This was taped during Tolpagorni’s Product Leadership Days, March 2012.

We had an energetic conversation on #prodmgmt career and organizational issues, with live listeners tweeting in their comments.  Topics included:

• Taking more credit for what we do, rather than hanging back to focus attention on Engineering and Marketing.  (Thanks, @lmckeogh )
• How soon after founding a start-up needs a product manager (at twelve to fifteen employees?) and how founders have to play PM in the meantime.  (Thanks, @roadmapwarrior )
• Finding the energy for long-term career planning despite day-to-day exhaustion
• Agile product owners and agile product managers
• The need to provide product vision, not just daily management (Thanks, @liz_blink )

We also gave away some digital copies of “The Art of Product Management.”

Listen to the full podcast here.

In a half-dozen discussions with the heads of product management groups, I was struck by how familiar their concerns are.  We could have been in Sunnyvale rather than in Stockholm.  Topics that came up repeatedly:

• What metrics do we use for evaluating product managers, and how can we tell if they are doing a good job?   Are there PM KPIs*?
• Our agile development teams tell us that roadmaps are no longer needed, but our customers and sales teams still demand firm commitments.
• How should we organize our product teams?  Senior/junior, technology vs. market segment, product owner vs. product manager?
• What do career paths look like?

These were discussions about how organizations and real people interact in a technical environment.  They reflect what execs running product management groups worry about: boosting effectiveness, building relationships, and relating the business of product management to the company’s overarching business.

Some product geography

Sweden’s tech industry is heavily weighted toward B2B and telecom, with many firms clustered around Ericsson in Stockholm’s northern suburbs.  Product managers stay with their companies (and in their current positions) much longer than we’re used to in Silicon Valley.  And since telecom customers have long implementation cycles, product releases are methodically timed. Internally agile development teams are faced with un-agile, contract-driven shipment dates.  In search of cost reduction and talent, most teams are split geographically.  In other words, not very different from B2B tech firms back home.

With limited time in each workshop, I used an old agilist technique of soliciting concerns, then having attendees rank them.  Voila!  A backlog of product management issues that we time-boxed and attacked in order.  (And a handy topic list for my next few posts.)

Here’s a summary of discussions about the first topic above – metrics for evaluating product managers, or “PM KPIs” -  which drew heavily on an assessment tool and post that Scott Gilbert and I created in 2010.

What should we measure?

There’s a lot of confusion between metrics about products, assessments of product management teams, and scorecards for individual PM job performance.  Taking each in turn:

[1] Product metrics are an embodiment of our market and financial goals, such as “units shipped” or “incremental revenue” or “gross margin in our reseller channel” or “market share in Asia Pacific.” Results depend by an infinite set of external and internal factors (sales compensation plans, competitive price shifts, PR, on-time release, weather) that are mostly out of a product manager’s control.

Product KPIs are surface indicators that should trigger deeper questions.  Why are margins higher in Latin America than Europe?  Can we see any impact from our competitor’s social/community efforts?  Which segments should we target for next quarter’s whiz-bang features?  What internal sales education techniques work the best?  As problem solvers, we take these as challenges.

[2] Department-level assessments help us improve the business of getting great products shipped.  Success is a cross-functional team sport, so these tend to be a mix of objective and subjective scores.   “Are requirements complete and reflecting market needs?” is paired with “does engineering agree that PM is the primary proxy for customers?”.   “Customers understand our core benefits/features” goes hand-in-hand with “Sales is eager for product management to meet prospects.”

Again, we use these metrics or assessments for a problem-solving approach. If messaging is lost in the handoff from product to marketing to sales to channel to customer, where are we getting confused?  If late-arriving requirements are frustrating our developers, how can we anticipate better (or convince Engineering to relax a little, or keep Sales from promising futures)?   KPIs should be weathervanes, not career bludgeons.

