Comments on: #1 Secret Weapon Of A Successful Product Manager http://www.theaccidentalpm.com/actions/1-secret-weapon-of-a-successful-product-manager Home Of The Billion Dollar Product Manager Where You Too Can Learn To Be A Wildly Successful Product Manger Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:14:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Dr. Jim Anderson http://www.theaccidentalpm.com/actions/1-secret-weapon-of-a-successful-product-manager/comment-page-1#comment-152 Dr. Jim Anderson Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:15:22 +0000 http://www.theaccidentalpm.com/?p=217#comment-152 Paco: great comment! It's sorta amazing - the best project managers that I've worked with have shared the same physical characteristics that you mention your project manager had - maybe there's a factory out there somewhere? Having someone accept this responsibility and run with it is a HUGE benefit to a Product Manager. But remember, if you don't have a dedicated project manager (or if the one that you do have isn't doing their job), it always comes back to the Project Manger to pick up the ball and do the footwork that action item follow up always seems to require! Paco: great comment! It’s sorta amazing – the best project managers that I’ve worked with have shared the same physical characteristics that you mention your project manager had – maybe there’s a factory out there somewhere? Having someone accept this responsibility and run with it is a HUGE benefit to a Product Manager. But remember, if you don’t have a dedicated project manager (or if the one that you do have isn’t doing their job), it always comes back to the Project Manger to pick up the ball and do the footwork that action item follow up always seems to require!

]]> By: Paco http://www.theaccidentalpm.com/actions/1-secret-weapon-of-a-successful-product-manager/comment-page-1#comment-151 Paco Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:03:50 +0000 http://www.theaccidentalpm.com/?p=217#comment-151 This is where a good Project Manager (aka program manager) really shines. Most effective team structures and software lifecycle methodologies have some role that is responsible for making sure "action items" get assigned and completed. Some decentralize that responsibility to the point where's the no accountability, and that's why I prefer to have a dedicated person. And too often, any action items outside of a single group's domain are made the responsibility of a Product Manager - after all "you're like a project manager, right?" And by "outside a single group", I mean that the sales manager will take care of sales stuff, ditto for engineering, ditto for marketing, etc. But who's responsible for making sure that marketing and sales get together to work on the product positioning collateral and executive demo? The Product Manager gets stuck being the one who has to make sure all these inter-group tasks get done. After all, people often take on a shared responsibility, and then when times get tough, they're happy to jettison their share and leave it all up to the other party. Although, somehow, Product Managers don't get this magical ability and crap always sticks to us. I've had the pleasure of being on a product team where there was a dedicated Project Manager. And even though she was about 5-feet tall and 100 lbs, she was a freakin' pitbull. Didn't matter that she wasn't "technical" - if there's something to do, someone who has to do it, and a deadline to do it by, then she's gonna track it. Marketing activities, code build and merge schedule, user doc review dates - she covered anything and everything. If you get an action item in a meeting, she's on you like white on rice to get status updates. And when people drop the ball, it's screamingly obvious in her status reports to management - and they actually read it! And even though I shared an office with her, I was not spared from her wrath. Her effectiveness relied on the fact that everyone knew she did her job fairly and thoroughly - nobody was spared. Having that dedicated Project Manager definitely helped the release succeed and it made my job a helluva lot easier. And ever since then, having a Project Manager is the first thing on my resource wish-list for any product or project I'm working on. This is where a good Project Manager (aka program manager) really shines. Most effective team structures and software lifecycle methodologies have some role that is responsible for making sure “action items” get assigned and completed. Some decentralize that responsibility to the point where’s the no accountability, and that’s why I prefer to have a dedicated person.

And too often, any action items outside of a single group’s domain are made the responsibility of a Product Manager – after all “you’re like a project manager, right?” And by “outside a single group”, I mean that the sales manager will take care of sales stuff, ditto for engineering, ditto for marketing, etc. But who’s responsible for making sure that marketing and sales get together to work on the product positioning collateral and executive demo? The Product Manager gets stuck being the one who has to make sure all these inter-group tasks get done.

After all, people often take on a shared responsibility, and then when times get tough, they’re happy to jettison their share and leave it all up to the other party. Although, somehow, Product Managers don’t get this magical ability and crap always sticks to us.

I’ve had the pleasure of being on a product team where there was a dedicated Project Manager. And even though she was about 5-feet tall and 100 lbs, she was a freakin’ pitbull. Didn’t matter that she wasn’t “technical” – if there’s something to do, someone who has to do it, and a deadline to do it by, then she’s gonna track it. Marketing activities, code build and merge schedule, user doc review dates – she covered anything and everything.

If you get an action item in a meeting, she’s on you like white on rice to get status updates. And when people drop the ball, it’s screamingly obvious in her status reports to management – and they actually read it!

And even though I shared an office with her, I was not spared from her wrath. Her effectiveness relied on the fact that everyone knew she did her job fairly and thoroughly – nobody was spared.

Having that dedicated Project Manager definitely helped the release succeed and it made my job a helluva lot easier. And ever since then, having a Project Manager is the first thing on my resource wish-list for any product or project I’m working on.

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