconnect from the realities faced by the rest of the business. And the rest of the planet, come to think of it.

While some ozone level ‘good ideas’ may have merit, others do not. A few actually sound reasonable. There’s a logical flow to them making use of fuzzy connections and various lapses which, without reflection, allow ‘good ideas’ to grow, prosper, be repeated, and eventually implemented.

Unfortunately, in the implementation stage, ground pounding product managers are tasked with pulling together pieces of the product value chain to bring the ‘good idea’ to fruition. This is known as the point where the rubber meets the road. It’s also the point where the wheels tend to fall off.

C Suite people are big picture people. Not a bad thing to be. Many visionaries and artists are big picture people. Take Monet and his work for instance. At a distance, it’s beautiful. It’s not until you get close that you realize it’s also rather messy. I sometimes wonder if “C” row folks fancy themselves as business Monet’s. Paint a picture that looks great from a distance, but don’t inspect it closely.

Product managers, however, have to inspect the picture closely in order to make it a reality. Upon peering closely at the ‘good idea’ from above, PM’s begin to see not just messy brush strokes, but real flaws. Some of which may be fatal. For instance, it’s a good idea, but service can’t support it. It’s a good idea, but not for this market. You get the picture. At this juncture, PM’s are faced with difficult choices.

A) Take the ‘good idea’ and implement as best they can, hoping something good will happen.
B) Push back with sound reasons for making changes to the ‘good idea’ so that it becomes an idea that works.
C) Find a new job.

If you choose “A” you are a ‘yes’ man product manager. You’ll agree to anything management passes down. You have become a passive product manager. The success or failure of your product is no longer within your sphere of influence. You are corporate fodder.

For those selecting “B”, you could be viewed as an unreasonable dissenter – depending on the predilections of the corporate wigs. Or you may be viewed as a worthy PM with the strength to see things through. Either way, at least you have a shot at influencing your product for better or worse. You are a player. (Possibly for another team if the “C” folks are ticked off, but a player non-the-less.)

Choosing “C” means you may not be long for product management. You don’t like being a “yes” person and you’re not fond of conflict. You are unemployed.

The truth is, every product manager will face this scenario along his or her PM career path. The question is, how will you respond when it happens to you?

Monday, June 9, 2008

Value Chain Terms

Engineering / Development – a.k.a., Hobbyists or technology garage guys. The gear heads who want to build all the cool stuff, despite the fact that sometimes the market doesn’t call for it. Never mind that we can’t make money at it, it’s still too cool not to build. Just like Alaska’s bridge to nowhere...

Manufacturing / Operations – a.k.a., Woops…. As in, woops, we failed to deliver. On most anything in a timely manner. These are the folks who are so tight (cost control oriented) you can stuff a lump of coal up ‘em and have a diamond in 10 days. They’re well meaning, but their business vision typically does not extend beyond their keyboard. Can you say myopic? We might make money if we could deliver it, but hey… we might have to spend a dime to do it. Not happening.

Marketing – a.k.a., The 5 Dumbest People in the Company. My airline friend coined this term. These are the peeps with grand ideas but absolutely no clue about the technical, operational, or practical realities of delivering a product or service. But they are a happy lot! Then again, ignorance is bliss.

Professional Services – a.k.a., Revenue Prevention. If anybody can conjure up a sales inhibitor, professional services can name 7 ways to get the job done. You can install it and use it, but it ain’t supported. In other words, if something goes wrong, you’re basically a test pilot. But if we support it, we’ll have to do something. That’s un-American. Besides, if we did then you’d lose the thrill of being the Chuck Yeager of high tech.

Sales – a.k.a., Wine-alots. If the deal doesn’t do itself, it’s not getting done because it would impinge upon the golf game. You know, the only point in time where talking about someone’s handicap isn’t considered impolite? If there’s huge money in it, and the sales guy doesn’t have to do anything, he’ll think about getting involved in the deal. Otherwise, you’ll hear about it. That’s what the SE, product management, sales support, tech support, engineering, and management are for. The rep just introduces ‘em all to the customer and lets it ride. That’s how they roll.