[3] Finally, the hard question that my Swedish colleagues wanted answers to: how to quantitatively evaluate individual product managers?  Jag vet inte.  (That’s Swedish for “Honestly, I don’t know.“)

In my experience, the best product managers throw themselves against unanticipated product-specific market and organizational issues.  They practice higher-order problem solving, making progress fiendishly hard to measure.  Great PMs fill the organizational gaps, work intramurally, and often hang back when credit is being awarded.   Their success can be invisible: the absence of confusion and unhealthy politicking.

I’m hesitant to assign numeric goals to my individual product managers.  If I give bonuses for perfect requirements, I’ll get 100-page MRDs (instead of time spent with customers).  If I reward pure revenue performance, my folks might spend all of their time on the road (and neglect next quarter’s planning).  Etc.

My best indicators of a product manager’s success are subjective:

• Does she have a roadmap agreed to by Engineering and Marketing (as a proxy for consensus building)?
• Does Engineering consider her a core part of their team (and not a technical lightweight)?
• Do Marketing and Sales see her as the source of product facts, strategy, and market intelligence?
• Do I trust her judgment, objectivity, whole product thinking, and personal integrity?
• Does the team show more focus (and less panic) over time?
• Are other departments trying to recruit or borrow her?

Not as scientific an answer as I’d like, but the basis for discussion here and in Stockholm.  If you have more quantitative approaches, please share.

Sound Byte

Measuring product success is easy; gauging departmental success a little harder.   I’m still stumped for general, quantitative metrics for individual product managers.

* Key performance indicators (KPIs) are quantitative definitions of success, which are then used to measure progress or score results.

Product groups vary widely and are not rationally designed. (Sorry.) So let’s imagine a pure VP PM position generalized from my own tours of duty plus a half-dozen interim/acting VP PM roles.  Your organizational mileage may vary.  IMHO, line product managers fundamentally look after individual products/services: shepherding the short-term development efforts and long-term strategy work to keep a 3-12 month roadmap that’s coherent.  Directors look after the business of product management. They provide some order and structure and process to a chaotic situation, and keep things directionally on track.

The VP Product Management functions as senior staff (a/k/a consigliere) to the rest of the executive team – making sure that the company as a whole is building and shipping and supporting the right products. S/he is the product manager of the organization itself and its internal people-process conflicts. The VP PM should be an honest broker at the executive level who represents product/market/company success rather than any one specific function. Thinking more broadly than Engineering, Marketing, Sales or Support. The one most likely to say “yes, but the right thing for our long-term business and the markets we serve is…”

WHICH BOILS DOWN TO…

This is not a command position, but an executive-level influencer role. The VP PM shapes how work gets done, rather than making individual product decisions.

Viewed from the executive level…

• Product Management has a very small staff and budget versus Engineering and Marketing and Sales. This gives the VP PM some implied neutrality in the great budgetary and reorganization battles that tear companies apart. You get to ask “how should we be organized for success?” without being accused of empire building. Ideally, the CEO (or business unit manager) wants your unbiased opinion.
• You sweat the business’ overall success. Are you missing key segments, or being outflanked by new competitors, or stuck in an old business model? What are the important (cross-product) decisions that will drive longer-term revenue?
• You live cross-functionally, constantly getting PM-level feedback about individuals and teams. Your ideas for improvements are non-denominational. You’ve built up peer credibility with lots of “Jesse in QA is doing a terrific job” and the occasional “Gordon is creating problems in Marketing that we need to solve.” You understand what each functional group does, praise in public, and privately raise issues with department heads.
• You know that functional teams naturally think first about their own needs. (“What’s good for Engineering must be good for the company.”) You and your PMs spot inconsistencies among goals, schedules and incentives. Maybe Sales is targeting prospects that don’t fit the current product, or Engineering is stealing Tech Support’s best talent. Marketing’s plan to move all customer emails to a cloud solution will create privacy issues and tons of DBA work. You thoughtfully facilitate executive-level conflicts, often identified by your Directors and line PMs.
• You’re part of the Corporate Strategy team (if it exists), since you know these often lack detailed, real-world customer input and the urgency of current-quarter sales quotas. You bring in your line PMs as subject matter experts to reduce buzz-word bloat. Your try to keep strategy relevant.

