Beware the Red Flag – A Product Strategy Void

Why is Product Management so Undervalued until a Crisis Emerges?

Product Management’s Time to Shine

Several weeks ago I wrote a post entitled: Why is Product Management So Undervalued until a Moment of Crisis?

This post caught the eye of the Silicon Valley Product Management Association. They asked me to expand upon it a bit. So rather than ending the post with a question I added the following commentary.

What is it about the product management function that leads organizations to underappreciate the role until they find themselves in a situation where they desperately need it?

One of the conclusions I have come to is that organizations frequently diminish their product management functions without intending to do so. In fact, I think there is a common indicator that acts as a red flag signaling that organizations have unwittingly undermined their own success.The key indicator that I’m referring to is a lack of connectivity between the tactical product roadmap (typically a 12 month view of prioritized and planned release activities) and the company’s business goals and objectives.

Product management organizations that lack a coherent product strategy, which effectively links the company’s business strategy to the day-to-day tactical activities, often find themselves in the situation of reduced responsibility and perceived organizational value. This inward spiral, from championing market needs to owning functional requirements, portends the type of under appreciation that has become so common and contributes to the eventual crisis that many organizations face as they lose line-of-sight on the markets they serve.

So if your organization is headed down this path beware. The lack of a coherent product strategy often portends a looming crisis to come – your organization might be living on borrowed time and your time to shine may be just around the corner.

Greg Geracie is the author of Take Charge Product Management©, the Editor-in-Chief of The Guide to the Product Management and Marketing Body of Knowledge (ProdBOK), and the leader of this initiative. Greg is an Adjunct Professor at DePaul University and the President of Actuation Consulting a global leader in product management training, consulting, and advisory services to some of the world’s most successful organizations.

Steve Johnson on Agile, Strategic Product Management, and the ProdBOK Guide

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Greg Geracie, Steve Johnson and the ProdBOK Guide

( Steve Johnson on Agile, Strategic Product Management and the ProdBOK Guide

Steve, thanks for joining me today.

I would like to begin by asking about whether you think the role of product manager is becoming more or less strategic? And if less, what should we at the industry level do about it?

(SJ) For most teams, the product manager role has become more tactical. Development needs real-time access to customer information; so does Sales and so does Marketing. Your recent study of Product Team Performance reveals that almost half of the product manager’s time is spent in firefighting. And I hear this frequently.

The teams that have successfully found the balance between tactical and strategic are the ones who staff it with that objective. You can’t ask a tactical person to also be strategic in their extra time; there is no extra time! (Just think about what happens when sales people also try to do marketing.) So the successful model seems to be a strategic product manager or director, paired with a technical product manager or product owner, plus a product marketing manager for all the go-to-market stuff.

I know it sounds like a lot, but here’s the scary part: The strategic stuff is being done today in your organization but you just don’t know who is doing it. I wrote about this in my free ebook, Product Management Expertise at http://www.under10consulting.com/writing/expert

Every year Actuation Consulting conducts a global Study of Product Team Performance©. There is no question that Agile methodologies have been ascendant for the last several years. What are your thoughts on the impact of Agile on the product manager and the evolution of the product owner role?

(SJ) I’m seeing many companies struggle with integrating traditional product management with the new demands of Agile development. It’s the whole strategic versus tactical thing again. If nothing else, Agile reveals how understaffed product management teams are today. One VP of product management told me how the new demands resulted in doubling his staff.

Agile methods have impacted almost all organizations. And the most common challenge they encounter is whether product owner is the same as product manager or if it’s the same as business analyst. I think the leaders of the Agile movement want a strategic product owner, more like a product manager, but most teams seem to have relegated the product owner to business analyst.

Rather than one role replacing another, I’m working with teams now to define both the product manager role and the product owner with clear lines of responsibilities and hand-offs. Who has responsibility for the portfolio roadmap? Who owns the release backlog? These are questions that the industry hasn’t really addressed.

There are clearly challenges today for product managers ranging from strategic bandwidth to the high resource consumption rates triggered by the increased use of Agile methods. How will the ProdBOK Guide help to address these challenges?

(SJ) There are many great training resources for product managers, product owners, and product marketing managers but each takes a slightly different view of roles and responsibilities. My hope for the ProdBOK Guide is that it will help standardize the product management profession so that we all mean the same thing when we’re talking about ownership and artifacts.

What do senior company leaders need to know about product management and Agile?