Finance – a.k.a., Bean counters. This one is pretty well understood. For all those who failed calculus in college, but managed to get the right digits into the correct columns, this is where it’s at. Finance will provide grand numbers, but really doesn’t know what they mean to the business. They generate some pretty groovy graphs and charts, though!

Legal – a.k.a. The road to hell and good intentions. Lawyers have ‘em – good intentions that is, but they’re the reason most of us know not only what the road to hell looks like, but all the detours, rest stops, gas stations, and tourist traps along the way, too. And to make the trip interesting, the lawyers take away our GPS so the ride takes longer. Nothing like dragging out the suspense when you know you’re going to hell anyhow.

Management – a.k.a., The Albatross Gang. You know ‘em, the birds who fly in unexpectedly, raise a ruckus, dump all over, then fly off leaving others to clean up the mess? These folks are the reason “The Peter Principal” was dreamed up in the first place. For management, powerpoint slides ARE strategy. The rest is irrelevant.

Product Manager – a.k.a., The idiot… as in the dolt attempting to provide some level of adult supervision to this value chain mess in order that maybe, just maybe, the product and business will make a little coin. Good luck!

Disclaimer - a.k.a., The fine print. The characterizations drawn here are the result of a long day of product managing and not intended to be truthful or accurately portray people actually holding any of these positions. But if they do.... any parallels or perceived similarities are merely coincidental.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Product vs Value Chain

Sometimes product ideas come along that look great in PowerPoint. The concept resonates with customers and executives when pitched by charismatic idea owners. The owners can gloss over the inconsequential or fail to deliver the whole truth whether known or not. But they do it with zeal. The ability to convey propositions with singular exuberance and passion in the quest for victory is why those folks are in sales – not always in product management.

When great ideas converge with solid value chain structure, the fusion of energy and execution can deliver outstanding business results. Unfortunately, when great ideas meet value chain structures which aren’t built for them, contention ensues. And sometimes the contention may only be resolved with a radical change.

Having navigated product management waters in several firms, I’ve seen this contention before. However, in the current case, it appears to be significant. At the moment, a product idea which has been hatched and escaped into the wild looks great on paper. It appears to be customer friendly, comprehensive, integrated, and uses leading technology.

Unfortunately, the idea is not sales order friendly, it’s extremely difficult to deliver in volume, has a disjointed service component and is cumbersome to manage from an upgrade standpoint. Ah-ha! Trade-offs, you say. The stuff of product managers… and politicians. If that doesn’t give you a warm and fuzzy about being a PM, I don’t know what will!

Should a product manager focus on delivering the customer friendly, despite the value chain problems which may be systemic across the global corporation? If you can’t change major value chain components to fit a product, then accept them you must. Venturing down this path includes accepting reduced sales volume and ability to meet targets, but hey, the great idea is still in-tact.

Conversely, would it be prudent to modify the good idea so it’s “less good” from a slide deck perspective, but more value chain friendly providing alternative customer goodies? One might de-feature the product to fit the value chain model, thus delivering other customer goodies. Do swift delivery times, ease of use, and streamlined serviceability for the customer result in a better business if you can push up the sales volume? What of the political ramifications of down-leveling someone’s “great idea”?

Well, if you read my previous post, you would know that I prefer a great business with mediocre technology over outstanding technology and a poor business. With that, I suppose the choice is clear. I wonder how it will work out?

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Good technology. Bad business.

If we build it, they will come. It’s a great movie line, but extremely poor business practice. In the high tech arena, it’s an all too common mantra for corporate success. Having worked for 4 high tech firms as a product manager, I’m yet discouraged by executives incapable of grasping the full issue.

A product or business may be thought of in terms of a sports team – let’s say football - American, that is. The successful team does not have the best quarterback in the land, but the best team. Having players in various roles who understand those roles is important. Of greater concern, is ensuring those players are working within each role to maximize the performance of the team…. not the performance of an individual player.