In other words, you’re working broad structural and human issues in order to enable delivery of great products.  Business focus trumping personal politics.

YES, BUT I’M A DIRECTOR RIGHT NOW

If I’ve described what you’re already doing at the director level, you’re due for a promotion. (Forward this post to your boss…)  Otherwise, consider the shape of your current organization:

• VP PMs are mostly found in the largest PM organizations. If you’re a Director here, help your current boss succeed and loyally follow her up the ladder.
• At medium-sized companies, PM Directors work for Engineering, Marketing or the CEO/business unit manager. With only a handful of PMs to manage, justifying a bigger title (and salary and options) is tough. VP opportunities can be found laterally in less-glorified functional groups: Customer Support, Sales Engineering or new business units.
• At start-ups, cash burn is much more important than job title.  During your hiring process, offer to take less money in return for a VP title (and a bit more stock).  It’s a great trade, whether you stay a long time or parlay this into a VP PM role elsewhere.
• Regardless, the power roles at your company may be in Engineering and Sales (B2B) or Marketing (B2C). Consider stepping into a wider role and learning some new skills.

Note that the VP PM job takes a heap of humble and patience. Achievement through others. You’ll never be singled out as THE reason for your company’s success. It’s the pride of your kid in the school play or your mentees going to the hot new startup.  Not the big ego trip.

Finally, my fine grained-distinctions are lost on most non-product executives. They don’t think (or care that much) about product management levels and titles. Bigger fish to fry, bigger organizations to run. If you have a mentor among your company’s execs, buy him lunch and ask for advice.

SOUND BYTE

Vice Presidents of Product Management have a unique, strategic, cross-functional role – and need a rare mix of talents / personality. They bring cohesion and coordination to the top of the company, allowing product managers to drive individually successful products.  You should take your own measure before setting that as your next job goal.  And then think big, because you’ll become a CMO/CEO candidate.

The event included a TED-style set of presentations and workshops on innovation, portfolio management, communications and sustainability.  Day One finished with a keynote from Rich Mironov on “Product Management Observations from
Silicon Valley.”  Day Two was broken into two extended workshops, with Rich and twenty-five Swedish product leaders spending three hours on a backlog of practical  product management challenges within an agile development organizations.

This wonderful event is organized by Tolpagorni‘s Magnus Billgren

What’s a Product Camp?  Product managers, product marketers and other interested folks gathering for a Saturday of discussions, talks, panels, networking, fun, food, t-shirts and surprises.  Run on an unconference model, this is a way for us to meet and share with our peers.  SVPMA provides organizational leadership here, and eBay is generously donating meeting space.

I’m sad to miss this year’s extravaganza, but will be kicking off a similar event in Stockholm.  (If anyone has that teleporter working, I’d love to borrow it.)

Growing New Leadership

It’s gratifying to see the more established camps transitioning to fresh leadership.  (Jennifer Berkley Jackson is driving SVPC12.)  New blood, enthusiastic volunteers, and new ways to keep things relevant.  Consider me promoted to camp counselor emeritus.

DIT has the first year-long certificate program I’ve seen in technology product management.  It’s part of their broader push to advance from outsourcing and technical support toward indigenous (Irish) companies building software with worldwide commercial appeal.

From that far away, it may seem like we have it all figured out.  (Ssh, don’t tell.)  Instead, there are facets of the Silicon Valley ecosystem that are just hard to duplicate elsewhere:

• Deep expertise in every possible specialty, from freemiums to UX to data security.  Assembling a great team in Dublin is just harder than in Palo Alto.
• Very deep investment resources, including angels and incubators.  I’m hoping to chauffeur some of mo chairde nua (my new friends) when they visit Sand Hill Road.
• More veterans of earlier tech wars.  It helps to know the drill.