(SJ) The Agile community seems to be “selling” Agile as a faster time-to-market solution but most teams are finding that Agile increases quality. There are fewer bugs, fewer surprises, and less feature-bloat. Yes, you can change your priorities quickly but Agile doesn’t mean execs can change their minds continually.

And Agile methods want a single voice of priority. Who is that in your organization? It should be the strategic product manager — the one who understands the market and its challenges. Senior executives need to know that product managers are trying to implement the leadership’s strategies. Give your team direction and let them figure out how to get there.

Any final thoughts Steve?

(SJ) I want product management to earn the respect of senior leadership, development and sales teams, and others in the organization. If product managers want credibility, they have to earn it —they need to act more like product executives and less like servants to others.

Steve Johnson is a recognized thought leader on product marketing and management processes. Under 10 Consulting is based on the belief that minimal process and simple templates result in a nimble world-class product marketing and management team. Learn more at http://www.under10consulting.com/about

Greg Geracie is the author of Take Charge Product Management©, the Editor-in-Chief of The Guide to the Product Management and Marketing Body of Knowledge (ProdBOK), and the leader of this initiative. ProdBOK is an industry-wide effort to standardize the practice of product management sponsored by the Association of International Product Management and Marketing (AIPMM).

The ProdBOK mark is a registered trademark of AIPMM.

Cindy F. Solomon on the Art of Product Marketing Management (and 3 Tips)

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Cindy F. Solomon on the Art of Product Marketing Management

Part two of my conversation with Cindy F. Solomon on the subject of Product Marketing Management. Click here to read part one.

What aspect of the product marketing management profession is most under appreciated by today’s organizations?

Product Marketing Management is a strategic position ultimately responsible for providing value to all of the departments that contribute to the product during the entire product management lifecycle and beyond product development. The product marketing management function is responsible for listening, empathizing, facilitating collaboration and communicating the product value, product narrative, and product context across all touch points internally and creating the tools that enable that product value to be successfully experienced aligned with the product marketing business case through-out the product’s lifecycle – ultimately to increase, generate or maintain product revenue (or demand generation, engagement and retention) in the sales pipeline.

As a distinct profession, product marketing management is not distinguished as a career choice in smaller or technology driven companies and often is not distinguished as a separate role from product management. Product marketing management certainly is a function required for product success, but may only be recognized and funded at the front end of new product discovery or at launch of new products into the market. This is a mistake, as the role of product marketing management is to focus on identifying what’s important at any given stage in the product’s lifecycle, in terms of market conditions, competitive landscape, future threats, product versioning, innovation, channel and portfolio considerations, as well as customer demands, and guarantee that the business case, customer experience, design thinking and unique product value is communicated across all aspects of the product lifecycle, across all functions touching, developing, selling, and incorporating the product, to achieve the intended goals of the product business case.

If you had to share a couple key tips about what makes for a successful product marketing manager, what would they be?

My key tips to be a successful and sought after product marketing management leader, are to master the following:

1. Step away from the product. In order to remain objective, you have to be able to see the truth about the problems, mistakes, negative feedback, threats and losses in the marketplace in order to communicate to enable the product team to effectively address those issues. You must recognize the best actions needed to propel the product towards success. Being too in love with the product may cloud your ability to see what’s best, listen and recognize the dangers in the competitive landscape, and operate proactively.

2. Schedule regular meetings to listen to different perspectives on the product needs from outside the direct product team. Talk to customer service, community management, tech support, quality assurance, documentation, operations, and all of the internal functions responsible for servicing, maintaining the product, and interfacing with customers and the marketplace. Everyone in the company cares about the success of the product and will provide different insights, understandings and viewpoints. This is in addition to having regularly scheduled meetings with customers, non-customers, and observing customers in the wild. (There are various ways to meet – including telephone conversations – although human to human interactions are desired and provide the biggest wealth of information and return on time invested.)

3. Create a visual product health chart – this is distinct from the product road map which shows the plan for the product development process. The product marketing management health chart ideally provides the current picture of the product in the market based on data points and feedback, on where the product is falling off-course of the prescribed goals, measures alignment against the product business case, and tracks responses to the various strategies, programs and actions put in place to enable review, changing course and preventing tragic consequences. Sharing the visual product health chart (appropriately) will encourage further communication, collaboration and contribution to the success of the product as well as your product marketing management leadership.

(To learn more about Cindy or to listen to Global Product Management Talk’s weekly broadcast click here.)

The ProdBOK mark is a registered trademark of AIPMM.

Cindy F. Solomon of Global Product Management Talk on Product Marketing in Silicon Valley

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The View From Silicon Valley

Cindy, welcome to Take Charge Product Management©.