As any armchair fan, coach, or player can attest, maximizing the quarterback’s contribution while neglecting the performances of the supporting cast on both offense and defense is a recipe for mediocrity or abject failure. You can have a perfect season with such a philosophy. Perfectly abysmal that is.

Product managers and executives, if not astute, will quickly devolve their interest to the single component (technology) of the business while neglecting the supporting roles within the value chain. If only we can build the best, fastest, largest, most feature rich widget, the rest of the business will take care of itself. Shoot, the product will sell itself. We will dominate the market with a break through offering and live richly thereafter. In theory.

In practice, such great focus goes into building the best widget that little attention is paid to other necessary items within the value chain. Inadequate or misdirected sales coverage ensues, limiting volume. Schizophrenic messaging and dilutive marketing efforts are propagated, confusing customers. Manufacturing efforts slide precipitously delaying product delivery.

Any number of value chain components can run amuck, damaging your business. In other words, the executive coaches focus on a single player in the zealous belief that if the player can become uber dominant, the inadequacies of other players on the team will be eclipsed to such an extent that success is assured. It's the industry's best technology. It’s magic. It’s misguided.


Product managers who own a product or business own the value chain. Consequently, they must endeavor to coordinate the value chain participants to maximize the business. They should do so like a coach coordinating the efforts of his players to maximize team performance and not just the quarterback’s.


This may be the most crucial activity a product manager may engage in to facilitate the success or failure of her product. Concentrate on the business, the whole business and nothing but the business. Great technology is but one facet of that. I’d much rather own a great business with middle of the road technology than award winning technology and a losing business. Wouldn’t you?

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Great strategy? Good Execution!

“Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.
-General Norman Schwartzkopf

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
-Winston Churchill

“A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.”
-General George S. Patton

“A half-baked strategy well executed will be superior to that marvelous strategy that isn’t very well executed.”
–Allan Gilmour, former Vice Chairman, Ford Motor

“Quality of execution is far more important than the idea.” -Barnett Helzberg, Helzberg Diamonds (bought by Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway)

Strategy shows up in Power Point decks, in corporate brochures, and to the delight of executives, in business publications with their names prominently attached. Great time and effort go into slicing and dicing markets, attempting to find sweet spots, and pontificating at the 100,000 foot level how to grow the biz.

Unfortunately, that which is often neglected is the execution. To unfortunate ends. As anyone reading at the grade school level can attest from the lines above, execution plays a central role to organizational success. This is true of not only military organizations, but those of a business bent as well.

Why then do so many, spend so much, for so long, on something which can yield so little? Particularly if the support and performance aren’t there? Because it’s sexy, that’s why. It’s more interesting to tell your neighbor that you’re a strategist rather than a manager or an operations grinder. And for these folks, by the time the chickens come home to roost, they can simply say that market conditions changed, requiring a change in strategy, and away they go.

As a rock solid PM, you cannot lose sight of the execution tree for the forest that is strategy. Many product lines fail to produce and firms fall because the execution was not present to support the strategy in the Power Point. In other words, without consistent execution, the greatest of strategies becomes expensive slide ware, vapor ware, or any other empty “ware” you care to call it.

Strategy… fine. Execution…. Required!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Outside the Box

What a ridiculous phrase within the business world. Likely to be one of the most oft used and trite phrases imaginable. No doubt it’s a top pick in boardroom bingo games across the continent.

Why such derision where these three words are concerned? Because they’re liberally thrown about when events aren’t going as expected. Sales volume not up to par? How do we get outside the box to drive deal velocity. Operations having difficulty containing costs? Let’s focus outside the box and find ways to trim expenses while maintaining product flow. Yak, yak, yak!