Facing that head-on, DIT and ISA’s Software Skillnet are bringing a range of experts over to share, mentor and connect.  A great way to narrow the Pond.

{Go raibh maith agaibh to Claire McBride and Mary Ryan.}

Let’s break this problem into a few parts: likely candidates for promotion; how the Director job differs from line Product Management; and ways to show that you’re ready for a bigger role.

PERSONA

You’re a promotional candidate if you’re already a seasoned PM, with 4+ years on a few different products, and are the “go to” person for competitive and technical info. You make time for long-term planning and bits of mentoring.  You’ve been through the release cycle (and emotional roller coaster) several times.  Other departments ask to work with you.

BTW, I’m assuming that you’re in a large enough organization to have “real” directors, with 3+ PMs reporting to them and overseeing whole product lines. Generically…

WHAT DO DIRECTORS DO, ANYWAY?

In my experience, PM Directors work on a different set of problems than their individual product managers. Rather than being super PMs, they worry about the process of product management: building launch teams, balancing staff assignments, standardizing reporting, fostering cross-functional cooperation, setting product-line-level strategy and resource allocation. Directors encourage risk-taking and dismantle organizational roadblocks. They keep the trains running and the products flowing. A good director makes product-level decisions only to settle disputes or demonstrate technique.

Directors also focus on people issues: coaxing cooperation, aligning incentives, mentoring, cooling down egos.  They relentlessly present product strategy and roadmaps to other departments boost understanding of what PM does.

The best directors provide informal HR feedback to other directors. They look for under-appreciated talent across the company.  (“Gee, I hear that Sarah, your new QA lead on Project Orange, made some great improvements in the test automation process. My PM says the team loves her…”) Directors do this to identify great contributors, encourage cooperation within teams, and model good behavior for their peers. It also builds credibility for unpleasant discussions.  (“Manager to manager, Larry’s refusal to participate in roadmap meetings is frustrating the other architects…”)

SO HOW DO I GET TO BE ONE?

Like the individual PM role, Director of Product Management isn’t all glitz and glamour. It’s middle management of opinionated people and imperfect processes.  My advice is to devote part of your energy toward being more “director-like.” Look for activities that both improve your management skills and make them more visible.

• Before you do anything else, have a humble but unambiguous chat with your own Director. (“I really enjoy working for you, and am learning a lot. I think I’ll be ready soon to be a PM Director, if a slot opens up, so want your advice. What’s your feedback on my skills, organizational style, or areas of improvement? How do you see the staffing map changing over the next year?”)  Moving up requires your boss’s active support – or her empty chair. Don’t get caught sneaking around her for a promotion.
• Find a product-line-level issue where you can advocate for another PM’s product.
• Think about how development staff should be allocated across products. Kick it around with your director.
• Up-level some competitive analysis from individual widgets to market positioning.
• Take on some cross-functional projects or task forces. Yuck? That’s how directors get things done. You’ll be freeing your director from one more committee and boosting your visibility.
• Identify your best non-PM coworkers, and thank their bosses.
• Start mentoring one of the junior PMs. You’ll learn a lot, improve the team, and show that you’re management material.

A few disclaimers:

• The promotional funnel for director-level jobs is very narrow. Slots rarely come open, and there are probably five PMs for each director.  Watch for other organizations that need leadership
• Front-line experience makes you a better product manager, and boosts your value to the organization. Your company has an incentive to keep you in your current job for years and years.

BUT MY COMPANY HAS A FLAT ORGANIZATION

In some companies, there’s little difference in work content between Senior Product Managers and Directors. Instead, it’s mostly about respect and money and who negotiated a better hire-on package. Don’t be a whiner (“But I’m a better PM than Johnny, and he’s a director…”). Figure out who is making the decisions, and have a frank discussion about how to show your worthiness.