As you look across the product marketing profession what do you see?

(Cindy Solomon) I see that what may have previously fallen under the umbrella of the product marketing function, is gaining attention in the blogosphere with sexier names, such as Agile marketing, growth hacking, or customer experience management. These may be new approaches, but they are grounded in the product marketing managment function to increase current product ROI, identify opportunities for new product iterations, manage the value proposition via positioning of the product, and create the business case for remaining competitive in the current market conditions and future trends.

Product marketing management has always been charged with concerns about how to squeeze additional value out of products already in the market, align the goals of the product with the business case KPIs, translate the value of the company brand into every experience, extract information from non-customers, identify patterns from data collected across various inputs, increase efficiency across the entire product management lifecycle, attach ROI to every program attached to the product in the marketplace, streamline sales and marketing procedures, facilitate new partnership, co-marketing, and strategic channel opportunities, track the market opportunities, threats and trends, and make the case for new products and innovation.

Given your unique perspectives, how do you think the ProdBOK Guide will help address the challenges of being a product management or product marketing management professional?

(Cindy Solomon) Having a product management body of knowledge will clarify the skills, knowledge, language and perspective for the product management professional. The ProdBOK will provide an orientation for people being thrown into product management roles without any foundation and open the door to understanding all of the elements that comprise the knowledge necessary, the procedures available, and how to identify appropriate tools to apply at various points in the product management lifecycle.

For those seeking product management positions, and for those identifying product management functions within their companies, it will define the requirements, orientation and basic foundation which is desperately sought after by individual product management professionals, product teams, decision makers, HR departments, and organizations of all sizes seeking to increase market share and product success.

The ProdBOK seven phase product lifecycle framework provides the visual representation to enable conversations across functions for everyone in the organization to be on the same page to identify what needs to happen based on the maturity of the product externally in the marketplace and internally within the organization culture.

(This concludes the first part of our two part interview with Cindy. More on product marketing management next week…To learn more about Cindy or to listen to Global Product Management Talk’s weekly broadcast click here.)

The ProdBOK mark is a registered trademark of AIPMM.

Product and Project Managers: Managing Beneficial Change by Truly Working Together

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Stacy Goff, VP of Marketing for IPMA and President, asapm

Stacy, thanks for joining me today.

Results are an important measure of performance. However, I understand that an evolution in the thinking about results is currently taking place within the project management community. What’s your take on this?

(Stacy Goff) Yes, for some we are seeing an evolution in thinking. And I assert that some long ago evolved to the insight you speak of. Some people in the project management discipline think that project success is all they are after. And the most unfortunate among these otherwise savvy people focus on the easy-to-measure, but often lagging indicators of the “triple constraint” or other triangle schemes. Others have always demonstrated the “bigger picture;” these practitioners actually deliver business success. This is often very different than merely showing project success.

So this can become an entire article by itself, but the evolution is that there are some, including entire professional associations, that have long-advocated the easy to memorize, easy to test factors of project management. These people and groups have recently realized that those factors, while important foundations, do not add value by themselves. They are now pivoting to embrace the elements and competences of project and program management that do add value.

As a representative of several professional associations that have demonstrated this understanding for many years, I predict another looming insight: The realization that knowledge, skill, and even true competence, across the full suite of Project Management elements, do not automatically add value. These are merely inputs. They need to be correctly applied, with the right leadership and interpersonal skills, and well-managed within the business context, to reach the needed result: Improved business performance. Only then are we adding value.

The winner is not just the project teams that in the past worked their hearts out to little acclaim; and not the organizations that will begin to receive what they have all-along been paying for. The winner should be thriving nations and a global economy that benefits from the elimination of the huge waste of failed project initiatives and broken promises—and the realization of the originally intended 3:1 return on project investment that we were often promised and never saw. That is a results-oriented performance measure.

Over the last several years I have had the pleasure of collaborating with you on a variety of different efforts. I know how passionate you are about creating effective collaborations across the distinct professional disciplines. What is the driver behind your passionate belief that professional silos need to be overcome?

(Stacy Goff) Maybe it is because I came to this discipline in a different time, and in a different way. I was a practicing Project Manager in the 1970s. Next I moved to Program Manager (end-to-end complex, multi-organization, multi-project initiatives, including the ongoing operation of the result). Then I moved to Manager roles. In my managerial roles I was very much involved in Strategic Planning. My time horizon moved from 6-36 months to 6-36 years, so to speak.

