The “No Head of Product Syndrome” is where product managers are scattered throughout a complex organization, but lack an executive-level product leader who can to create conditions for success: drive good hiring/mentoring, create bits of semi-standard processes, and set achievable role/job expectations.
In this “Mastering Business Analysis” podcast, Rich shares thoughts on product manager versus product owner; output versus outcome; getting out of our cubes to learn from lots of real users; and building the right thing (not just building things right) to deliver measurable value.
ProDUCT management is often a murky role: poorly understood and inconsistently practiced across tech companies – often confused with proGRAM and proJECT management. In this PMI-sponsored webinar, we’ll talk through the basics and how we can all work well together.
Very early stage startups don’t have dedicated product managers / product owners. But once they get to 30 people or have a few big-revenue customers, lack of product management can be disastrous.
Slides from a Product Camp discussion about what Directors of Product Management do, how a PM might signal interest/demonstrate competence for that role, and who might want it.
We’re filling product owner slots internally, without much regard to skills or long-term success. Or leaving these slots open for development teams to fill as they may. That’s a road to market failure. We need to be thoughtful, intentional and organizationally savvy about picking and mentoring product owners.
A discussion on how development and product management can work better together… I like to start such sessions with unfiltered comments from development managers about their (good and bad) experiences with product managers. Typically, these include more disappointment than elation, which gives us a chance to recap the critical parts of the product job that development teams don’t see. And how we can focus on building and shipping great products, rather than title or roles.
This year’s Silicon Valley Product Camp (the sixth!) again drew record crowds of product managers and product marketers to share, network, learn and have fun! 600+ attendees came to eBay’s Paypal/San Jose location. I ran a session on Understanding the Next Job Up… and Getting Promoted. We had an energetic (semi-structured) discussion about what individual contributor Product Managers do, how this is different from Director-level and VP Product roles, and ways to address various real-world (political) issues. Some of the more senior attendees offered advice to newcomers. We talked about how to signal that you’re interested in “the next job up” while respecting your current manager. Understanding the Next Job Up… and Getting Promoted from Rich Mironov With a…
I was pleased to lead the discussion at the StartUP Product Talk on 16 May at Atlassian‘s SF offices, hosted by #ProdMgmtTalk‘s Cindy Solomon and Atlassian PM Nick Muldoon. About 45 people networked, ate pizza, and joined an energetic discussion.