Warsaw, May 12

How do I tell my boss Iwant to be a PO?

Daniil Lanovyi

This story starts with me sitting in the plane that just about toland in Dublin. My hands are shaking a bit. Not because I amafraid to fly but because it's my first product management

assignment. And I don't even have this title yet. By the papers Iam still a quality assurance engineer. Only yesterday I was

writing my test cases and performing old good regression testing.But tomorrow I will be doing product management job. I will meetcustomers, will need to understand their needs, get to the rootsof their problems. And I will come back with a product strategy.5 years and 10+ of products later I can tell you - it was worthit. Despite all the pain and frustration this craft gives me on adaily basis, I still like this job. And if you want to follow theproduct management path, I have few tips for you today.

There is no official career path for product owners. We all camefrom different backgrounds, experience levels and industries.

Technology, marketing, sales, customer support, accounting? PMsare coming from everywhere. Have a look on a couple of

examples from where people switch to product management.

"I started out on a career as an electricalengineer"

"PM was my first role in tech - before that Ispent a year as a maths teacher!"

"I was a music journalist and editor for 10years"

"I was a landscape gardener, then became avideo games journo, then got headhunted to

deliver Nintendo’s European mothership.Obviously."

"I was an army officer, biologist and scubadiver. Perfect qualifications for PM work."

"Space engineer/orbital dynamicist afterstudying mech/space degree then did a stint

in the Army as a combat engineer"

Everyone can be aproduct owner?

Anybody can become a product owner? Quick answer: yes. If youwant to be a product owner, regardless of what you currently do- you have a chance. I'll give you 8 practical tips today to set

yourself in the position to get a PO job.

PM rule #5 : your building full of productexperts. Your company needs market experts.

Hunt for MarketProblems

PM rule #5 : the building full of product experts. Your companyneeds market experts.

Product experts? You know them. Those are the folks who alwaysknow best how something should work, look and perform. But whenyou ask them why should it work, look, perform… it turns outthat most of the stuff they know are their opinions. And we all

have opinions. You need market knowledge!Start collecting as much market information as possible. You need

to become an expert on the market you're in. Talk with yourcompany customers and users! Talk with any people who havesimilar problem. Read everything possible about your market.

Study carefully all your competitors. Buy customer support guy abeer and ask him to send you customer feedback. Follow your

industry on social media.Be on a constant hunt for market problems!

Become "this-guy-knows-it-all"

of your product

As been said above: building is full of product experts. But youshould be the best of them. Use your company product! Studyhow it works, why it works. Study the data. How your customersuse it. How your users use it. Study the business your companyis in. Why it works? Why people buy? How do we sell? You needto know all critical user flows, all major customer experiencejourneys, have an idea about the technology it's all running on.

Not each and every detail is important butWhen somebody has a question about the product - they go to

you.

Think strategic

Where do you see your product in 5 years? Why should it bethere? Why shouldn't it be somewhere else? How is your marketgoing to change? Is it going to be disrupted? Try to spot some

trends. Feel where the wind is blowing. What unexpectedcompetition might arise? How can you differentiate? What uniquevalues can you serve? Product strategy and vision is the why you

come to work every day! Try to validate your strategy. Find some data, examples from

different industries, business cases from similar companies to atleast theoretically prove your point.

Try to communicate the strategy back to the company. Firstunofficially. At lunch or near the coffees machine. Your target is

to be a recognized strategic thinker of your product.

Learn to Lead andInspire

Before you become product owner you can't tell others what theyshould do? When you do become a product owner ... well, youstill cannot do it. PO is a "servant leader" role. Your team doesnot report to you. Sales does not report to you. Marketing doesnot report to you. Yet you need them all to deliver a successfulproduct. How? By inspiring people to do a great job. Inspiration is

hard, it's not just few positive reinforcement words. It's not amotivational placate. It's not "we can do it!". It's a daily exercise

in setting an example, showing people a role model.