It was through this series of roles that I learned the need for all disciplines and all stakeholders to have the same business success objectives, and to understand the clear delineation of roles of each in reaching those objectives. When I moved to project management/strategic planning consulting in 1982, I thought everyone understood the insights that I took for granted.

In my consulting engagements with major Consultancies, and with Aerospace & Defense contractors in the mid 1980s, I was able to bring together the different disciplines throughout the life cycle to eliminate a then-common problem: Big bid wins, but poor handoffs between the players; no profit, and few follow-on opportunities. We brought together Business Development Managers, Contract Managers, Proposal Managers, Program Managers, Change Managers (for internal initiatives) and Operations Managers in one team, and then allowed primary responsibility for each initiative segment to shift with the timing.

Whether we called it Four-Square or Integrated Product Teams, Integrated Leadership Teams, or Concurrent Engineering, it was difficult to begin but incredibly powerful once working. A typical Executive argument before-hand was that it would be too expensive. Afterwards, it became a consistently-demanded approach, that became their competitive advantage; they won more bids, and made more profit on bids won. They couldn’t believe that anyone could operate the old way.

I have a blog post at my Change Agents blog series that focuses on the disciplines working in parallel. See: http://asapm.org/chgagent/project-managers-playing-nice-with-others/.

Do you think the new ProdBOK Guide will help span some of these divides at the professional level?

(Stacy Goff) I think it can; from the project manager’s perspective, the participation you have achieved, with some of the best Project Management thinkers and writers helps. Of course, we need to encourage project managers to get access to it, then to actually read and understand it. Unfortunately, I have seen too many PM practitioners who took a class, took a test, and then thought their mastery was complete—when all they have done is to build a good foundation. They may not be interested in the insights your writers and editors have shared.

Of course, there are also many incredibly competent, high-performing Project Managers, Senior Project Managers and Program Managers at work today—many of them already understand your key points. Ironically, although they already grasp much of what you will share, they will be more likely to benefit by learning more. I think it would be interesting to track this hypothesis in your next survey: The ones who could benefit most will be least likely to read it.

Or said another way: Only the savvy Project Managers will make the effort to read it.

Why did you decide to contribute to the ProdBOK Guide effort Stacy?

(Stacy Goff) Several reasons, including the fact that I was urged to by people whose work I respect, and whom I trust. Thanks to Gary Heerkens, for example, who originally suggested that I participate. Next, once in contact with you, you answered my questions with responses that revealed a passion for doing what was right. And because I believe that the efforts of your teams can result in more successful projects and programs that more-effectively cooperate with other disciplines in product management initiatives. The result will be perceived by all stakeholders as successful.

Any final thoughts or comments?

(Stacy Goff) Those who know me well understand the risk of that question. We have barely scratched the surface in this discussion. But we have established some parameters for more dialogue between the disciplines we have discussed.

Thank you Greg!

The ProdBOK mark is a registered trademark of AIPMM.

Why is Product Management So Undervalued Until A Moment of Crisis?

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Product Management Plays a Critical Role in Value Creation.

Why Is Product Management Frequently Undervalued Until A Crisis Emerges?

Over the last 20 years I have noticed the same cycle play out time and time again. Organizations of all sizes continue to undervalue the product management function until they face a moment of crisis. Typically this takes the form of a change of control, difficulty scaling, and an almost endless variety of other possible combinations.

This situation is understandable in organizations that are migrating from startup mode to a mid-sized organization as the CEO or founder was likely playing the role up until this point in the company’s evolution. However, it’s less understandable in organizations that have successfully achieved scale. Yet, it’s clear that organizations of all sizes continue to struggle effectively implementing successful product management organizations that truly drive value let alone implement a sustainable system that stands the test of time.

Clearly part of the problem is the lack of effective training for product managers. Normally product manager training tends to focus on a particular element of the process – for instance strategic planning or requirements development – rather than understanding how all the various pieces fit together into a working whole.

Another factor is the lack of academic training for undergraduates. This is not a solution in and of itself but what it would do is to help overcome one of the largest challenges – getting new product managers to utilize a common lexicon to describe what product management is and what it does.

Today, all the players in an organization tend to see product management from their own vantage, not unlike the fictional blind men who all touch an elephant only to describe the animal based upon the part they’re directly interacting with. This lack of agreement about the entire entity impedes successful implementation and contributes to its lack of sustainability.

The problem is further compounded by frequent and in some cases severe understaffing of the function, the continued comingling of product and product management, lack of fundamental product management tools, and effective leadership.