Unfortunately, the phrase “outside the box” may be a thin cover for a lack of proficiency inside the box. In other words, when people or firms can’t execute the basics with great consistency, failures occur. Rather than targeting flaws, which means identifying culprits, it’s much easier to say, “Let’s blah, blah, blah outside the box” and boo-ya, problem solved!

When folks hear “outside the box” they forget about proficiency of business principals and instead gaze into the magic 8-ball to divine new, novel, risky, and “unique” solutions. This is done in hopes of diverting attention from the ineptitude that got them into hot water in the first place.

There’s nothing better than confusion and obfuscation to cover one’s bum in hopes of getting lucky with another tactic!

The sad fact is this. By revisiting the fundamentals and exercising them in an expert and consistent fashion, a great many of the individual and business problems raising their ugly heads can be effectively addressed. I’ve been dumbfounded by firms in which I’ve worked, that ignore business basics to their detriment, yet continue chasing the holy grail of “getting outside the box” to improve performance.

Get back in the box! Return to the basics and learn how to do them extraordinarily well. If you can’t execute the fundamentals IN the box with great proficiently, attempting anything complex or fancy outside the box should be considered speculation, not investment and certainly not sound business practice in a great many cases.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Tyranny of the Urgent

The nice thing about being a product manager is that you get involved in all kinds of stuff. The bad part of being a product manager… is that you get involved in all kinds of stuff! There’s more work to do in a given day than there is day in which to do it. Everything is important. Even urgent. This is where a product manager has to be careful.

When managers, engineers, or sales people are pinging you for help immediately, it’s easy to get caught up in the “need asap” mode. Unfortunately, there are times when someone’s “need now” is not as important as the overall health of your business. As a product manager, you’ve got to think longer term. Many of the requests you receive, which seemingly must be addressed today will, by next week, be nits.

Conversely, items which don’t appear critical today, may become infinitely more so in a month. By putting off those activities because the deadline isn’t immediate may leave a product manager too little time to act on the greater need. The result could be a product “short” of the resources required to succeed.

The moral of this story? Consider your options. Weigh the opportunity cost of engaging the urgent need at the expense of the critical activity. If you don’t, you may become entangled in a never-ending loop of urgent requests, monopolizing your time like a tyrant pillaging a country even as your product dies.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Training Tools

Over the course of the past year, I’ve been slowly absorbing the best practice wisdom published by the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA). Both “The PDMA Toolbook for New Product Development”, Editions 1 and 2, as well as the Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM), have been worth the read.

While each resource leans more toward academic best practice than “rubber meets the road” practicality, they do deliver significant wisdom. Throughout each chapter or monthly publication, I’ve gleaned a nugget of information or found some useful tool with which I can further my product’s likelihood of success.

Since I work in new product development and management, rather than managing a mature product or an OEM offering, having the ability to see what others are doing on the front side of the business is helpful. Sometimes the help comes in the form of tools, ideas, or information which is immediately applicable. At others, it’s simply knowing I’m not the only PM suffering (learning!) how to improve the process of bringing new products to market.

Over the years I’ve seen far too many PM’s who, once they become comfortable in their role – stop improving their skill sets. They put it on auto-pilot and coast. I don’t mean this in a bad way, per se, since these PM’s continue to work hard. However, they discontinue searching for, retrieving, and putting to use the knowledge and insight that’s available around them. For PM’s who want to become outstanding, engaging cruise control isn’t the answer.

With that said, there are numerous resources available in the market today. Training on line, in class, during seminars, and the most ubiquitous of all – simply reading. That’s what I’ve been doing a lot of lately and it’s paying off – without even resorting to the use of picture books!

To become a great product manager, just pick up a publication devoted to product management and get going. The PDMA, referenced above, is a good start. There are plenty of other resources from which to choose as well. Google away and get started. Your business and your employer with thank you for it.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Hocus, pocus.... focus!

Center. Concentrate. Core. Heart. Nucleus. Rallying point around which a business must congregate in mind and effort in order to succeed. Sports teams and athletes know about focus. They talk about it regularly. They “focus” on it. Why is it that businesses find focus so easy to forget or disregard?

