The Dark Side of Product ManagementNuno Jonet ProductCampSG 2014

The Dark Side of Product Management

A sharing session on the “not-so-nice” aspects of product management, based on one man’s experience.

It’s not all about lean, UX, startups, market data, happy customers and fun.

Some of it sucks…

Who is Nuno?Portuguese since birth

Singapore since 2001

Product Manager since 2007

Worked at:

• PSA Corp - System Analyst

• Savi - Business Analyst

• Savi - Product Manager

• Fusion Garage - Product Manager

• Standard Chartered - ScrumMaster/Coach

• Standard Chartered - Product Manager

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed are my own. They do not reflect those of my past, present or future employers.

@njjonet

Responsibility without AuthorityHow did we get into product management ?

Product Management is still a hard to define role. In fact, there are many different kinds of product management

Always a position of enormous power and influence but almost never with real authority

Get good at making hard decisions based on little information or - even worse - biased opinions.

Not everybody has clear metrics as a priority…

Jack of all tradesLook at all the different things we do!

It’s impossible to be good at all things related to managing products.

Develop relationships with these areas as quickly and deeply as you can.

Sometimes we are asked to do exotic stuff, you will need help.

• Bill of materials

• Licensing

• Procurement

Product or project?

How many times has somebody “misspelled” your profession?

Many companies hire product managers to handle projects.

It’s not impossible to do product management with projects, but it’s much harder.

Projects don’t scale, products do.

Agile helps Or does it?

Agile practices accelerate feedback loops and increase confidence

Remember that agile is a culture, not a cult (Agile vs agile)

Product managers can be quickly overwhelmed by the demands of Agile practices

Product owner is a role, not a job description

Sometimes, there's nothing you can do…Even when you have the:

• right idea

• right marketing

• right UX

• right pricing

• right <insert you favourite here>

You/your product/your company can still drown

… and it’s OK!

So what can I do?1. Learn and practice diplomacy

2. Learn how to create rapport as quickly as possible

3. Learn and practice negotiation skills

4. Become an expert at detailing benefit cases

5. Don’t be afraid to “poke” into other parts of the business

6. Be comfortable in failure, it’s where learning happens

7. Always be looking for feedback