Ironically, none of these problems are insurmountable and can all be easily overcome. Well rounded product management professionals can make a tangible difference and significantly improve the performance of underperforming organizations.

But at the end of the day, what is it about the product management function that leads organizations to underappreciate it until they find themselves in a situation where they desperately need it?

One-on-One with Linda Gorchels on Product Management Training and ProdBOK

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Linda Gorchels on Product Management Training and ProdBOK

Part of the ProdBOK® Series

Today I’m joined by Linda Gorchels a professor at the University of Wisconsin Madison and the author of several books on product management (as well as other topics). Her latest book is entitled Business Model Renewal.

It’s a pleasure to have you here today Linda.

Let’s start by delving into the area of product manager training on the academic front. What’s the current state of academic training for product managers from your perspective?

(Linda Gorchels) That’s an interesting question Greg, since “academic” training comes in many forms. While there are the traditional venues of undergraduate and graduate (for-credit) education, there is also a large professional development (non-credit) segment of academic education. Let’s take a look at the credit-side.

Most reputable universities with BBA degrees cover product management as part of their curriculum (at least in marketing), and many have courses in product management at the graduate level. The University of Wisconsin Madison is notable for its specialization in Brand and Product Management for the daytime MBA. We also, through the school’s executive program, have several offerings that constitute a Professional Development Certificate in product management.

That being said, successful product managers generally have strong industry and technical knowledge (e.g., engineering, medical, science, etc.) in addition to the required business and marketing strategy skills. A high percentage of my executive education customers from this segment have technical (undergraduate) degrees that they supplement with management and marketing knowledge to transition to product management.

What do you think needs to be done to increase the likelihood that academic institutions will more broadly adopt product management training curriculum’s at the undergraduate or graduate levels?

(Linda Gorchels) Product management is truly a multi-functional (as well as cross-functional) discipline. I sometimes liken the position to that of a team quarterback – a person who can play the game as well as make decisions. Therefore, having dual majors (or at lease a major and a minor) in the technical and business disciplines is often desirable.

Do you think the ProdBOK Guide could help spur the development of academic training programs for product managers as has occurred in other professions?

(Linda Gorchels) As I mentioned in my answer, product management is multi-functional. While many marketing, strategy, and management principles may be transferable across industries, that’s not always the case with the technical side. (In other words, not all quarterbacks make good hockey or baseball players.) So it’s important to distinguish between common and unique job requirements.

Why did you decide to contribute to the ProdBOK effort Linda?

(Linda Gorchels) Since I have studied product management across a myriad of industries over the past two decades, I have observed mistakes made when individuals try to transfer EVERYTHING about their view of product management from one industry to another. (I was even guilty of that initially from my personal experiences as a product manager.) It takes a broad, multi-industry perspective to identify the product manager competencies that are common across arenas and those that are more relevant to one arena. I hope I helped convey that perspective.

Any final thoughts?

(Linda Gorchels) Given the nuances I talked about, I strongly urge product managers to think less in terms of templates and “fill-in-the-box” solutions, and more in terms of innovation and novel solutions for challenges faced by their customers. This is especially difficult when product managers are “sucked into” daily fire-fighting, but this orientation is critical from a strategic perspective.

You can learn more about Linda by clicking here.

Editors Note: (Disclaimer) I’m an adjunct professor at DePaul University’s College of Computing and Digital Media where I teach graduate and undergraduate courses on product management.

The ProdBOK mark is a registered trademark of AIPMM.

Don Vendetti on the State of Product Management and ProdBOK

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Bringing Needed Definition to the Product Management Profession

Part of the ProdBOK© Series

Don, thanks for joining me today.

I know that you’re very active doing product management consulting in the Seattle area. What are your observations about the evolution of product management?

(Don Vendetti) Greg, thanks for the opportunity. I started my career on the engineering side (eons ago), and was fortunate to get into a company with a strong development process that included product managers who managed the entire product lifecycle, and with a high level of collaboration. What was odd to experience – as I moved on – was how narrowly defined the product management role was in other companies. It was frequently reduced to a support role for either Development or Sales, or both. Over time as I evolved to leading the product management function, I was getting hired into organizations to “fix” the department, as the function wasn’t doing what the organization needed or expected. This is also often the case for why I’m hired as a consultant.