Over the years, PM’ing away, I’ve seen and been a part of organizations which lose focus. They scatter their precious efforts and personnel across a swath of programs looking for that magic bullet, killer app, or market disrupting offering. It can be a little ridiculous to be truthful. It’s as if they take to heart the investor’s mantra…. diversify!

Diversifying your investments can be a good thing. It may reduce risk, particularly if you’re not an artful investor. But if you’re running a business or product, you have to establish business focus. Else your product may wander like a rudderless ship in a storm. The ride may be exciting, but the ending isn’t likely to be pleasant.

Management teams are often afraid that not pursuing all opportunities may mean missing the one big thing. Hence, they try to be all things to all markets. Doing so results in being little to any. Yet, executives frequently like to follow this shotgun approach despite less than noteworthy results yielded time and again.

Warren Buffet tells his investment partners (shareholders) to put big bets on sure things. He has little trouble in putting most of his eggs in a single basket – well understood of course – and reaping big benefits. He’s proven remarkably adept at it.

His big bets are chosen on the basis of value, not popularity. And he keeps a keen eye on limiting risk to his capital. You can’t invest in this manner unless you are focused. As product managers, it is our job to make decisions based upon the value-add of our products, not industry fad or “follow me” decision making. And we should make those decisions in a risk averse manner to the best of our abilities. Thus, we need focus.

PM’s should make every effort to prevent products from wandering due to strict adherence to executive scatter-gunning dictums. This means educating, advocating, persisting, and above all focusing on the interests of the business. Our business. We own it. We are responsible for it. We must direct it.

Otherwise, the alternative for our products is chance, fate, or whatever hocus-pocus and mumbo-jumbo that can be ginned up. Consequently, the business becomes little more than speculative in which case, close up the shop, head for the casinos, and bet it all on black. At least that may be entertaining.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Rule of Thumb and Law of Fat

PM’s are frequently asked to assess business opportunities such as opportunity / cost, partnership analysis, and office football pools. We’re generally pressed for time – particularly on the football pool. Therefore, it’s helpful to filter the fluff and take a defensible analytical swag (some wild ass guess) up front. This can save you from investing considerable work only to find later there was no chance in the first place. For this, Rules of Thumb and The Law of Fat are handy.

Rules of thumb are as advertised. They involve the basics – addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and rounding. They provide a dash of estimation that’s, “close enough for government work”. Knowing your business intimately from one end of the value chain to the other is crucial for this to play out properly.

The long and short of it goes like this. Run approximate numbers quickly in your head or with a pencil and paper. By hitting only the pertinent points, for instance, sales volumes and average sales prices for revenue relative to approximate costs to deliver and you can determine whether or not there’s much “fat” in the deal.

Mr. Pareto is helpful here. If you get round figures that capture 80% or more of the deal attributes without breaking a sweat, that’ll work.

Once you’ve conjured up your estimate, check to see how it stacks up relative your company’s revenue, margin, or ROI targets which you should know. If this comparison shows the deal will fly easily, you’re probably in the chips. There’s plenty of fat to cushion the unexpected. However, if you discover a rough cut requires running your calculations to two or three decimal places to see if it works, then walk away.

When the estimates to make the deal work are close enough that precise models are required to justify the business, there isn’t enough room in the business for error. If the financial math must pencil exactly to work, then the program must work perfectly in real life if your product is going to make money. How often does a perfectly run product or program happen? Never. Therefore, you need plenty of fat if you’re going to mint money and that’s why it’s a Law.

With quick Rules of Thumb and the Law of the Fat, you can readily filter ideas landing on your desk. Using simple math can help you determine the high level merit of the business without cycling up your three product management brain cells for a full analysis. This will leave you more time for the important work of analyzing your football picks!

