The Art of Product Management

A really good book. Takes roughly 2h to read and gives you some insights in Product Management in Small Businesses.

I could have signed a lot of the things he said... especially about start ups :-)

There is always an emotional aspect in start ups. Normally you are less occupied by eventual exit strategies but with the day to day challenge managing chaotic growth. Also small companies can operate on informal communication, all 10 people know each other and you don't have this lack of management overhead so you can actually get your hands dirty with actual work like customer requirements, product positing or business models (10 employees need CEO, 30 needs VP and 90 needs directors as well as VPs).

Another thing I can sign is that outside capital is a stimulant. Taking to much to early can blinker your judgment and makes you feel omnipotent and encourages risky behaviour. Most dangerously you ignore the market!

"Moderation in all things is good"

But let me quote some stuff as well:

"Being part of a start up is more than get rich quick dreams. It is an emotional commitment to a hurried, harried, adrenaline driven way of working. For those who can cope it seems oddly addictive."

He mentions that a lot of people lost the patience, are sick of the process view and the polite attitude that bigger companies demand.

But mainly he is talking in his book about the two or even three worlds of a product manager. The PM has a bridging function between marketing, sales and engineering. The PM owns the organizational gap, since he needs to deliver real solutions to the customer. When he reports to the engineers he needs to think like a marketing guy when he reports to marketing like an engineer.

When he is asked for Roadmaps, he should start with an interrogation rather than say yes will do. Internal, external roadmap? NDA or public presentation? Major deal or just fishing. He suggests three roadmaps with DIFFERENT names - public, key customer roadmap and development calendar -

going further in the book he says how important it is to see Technical Support as an input for PMS and how sales are brining they paycheck in and how hard it is to satisfy support (get product right without questions to be asked), sales (get features signed by VP of Sales, engineers (give them time to implement) and especially the customer... he needs to get the infos from inside and outside of the company and in the end PMs making decisions that have impact on the broader organization....

tj