The success of product management in any organization is highly dependent on three key foundations. First, the executive team needs to view the function as strategic and realize the importance of linking the company strategy to the product strategy. Without this driver, the product managers will inherently be relegated to a tactical function. Next, clear roles and responsibilities need to be defined for the how the team works with the rest of the organization. Other complementary functions also need to also be appropriately defined and staffed, such as project managers, technical sales support, and technical architecture or planning resources. Without them, the product manager will be forced to pick up the roles and get spread thin or there will be a large gap that’s addressed in an ad-hoc manner. Finally, the product managers themselves need to have a broad skill base, both strategic and tactical, to span all of the needed tasks.

Unfortunately, while there are bright spots here and there where all these elements are in place and product managers are really making a difference, the overall industry situation has lots of room for improvement.

As you look back on the last five years what do you think the most significant changes to the product management profession have been?

(Don Vendetti) One thing that is clear is the need for product management is as strong as it’s ever been, and is continually misunderstood as to the value it can provide. As far as changes go, the two biggest that I’ve seen are both in the software branch of the product management tree.

Agile is the first and has been a double-edged sword. On one hand, the role of product owner that many product managers perform has enabled them to engage more with the Development team on a regular basis. What I hear from Development managers is they finally feel like the product managers are adding value to their organization more than in the past. However, on the flip side, this has often resulted in less ability for the product managers to focus on the longer term product strategy and also ensure proper delivery of the product to the rest of the organization. I’ve seen this work the best when a product manager is partnered with a dedicated product owner who’s more of a requirements specialist, like a business analyst. This allows the day-to-day interaction with the Development team while also ensuring the more strategic and broader cross-functional activities are being effectively covered.

The second change is in the user experience (UX) and design side, and I’ve seen the responsibility increasingly moving from the Development team to the Product Management team. While this is a positive change in my view, since the user interface (UI) is such a major part of a software product, it has created the unfortunate situation that many product managers are doing UI design with no formal training and without the help of qualified UX professionals. There is clearly a shortage of UX professionals to go around, so product managers that find themselves in this position would benefit greatly with some formal training in UX, and it would absolutely raise their value to any software organization.

Do you think the new ProdBOK will help to address any of the challenges we have discussed so far? If so, how?

(Don Vendetti) I do believe the ProdBOK can help create awareness about the importance and the potential of the role, and how it can deliver higher value to a company than just short term tactical deliverables. If you’ve never been in an organization with a fully functioning product management group well aligned with the other functions, then you probably don’t even know what the possibilities could be.

In writing sections of the ProdBOK, I tried to clearly identify where and how the product manager creates the most value, while acknowledging that they often also have to wear many tactical hats. I’ve also tried to point out the areas where others need to take the lead in the process so that the product manager can stay focused on the market need/problem and delivery of the whole product across the organization.

At this point of the profession’s continuing evolution, getting a consistent view of the role is probably the number one opportunity for the ProdBOK to achieve, even if the role is customized in various ways to meet the unique needs of each company. And, of course, executives and other functional leaders need to be exposed to it to understand the opportunity available to them.

Don, why did you choose to participate in the development of ProdBOK?

(Don Vendetti) As part of my consulting practice, I’ve also done a fair amount of product management teaching in a university extension program, and through formal training courses within my consulting practice. This has given me the opportunity to look at the entire product management lifecycle process, and especially the upfront product strategy piece, while experimenting with different ways of implementing it. I also enjoy writing and have written several articles which are available on my website. The opportunity to help on the project seemed like something that leveraged my background and could have a bigger impact than I could make directly through consulting.

I also thought I could get it done in a few months. Hah! Here we are a year later finally getting this industry-wide collaborative effort to publication. The whole project was very much like creating a new product, including the twists and turns you have to make along the way as you encounter trade-offs.

Any final thoughts?

(Don Vendetti) Just a couple of last comments. First, I’m certain this is just the beginning of a journey for product management to establish a strong footing and I expect the ProdBOK to evolve significantly over time. This is a first attempt and there is plenty of room to expand it and fill in the blanks going forward as product management is a dynamic profession. Of course it helps to have someone like you driving the vision and deliverables, and I enjoyed working with you Greg.

Second, in some ways, contributing to this publication has helped me realize that I do miss being actively engaged in the development of products, as consulting usually only gets me limited playing time in a part of the game. So, moving forward, I’ll be heading back into the product world to be an active participant running a marketing and product management function and attempting to apply the concepts described in the ProdBOK.

Onward!

Editors Note: Thanks Don. On behalf of the ProdBOK editorial team I want to express our appreciation for your significant contributions to the effort. I also want to offer my personal thanks as you’re great to work with as well! I look forward to future collaborations and best of luck with your new position!

ProdBOK is a registered trademark of AIPMM.