Friday, May 9, 2008

Pilots and Product Managers

In, “Poor Charlie’s Almanac,” the less renowned half of the Berkshire Hathaway investing duo, Charles Munger, posits that the best training for business is actually provided to pilots. How can that be? Very good question! Had I not been a flight instructor who eventually entered business as a product manager, my answer may not have been given with a straight face.

Pilots must know a diversity of information. They are expected to understand and apply it in real time. They need do so in an integrated manner to ensure success. Success, by the way, is not crashing the plane!

A pilot must grasp weather, aerodynamics, and aircraft systems, for instance. All are seemingly unrelated topics. If one were to be an expert in meteorology only, flying success would be fleeting. The same is true for individuals who are “only” aerodynamicists or mechanics. Solid, crash-free pilots they would not be.

Weather conditions like density altitude, or air density related to temperature, pressure, and humidity, affect the flying characteristics of airplanes. The higher the density altitude, the greater the air velocity across the wing needed to generate lift i.e., you need more speed and require a longer runway to get there. Likewise, the higher the density altitude, the less fuel is required within a carbureted engine to obtain maximum power. Operating the engine with a fuel / air mixture that is too rich for the density altitude will also adversely affect takeoff performance.

Without interactional understanding of such disciplines, a pilot attempting to take off from a field that is too short for the conditions may fail with terrible consequences. In other words, he runs out of runway before gaining enough airspeed for takeoff. This is a wonderful method for making the evening news but for all the wrong reasons.

Like pilots, product managers must have command of many disciplines. Furthermore, we must understand how these specializations relate if we are to succeed in our craft. Being financially astute yet ignorant of customer needs because our research was poor may yield cost constrained, feature deficient products the market does not want. Not understanding trade-offs between engineering development schedules and time to market consequences can result in market demand going unmet when products are delivered late or with significant defects.

Pilots must synthesize weather, human physiology, aerodynamics, aircraft systems, performance, navigation, communication, and decision-making within real time environments on each flight. Likewise, product managers must integrate research, development, finance, manufacturing, sales, marketing, legal, and service disciplines every day. Failure to grasp the interrelatedness in either the cockpit or conference room may have profoundly unfortunate consequences for the principal.

Charles Munger, one of the foremost investors of our time, believes the best education for the boardroom (and the PM) is the interdisciplinary training pilots receive. Having set foot in both worlds, I think Charlie’s on to something!

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Ditch that customer!

Finally! Someone sees things the way I have for quite a while. Since my first year as a PM, I’ve told people the old axiom, “The customer is always right,”…isn’t always true. Insurance firms have known this for years.

Now the Harvard Business Review, April 2008 edition, “The Right Way to Manage Unprofitable Customers”, has researched the issue and verified my perspective. Ahhh, vindication!

People, regardless of characteristic e.g., height, IQ, poor dance skills (me!), fall along a continuum. On one end are those folks who have a great deal of said characteristic. At the other are people completely lacking it. With this in mind, customers who, near as I can tell are also people, reside on a continuum ranging from low maintenance, high profit on one end to high maintenance, no profit at the other.

Smart businesses and PMs realize this fact and find ways to determine the point on the continuum at which a customer is break-even. In other words, the cost of the customer’s care and feeding is just high enough to perfectly offset any profits they may otherwise provide. Anything below that point and the customer costs the business money. Unless you’re the government or a philanthropist, this is not the best strategy for long-term success. So what should you do?

As a young PM, my initial reaction was to say, “Ditch ‘em! If they’re costing my product money, I don’t need ‘em”. Not the most prudent counsel a body can give. Thank goodness for age, guile, and a few reading skills! The HBR piece provides sage advice – at least it’s more responsible than my youthful PM reaction.

The authors provide a strategy for reviewing the customer’s status and determining how best to address it. Within the framework of a simple, 5-step process, the business should assess the relationship, provide customer education if needed, renegotiate the value proposition of the business arrangement if warranted, and migrate customers to other vendors if possible. Then, failing all else, carefully terminate the relationship.