SOUND BYTE

Directors of Product Management wrestle with different issues than individual PMs. If you want to become a Director, find ways to demonstrate next-level-up skills.

1. How do I move into tech product management, especially if I’m currently a developer?
2. How do I move up from an individual PM role to Director? 
   
3. I’m a Director of Product Management, and want to be a VP. 
   

Senior product folks are asked these all the time, from both engineers and marketing folks. Likewise, forums and twitter streams are full of variants… see Quora posts here, here, here, here and here.  Let’s start with #1, getting into product management.

First, remember that hiring managers strongly prefer candidates who are already product managers. Unfair?  Sure. What you want to hear?  Probably not.  But that’s the cold, hard reality.  Would you want to hire a newbie as your own software architect or heart surgeon or investment counselor?

A good place to start is from the hiring manager’s perspective. Here are a few reasons I usually want to hire experienced product managers (PMs):

• They’ve made their first few mistakes on someone else’s product. We can share “lessons learned.”
• Product management sounds sexier than it is. Not much glitz or glamour. I listen for humility and reasons why someone wants to stay a PM.
•  This is a “people” role. How you deal with unpleasant co-workers (without taking it personally) is a critical skill which often trips up engineers.
• The PM community is very small. My best candidates are probably personal referrals, and come with strong back-door references.  If I don’t already know you directly, we’re only one LinkedIn hop away.
• There are a lot of product managers on the market, some with experience in my market niche. Less mentoring required.

In other words, your enthusiasm and good looks are not enough to get you a PM job at some generic technology company when competing against seasoned product managers. You need to find opportunities where your specific talents and experience are highly valued.

Start inside your current company

Your best shot at moving into a new title/role is within your existing company. (It’s much harder to change companies and roles at the same time.) You should already know a lot about your company’s products, market, technology, so…

• Meet all of the members of your current PM team, and let them know you’re interested
• Give good feedback on the specs, use cases, and other artifacts your PM produces.  Show that you can straddle the business / technical fence.  Ask about personas.
• Sit in on customer briefings (and DON’T SAY A WORD)
• Ask to be a “back-up” PM on a project: do some of the research, competitive analysis, and customer interviews.  Starting with the grunt work will earn you respect and help you determine if this is a good fit.
• Read about the role (my book and many others)
• Study your company’s product literature, pricing, and competition.
• If you have real customer interactions, share recommendations with the PM team on how to improve sales, open new markets, improve user experience, or streamline support.  50 bonus points for each customer quote.  Assume that PMs have talked with lots of customers.
• Go to a Product Camp.

In other words, volunteer to do some product management stuff.  If you’re good, the PM team will want more of you.

Target your technical expertise

Companies sometimes hire into PM roles for technical expertise or special domain knowledge. If you happen to be a whiz at logistics software (or chemical analytics or financial clearinghouses), check out companies that focus on supply chain (or gas chromatography or program trading). Managers in niche markets struggle to find product candidates who are both experienced and subject matter experts. Your market knowledge could replace some functional expertise.

Consider stepping-stone roles

If you really, truly want to be a product manager and these approaches don’t work, think about jobs that get you closer to PM. Ask the product folks in your company where they started. For example, Sales Engineers and Professional Services folks sometimes make the jump to product management since they combine great technical knowledge with hands-on sales/customer experience.

BTW, don’t do an MBA just because a lot of product managers have one. You’ll face the same barriers at graduation as you do today.

SOUND BYTE

It’s tough to break into product management. On-the job experience really matters, and few companies will seriously consider external newbies. Look inside your current company first, and think strategically from the hiring manager’s point of view.

{Posts #2, 3 and 4 coming next.}

• How Product Camps can increase awareness among senior and executive level product management
• How product managers can help engineering organizations to understand what product managers do outside of engineering to help ensure the success of a product
• Options for a product manager to advance in the field

Listen to the entire session here.