Such a good article. At its core, Product Management is three interrelated activities: 1) understanding what customers want, 2) turning that understanding into a working product that serves customers, and 3) translating that product into a valuable asset for the business. These activities must be done for an organization a to succeed. It's important to understand that the debate about the role of Product should be about where in the organization these activities are done -- by product managers or others -- rather than about whether they should be done at all.
I just love this article. So spot on in all of these. Fav: "I’d love to see the lines between product, design, and engineering blur more so everyone can contribute to crafting the customer-facing product." I was reflecting the other day that being a generalist who bounces between product and design might be limiting my career but maybe not after all.
The best PMs are essentially vertically integrated technologists (mini-Musks sans the politics). The worst are feature automatons who neither understand upwards (business) nor downwards (tech/UX/design ..).
And then there is the middle that grind out mediocrity.
Meme's are defined by mediocrity - generally frameworks institutionalize mediocrity. A
good PM is a good GM, the buck stops there .. but such PMs are few and far between
Great post. This captures so much of where PM has gone wrong: "To put it bluntly — if you don’t have this feedback loop going with real customers, you shouldn’t be working on your vision, strategy, or any other fancy artifact."
As someone who works with PMs everyday, you're mostly on track. One modification: PMs should be less focused on the USER, and more on the CUSTOMER. Those are two different things. The USER is where your design professional should take the wheel, doing what they do best: designing great experiences that delight the user. The CUSTOMER is who is going to buy your product, who are you selling to, what are they willing to pay for it, what features need to be in the product to get them to pay for it, etc. I see too many PMs cosplay as UX designers at the expense of any sort of strategic CUSTOMER outlook, and they wonder why they never ship anything. They get caught up in the weeds of the experience, when they need to be focused on the things they went to business school for. End Rant.
Such a good article. At its core, Product Management is three interrelated activities: 1) understanding what customers want, 2) turning that understanding into a working product that serves customers, and 3) translating that product into a valuable asset for the business. These activities must be done for an organization a to succeed. It's important to understand that the debate about the role of Product should be about where in the organization these activities are done -- by product managers or others -- rather than about whether they should be done at all.
I just love this article. So spot on in all of these. Fav: "I’d love to see the lines between product, design, and engineering blur more so everyone can contribute to crafting the customer-facing product." I was reflecting the other day that being a generalist who bounces between product and design might be limiting my career but maybe not after all.
Thanks Zack!
Great read. Being an ex-entrepreneur who’s now a big tech PM at Meta, couldn’t agree more.
Absolutely awesome post.
Love it.
The broad msg is not only PM specific but could apply to all Orgs.
Amazing content, i really love this article. Thanks a lot for sharring it!
You nailed it Peter. Well done!
Most of the better ai make much better PM 🤷♂️
The best PMs are essentially vertically integrated technologists (mini-Musks sans the politics). The worst are feature automatons who neither understand upwards (business) nor downwards (tech/UX/design ..).
And then there is the middle that grind out mediocrity.
Meme's are defined by mediocrity - generally frameworks institutionalize mediocrity. A
good PM is a good GM, the buck stops there .. but such PMs are few and far between
Great post. This captures so much of where PM has gone wrong: "To put it bluntly — if you don’t have this feedback loop going with real customers, you shouldn’t be working on your vision, strategy, or any other fancy artifact."
As someone who works with PMs everyday, you're mostly on track. One modification: PMs should be less focused on the USER, and more on the CUSTOMER. Those are two different things. The USER is where your design professional should take the wheel, doing what they do best: designing great experiences that delight the user. The CUSTOMER is who is going to buy your product, who are you selling to, what are they willing to pay for it, what features need to be in the product to get them to pay for it, etc. I see too many PMs cosplay as UX designers at the expense of any sort of strategic CUSTOMER outlook, and they wonder why they never ship anything. They get caught up in the weeds of the experience, when they need to be focused on the things they went to business school for. End Rant.