Frank Saladis on Leadership, Value and ProdBOK

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Frank Saladis on Leadership, Value and ProdBOK

Frank, thank you for joining me today.

Let’s begin by discussing the topic of project management leadership – a subject near and dear to your heart. How would you characterize the ideal leadership qualities of a project manager? And have you ever met anyone that had all of these characteristics?

(Frank Saladis) Ideal leader? Interesting question. I have learned that leadership is defined in many ways and there may not be a universal definition of the ideal leader. For me the best, most effective leaders have a few main qualities – integrity, willingness to listen to new ideas, admitting that they don’t have all the answers, and enabling people to succeed.

I have met many leaders in my career and have learned a lot from them. Many of them have the qualities I mentioned but most, as truly effective and savvy leaders know, leader mastery is difficult to attain and that self improvement is a continuous journey. Adapting to the changing business environment is essential and all leaders can find ways to improve.

Are project managers the only leaders on a product development project? Or do you see other functional partners also assuming collaborative leadership roles?

(Frank Saladis) It’s my understanding that anyone who’s creating value is a leader. A project manager may be the leader of the team but team members often assume leadership roles to achieve objectives and overcome obstacles. Product management requires the input and the innovation and creativity of the team. Functional partners usually provide technical expertise and apply their lessons learned and experience to bring a product to market. The project manager is a coordinator and an integrator and is basically a hybrid manager / leader. The manager side focuses on getting things done and the leader side focuses on developing the team. The leader side of the project manager also sees the leadership potential of team members and the abilities of the functional partners and looks for ways to collaborate in the leadership of the project.

It seems like each functional role has its own span of responsibility on a product development team, so what principle connects the various roles? Is VALUE one of the connection points?

(Frank Saladis) Value is the main element that connects the entire team. The issue here is to define what value is and what it means to each team member. Value goes beyond the financial meaning. Project managers were once taught that project success was based in the Triple Constraint – Time, Cost, and Scope. To achieve project success meant to complete on time within budget and according to specifications (scope).

Today, we refer to many more competing demands – quality, safety, aesthetics, timeliness, cost, availability, social acceptance, and reliability. It’s important to define value from the customer’s perspective and the producer’s perspective. A commonly understood definition of value will create the foundation for connecting the various roles.

Frank, how do you think the ProdBOK will help synchronize project and product managers?

(Frank Saladis) I think project managers and product managers are synchronized to some degree. The ProdBOK will enhance the understanding of roles from both perspectives. It was necessary to create the ProdBOK for a number of reasons. From a project manager’s viewpoint, it’ll help clarify the roles, integrate the terminology, and further unify the objectives of the project manager and product manager.

I believe many of the responsibilities of the product manager and product managers overlap. The differences or areas where there may be some disconnect is associated with methodology, sense of urgency, and the importance of milestones. Connecting the roles by providing explanations and guidelines in the ProdBOK about each specialty (project and product manager) should pave the way for improved communication and smoother delivery of products.

Why did you choose to participate in the development of the ProdBOK?

(Frank Saladis) When the opportunity was presented it seemed to be a great way to contribute to both professional disciplines. It also gave me a chance to explain the value of project management to a new audience. I thought it might be a significant challenge and to be very candid, I liked the idea of being a part of something that would connect me with the world outside the project management domain.

It helped improve my awareness of the product management process and the role of the product manager. It was a great learning experience, and I was both excited and honored to be selected to take part in the development of the ProdBOK.

You can learn more about Frank by clicking here.

ProdBOK is a registered trademark of AIPMM.

Scott Sehlhorst on Agile and ProdBOK®

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Scott Sehlhorst on ProdBOK and Agile

Part of the ProdBOK® Series

Scott, thanks for joining me today.

Let’s begin by talking about the growth of Agile and its impact on product managers. A recent study showed that the majority of organizations are implementing “blended” methodologies (e.g. blending Waterfall and Agile together). What has the impact of this trend been on product managers?

(Scott Sehlhorst) I’ve found there are really two main aspects of the impact.

The first is a “circle the wagons” moment. A blended organization is in the middle of transition – having some teams operating with Waterfall processes while others are trying to move or have completely moved to an Agile cadence of delivery. For teams that operate independently, this is largely a non-event. Each team uses their own process. But in large companies, teams don’t operate independently. Companies are looking for opportunities to solve problems for their customers that span product silos. Teams want opportunities to leverage and coordinate the work that other teams are doing. Product managers in these blended environments need to understand how they can – and can’t – rely on other teams, by understanding the different mechanics of delivery that come with different processes. The mindset that comes to mind first is “how do I protect my team from the weaknesses of that other team’s approach.”

