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.

• Securing long-term revenue with services
• Your voice as a tool for engagement
• Market-driven product management
• Successful portfolio planning and sustainable product strategy

Day 2 (March 23) will have parallel workshop tracks on agile product management and innovation portfolio management.  See the full agenda.

This event is organized by Tolpagorni‘s Magnus Billgren

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.

“ProDUCT management is a murky role: poorly understood and inconsistently practiced across tech companies. It’s often confused with proGRAM management and proJECT management. Yet done well, product management is often a driver of market success and effective development.” This session helped define the basics of product management, contrasted them with project/program management, and identified ways for all of us to work more effectively together.  An interesting, very energetic discussion followed, bridging various organizational gaps.
What: “Product Management Essentials for Project and Program Managers”
Who: Santa Clara Valley / San Francisco Chapter, IEEE Technology Management Council
When: Thursday, October 6th
Where: RAMADA Silicon Valley, Sunnyvale

What: Lecture and discussion of technology product management, new product development, and the business of building software.
Class: Product Market Planning and Strategy (MBA / MKTG 572).
Where: Lucas Hall, Santa Clara University
When: Monday , April 25th (enrolled students only)

SCU’s Evening MBA program attracts some of the brightest students from the Valley, with a tradition of providing leadership back to technology companies.

Course Description:

New product development (NPD) is critically important for the successful performance of all organizations. However, NPD is a risky endeavor and many new products fail in the marketplace, despite a huge expenditure in money, time and resources. Hence, managers need to develop a comprehensive understanding of the design, development and marketing of new products and services.

In this course, Prof. Sarangee focuses on both quantitative and qualitative tools and techniques associated with researching and analyzing new product opportunities and then designing, testing, and introducing new products and services. It is especially tailored for professional managers who are interested in innovation, new product development and entrepreneurship.

I ran a session on Understanding the Next Job Up and Getting Promoted…

We spent about half the time in lively discussion and contradiction about various situations/configurations and how (if) to work toward higher-level positions.  Here are our starter slides.  (Note: WWDD kicked off a free-for-all on ‘What Would your Director of PM do?’ in various situations.)