Of course, terminating a relationship may have pitfalls. Customers who are not let go may fear they’re next and seek other vendors to be safe. If enough customers are divested, the firm may need to downsize, losing valuable institutional knowledge as people resources are let go. Worse, divested customers may spread the word about being slighted. While the first two issues might be valid, the last may be less so. Another old adage states, “Birds of a feather flock together.”

So, if you feel as a PM that an unruly or costly customer is worthy of divestment, don’t fret much about negative word of mouth. If one unprofitable customer who is invited to leave tells his friends, it’s likely his friends are costly to your business as well. Not getting entangled with them because they’ve been warned off by their gold digging and newly divested comrades may be one of the best moves your business can make!

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Plight of the PM

A product manager is the center of everything, yet directly controls nothing. People look to the PM for information and direction yet generally, no-one reports to her. When folks need something, the PM represents the “business unit” or BU. The PM is the bulwark against market uncertainty and the filter through which pertinent information flows. She is the wise decision maker who guides the product to fruitfulness and corporate praise. Right.

When peeps, frequently a cast of thousands, take issue with a PM, then she’s “marketing”… derogatorily speaking, of course. An airline pilot friend of mine said that “marketing comprised the five dumbest people in the company.” I thought this was pretty funny. Then I got into product management or marketing when things don’t go according to someone’s plan. Not so funny, now. Although I will admit, some days it feels like I’m one of the five dumbest people in the company. Don’t tell engineering I said that, though!

Because of this beautiful dynamic, I’m been asked by new PM’s how to proceed. With lots of adult beverages is my sage advice! Actually, I just had this conversation with a new PM (in position less than 1 year) who had been sucked into the marketing vs BU abyss by a technical colleague. Truthfully, I had to ponder the question before answering. What have I done when faced with an abrasive engineer who didn’t take guidance from “marketing”?

The best advice I could provide was to ensure the conversation revolved around the business. Building groovy technology, then figuring out how to sell it doesn’t work out well. It’s more productive to learn what groovy product you can sell, then figure how to build it. With this in mind, my response to said young PM was, “Focus on the customer.” Her needs drive the business which in turn dictates what is built.

As long as the PM has strong command of market information, customer needs, and the associated dollars, the decision making will hinge on data-driven information. Facts are harder to dispute than opinion and readily defended if something goes amiss. Furthermore, when things go swimmingly for the business, data-driven decision practices can be duplicated for future success. As a bonus, the PM retains title of “BU” where engineering is concerned.

Conversely, if the PM allows the conversation to dive into the technical weeds, devolving into engineering vs marketing opinion rather than facts related to revenue, she risks becoming irrelevant. This is bad.

What’s worse is the business drifts into feel good development and technology garage activity. Development considers this more interesting. Unfortunately, doing so departs from disciplined decision making that improves the odds of long-run success.

As a former flight instructor, the training mantra was, “Good information leads to good decisions.” For new PM’s, and those of us who aren’t so shiny, this rule is important. If the new PM becomes marketing, business, and customer savvy about her product and directs that knowledge with commanding presence, she trades the moniker of “marketing” for the more valuable title of "Business Unit". More importantly, she’ll build a better business.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

How Does One Become a Product Manager?

Usually by accident. Seriously.

To the best of my knowledge, which may be limited, there is only one university in the U.S. that provides a Product Management training curriculum resulting in a degree. The rest of us landed those jobs because we:

1) Didn’t know any better
2) Had incriminating photos of hiring managers and extorted our way in
3) Were “drafted” since there were no other eligible i.e., warm, breathing bodies available
4) Sort of knew what was up and decided to do it anyway because hey, it might work out.

I believe I most closely approximated number 4.

Up until about 6 months before I embarked upon my first PM gig, I didn’t even know what a PM was. I’d never heard of one. Didn’t have the foggiest notion of what a PM did and likely confused Product Manager with Project Manager to the same extent everyone else I know does now.