Build relationships

You know what word is the most frequent in a PO's vocabulary?That's the word: "no". Yes, you need to tell no quite a lot. A POrole is a negotiator role. A jogger role. So many people have

opinions. All believe their opinion is the "righest"! And you need totell them "no". But if you want to be successful as a PO, you

need to say no in a way that leaves people if not happy, then atleast not angry at you. And here personal relationships help. Evenbefore you become a PO. Start building them. Start from basics.Remember your colleague names. Talk at the coffee machine.Care to know their hobby or what they're passionate about. Helppeople. Go to after work "one beer"s. Have a genuine interest inthem and it will come back to you when you'll need their help.Or when you'll need to say no to them for the good of your

product.When I ask experienced product managers what advice they wouldgive themselves in the early days of their careers, most answer :

I wish I'd understand the importance of relationship building.

Look for a mentor

When you want to become a PO - you learn from somebody whois already a PO. Learn from somebody who you want to be likeprofessionally. What do they do? How they behave? Why they doit this way? Offer those people your help. Maybe they have somesmall tasks they can delegate to you? Or they might invite youto a meeting to listen and take notes? Or they might show youtheir draft and ask for your opinion? Anything that would helpyou learn. And then if you're lucky you could find a mentor.Which would be your jackpot as you'd learn more than by any

other method.

Learn how to manageproducts, not only how your

company does it

And then we come to a product management itself.Lots of companies, specially in central Europe, don't understandproduct management. That just a fact. This result is a very"creative" definitions of the role. And very, very unexpected

expectations those companies have regarding fresh POs. If youfind yourself in this situation, I encourage you to always learnand remember how product management should really be like!Even if you're somehow forced to adapt to your company

definition.

Say "I want this job"

It sounds kind of an obvious, but very often it's the main reasonwhy somebody didn't get a job he or she wanted. Don't be afraid

to say it out loud. Don't be afraid to apply when vacancyappears. So many people missed the opportunity simply becausetheir bosses didn't even knew they were interested in the PO role.

And then it's important how you say it. If you're a developer,tester, designer, marketeer, sales guy... Company already knowswhat you can do. Develop, test, design, promote, sale... Instead,you need to show what you can do as a PO. Make sure to

showcase all the work you've done regarding a product (even ifonly theoretical) and your approach for the future.

Hunt for market problems

Know your product

Think strategic

Lead and Inspire

Build relationships

Find a mentor

Learnproduct

management

Say "I wantthis job!"

Still want to be aProduct owner?

Knowing what you know now do you still want to tell your bossyou want to be a PO? It's not an easy job, it's damn hard job if

you want to make it right.Would you have responsibilities? Sure. You would. Would you havedecision power? You might, eventually, some day. Would you haveambitious challenges? Sure you would. Would you have enoughresources to make it? Almost never. Do you want power withinyour organization? That's next door. Do you want to lead crossfunctional teams without formal authority? Do you want to

navigate internal politics just to make something done? Do youwant to talk a lot, to go to constant meetings and wonder whereyour days are going? Do you want to put more than a 100% ofyour effort into a product knowing that all the glory will go to

somebody else? If that's what you want - welcome to the productmanagement.

And if I haven't scared you off completely and you still want tobe a product owner - I'll give you three reasons to still consider

this craft:

Possibility to make adifference

How silly it may sounds after what I've told you so far, but PO isstill the main responsible for a product success. If not authoritywise, but practice wise you're making the difference ... or you can

... if you dare.

Solve problemsand improve life

Product owners are driven by problems. We see them and want tosolve them! Because we can! And when we do eventually ... it

feels good.

Every day is different

If you don't like routine - welcome to product management. Hereevery day means new problems :) and new solutions. And

therefore - it's very rarely a boring job.

https://pl.linkedin.com/in/daniill

Now I know how I tell myboss I want to be a PO!

Daniil Lanovyi

slash.dll@gmail.com

www.test-n-tell.com