The second aspect is one of figuring out how to contribute strategically to the improvement of the company, by leveraging the work being done by teams using the different processes. A product manager on an Agile team will try and figure out how to inform Waterfall teams and contribute to their development, based on the changes to which the Agile team is adapting. A waterfall team’s product manager will try and find ways to realize the benefits of executing against an established plan, while leveraging the contributions from the Agile teams.

For an individual product manager, this means understanding the nuances of both development processes, their strengths and their weaknesses. The best product managers will be able to contribute to the evolution of the organization – gaining both the benefits of Agile adaptation to changing requirements, and the leverage of contributions from multiple teams solving related problems and developing products in a coordinated fashion.

Is there a particular Agile method that you think has generated the most traction?

(Scott Sehlhorst) My experiences, confirmed by the research I’ve seen, indicate that Scrum has been the market leader in the last couple of years. In early 2013, I’m seeing signs of teams taking the “next” step and exploring Scrumban (a Kanban-infused approach to Scrum), and also some signs of flow – continuous development. Conceptually, as Scrum moved from large releases to smaller iterations as the units of delivery, flow is moving to discrete deliverables as the units of delivery. Development of individual capabilities or features is easier this way, while coordination of development is more difficult.

Flow provides the most benefit, but requires the most discipline from a software engineering point of view. It also has the greatest organizational complications, particularly around coordination and communication. We’ll see how it shakes out in the industry – some big thinkers are pushing on it, and at the end of the day, I expect to see teams that succeed wildly, and some that crash and burn trying to make it work.

What types of challenges do you think the growth of Agile and blended approaches has presented to product managers/owners?

(Scott Sehlhorst) In addition to the organizational complexities I mentioned above, working in an Agile way presents a change in how product managers manage their work. Instead of being primarily in a sequenced do this, then that mindset, product managers need to manage their activities with more parallelism; making incremental improvements across all aspects of their work. This provides the benefit of historically-sequential activities informing the historically-prior activities, making the overall work product better.

A product manager needs to be more cognizant of the interdependencies of their work products for this to gel. For example, getting insights into the feasibility and cost of delivering a capability will better inform the prioritization of that work; as will getting feedback from customers about the value they place on having that capability. It almost seems backwards – finding out how well received, and how difficult to build something is, before deciding when to build it. All product managers do this to some extent, by forming hypotheses in advance, and validating them later. An Agile product manager will be refining those hypotheses with data along the way.

Scott, why did you choose to contribute to the ProdBOK effort?

(Scott Sehlhorst) As a consumer, I want better products and services. Better product managers create products and services that serve the needs of their customers. I believe it’s a critically important role. One of the challenges we face is that product management is not well understood by companies. If we’re able to develop a body of knowledge that helps bring some standardization to the field, I expect that it’ll both help individuals get better at product management, and help companies better apply the practice of product management – thus improving their products and services, and ultimately, my experiences as a customer.

Any final thoughts?

(Scott Sehlhorst) There are several trends that are driving opportunity for products to differentiate and succeed in the market.

Companies are finally starting to get traction with developing insights through statistical analysis of the reams of data that are becoming available, and that trend is showing no end in sight with Moore’s law firmly exhibiting itself in the costs of computation, storage, and transmission of information. The challenge is in understanding how insights gained in one domain or problem space can be applied to others.

As we move from an economy of scarcity to one of surplus, the user’s experience becomes a more relevant factor in selecting products. It’s no longer enough to just solve “the” problem – you have to have a product that solves the problems well, and takes into account the emotional impact for the users. While this may sound fluffy, there are countless examples of products which appear identical on a checklist or a Harvey Ball chart but perform very differently in the market. This overlap of the worlds of user experience and product management will be particularly interesting.

Another big trend, although it may only be particularly relevant in the technology space, is the changes in where and when people do computing – and the resultant changes in the definition of what “computing” is. Mobile devices, form factors, operating systems, and contexts of use are overtaking the (recently) traditional desktop computing paradigm.

People no longer want applications that run on a computer, they want solutions that apply wherever it makes sense. In a way, this is an area where the intersection of Moore’s law impacting what’s possible with the increasing importance of differentiating through providing a better experience, is perhaps the most visceral. What appears to be fickle consumer behavior may just be rapidly evolving market needs intersecting slowly evolving product offerings.

We do live in interesting times!

ProdBOK is a registered trademark of AIPMM.