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.
Peter - I love this one so much! It’s so poignant and honest and one can tell this comes from someone who’s experienced and had a clear sense of who they are. Very inspiring.
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."
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
Interesting read. A bit pie in the sky though at least where AI is concerned. Unless you're willing to build your own inhouse model. You're going to be forced to feed your entire tech & product stack to a proprietary model. Essentially giving away your IP.
I really like the last point where PM needs to learn how to build.
Usually we takes too much time to build, even build a prototype and rely on multiple layer (Researcher, Designer, Engineer, Account Manager) to validate ideas/solutions to users.
With new AI capabilities, PM needs to build prototype/MVP by themself and validate directly.
I think it will be a new world of Product Management
I'm not a PM, but I've worked with many, and this was a truly insightful piece. In my experience, the strongest PMs are powerful marketers and sellers. They want to be in the room when you are developing campaigns or meeting with customers. Nailed this.
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.
If the PM truly cares about the outcome of the product, letting the design professional “take the wheel” is not exactly the way to approach building great experiences. Cosplaying as THE UX designer is also not advised but just focusing on customer outlook is not wise. PM should have full scope view on who will be interacting with the product. Sometimes that means being in the weeds, not as the final say per se but as a voice of reason.
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.
Peter - I love this one so much! It’s so poignant and honest and one can tell this comes from someone who’s experienced and had a clear sense of who they are. Very inspiring.
haha thank you, I'll write some more real talk posts then :)
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."
Glad you liked it Ben!
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
Interesting read. A bit pie in the sky though at least where AI is concerned. Unless you're willing to build your own inhouse model. You're going to be forced to feed your entire tech & product stack to a proprietary model. Essentially giving away your IP.
I really like the last point where PM needs to learn how to build.
Usually we takes too much time to build, even build a prototype and rely on multiple layer (Researcher, Designer, Engineer, Account Manager) to validate ideas/solutions to users.
With new AI capabilities, PM needs to build prototype/MVP by themself and validate directly.
I think it will be a new world of Product Management
Honestly, some days it feels like everyone is talking about the same things in product management.
I'm not a PM, but I've worked with many, and this was a truly insightful piece. In my experience, the strongest PMs are powerful marketers and sellers. They want to be in the room when you are developing campaigns or meeting with customers. Nailed this.
Great article. Changing a performative culture is one of the most difficult things. Has to start at the top.
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.
If the PM truly cares about the outcome of the product, letting the design professional “take the wheel” is not exactly the way to approach building great experiences. Cosplaying as THE UX designer is also not advised but just focusing on customer outlook is not wise. PM should have full scope view on who will be interacting with the product. Sometimes that means being in the weeds, not as the final say per se but as a voice of reason.