Fortunately, I had luck on my side. I was working as a technical writer which put me in close proximity to some low-level product managers, one of whom left his role to take a flying job. That’s right – he gave up the glory that is product management for hours of unending boredom punctuated by moments of stark terror as a commuter airline pilot. Gotta wonder about that call, right? Anyhow, it worked out well for me. I was able to take my partially baked MBA, along with some previous advertising and sales experience, and train it on the role of product manager… as soon as I figured out what it was.

Other PM’s I’ve had the great good fortune to know have similar stories to tell. They moved into the role from an engineering position or popped onto the PM radar screen from marketing, business development, or operations. What all these folks have had in common is this…. none had any formal training as product managers prior to entering the field. That’s right. People with little idea about what they were doing were given multi-million dollar businesses and told to “go make money with ‘em!”

P.J. O’Rourke, author of “Parliament of Whores” said of politicians that, “Giving them power and money was like giving teenage boys a bottle of whiskey and the keys to the car.”

In many cases, that’s an accurate portrayal of the installation of new PMs. There may be lots of enthusiasm and bravado about their role, but little real knowledge of how to behave with the responsibility given them. It’s little wonder that outstanding PM’s who can truly manage the value chain, drive positive products to their customers, and generate large American dollars for their corporations aren’t more common – at least not early in their career paths.

What’s an aspiring PM to do? Shoot, how is a barely new or even seasoned PM to respond to such an inauspicious start? Hopefully you’ll read on as this blog unfolds. It certainly won’t be a complete owner’s manual to Product Management, but hopefully the mistakes, misfortunes, and successes that have been experienced over the years - by me and others – will enlighten, entertain, and educate all of us in the world of product management in the belief that when one teaches, two learn. Or in this case, many teach, even more learn, and all prosper. Hopefully.

On Being a Product Manager

Product management has been my field of choice for 6 of the past 9 years. The other 3 were spent on a form of sabbatical which yielded nice business and sales lessons but weren’t altogether monetarily enriching (read, boondoggle). Fortunately, I found those lessons to be useful in my return to this illustrious and sometimes infamous profession known as product management.

I’ve been asked what a product manager is – usually because people confuse product management with project management. My response has been that a PM is like a mini CEO. He’s the master of his own business… almost. He sets business direction, builds strategy, and hob-knobs with executives. He also has no employees and he doesn’t deal with Wall Street. A pretty sweet deal, indeed.

On the other hand, the PM gets cussed by engineering for directing them to build things they don’t want to, hounded by manufacturing for forecasts (guesses?) that are never right, and harassed by account reps who wonder why their huge deal fell apart because the price the PM placed upon the widget is far too high…. In other words, the PM actually wanted to charge somebody for it. Go figure.

What’s a project manager? Well, he chases down program milestones the way my neighbor’s kids herd cats - loudly and with little success.

So what’s the thrill in being a PM? You, more than anyone but the CEO, get to see the entire company, from end-to-end, and everything that happens within it. This is actually rather cool.

As PM you become familiar with all pieces of the value chain required to bring your product to market and make money. It’s been said that position determines perspective and in this case, the perspective of a PM is quite vast because the position is at the top of the heap… your product being the heap, of course.

What then, is the downside of being a PM, you ask? You get to see the entire company from end-to-end along with everything that happens within it. Some days it’s like an alimentary canal… all appetite at the front end, no clear idea about what goes on in the middle, and a odiferous aroma at the end.

It’s been said that ignorance is bliss, but the visibility a PM enjoys generally nullifies ignorance – unless of course he’s working at being ignorant. Not recommended for career length PM employment, by the way. While blissful ignorance may be highly prized in the mind of a stressed PM, in practice it is best left for happy hour ruminations irrespective of the insanity you may be facing at the moment.

Long story short, a PM’s life is diverse, intense, frustrating, and rewarding. And that may be before the first cup of coffee is drained on Monday morning and the Outlook calendar has reminded you of your 8 a.m. con call with the good folks building your widgets in Singapore. Ah, the life of a PM… gotta love it!