book

Product Management in Practice

by Matt LeMay

November 2017

Beginner to intermediate

188 pages

4h 57m

English

O'Reilly Media, Inc.

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Why I Wrote This Book: My First Day as a Product ManagerWho This Book Is ForHow This Book Is OrganizedStories from Working Product ManagersTemplates“Your Checklist”O’Reilly SafariHow to Contact UsAcknowledgments
What Is Product Management?What Is Not Product Management?What Is the Profile of a Great Product Manager?What Is the Profile of a Bad Product Manager?Summary: Sailing the Seas of AmbiguityYour Checklist:
The “Hybrid” Model: UX/Tech/BusinessThe CORE Skills of Product Management: Communication, Organization, Research, and ExecutionCommunicationOrganizationResearchExecution…But What About “Hard Skills”?Summary: Changing the Conversation About Product ManagementYour Checklist:
Taking a Genuine InterestCultivating a Growth MindsetThe Gift of Being WrongSpreading CuriositySummary: Curiosity Is KeyYour Checklist:
Don’t Believe the Hype“But This Worked at the Last Place!”Goals First, Then PracticesThe Best Thing About Best PracticesSummary: A Place to Start, Not a GuaranteeYour Checklist:
Asking the ObviousMeetings Are Good, If You Want ItOne Weird Trick for Better Meetings: Disagree and CommitCreating and Protecting Space for Informal CommunicationWorking with Distributed TeamsDon’t Deflect, Be DirectAccounting for Different Communication StylesEgregious Overcommunication in Practice: Three Common Communication Scenarios for Product ManagersScenario OneScenario TwoScenario ThreeSummary: When in Doubt…Your Checklist:
Managing Up for Clarity at All Costs“Our Boss Is an Idiot,” or, Congratulations—You’ve Ruined Your TeamNo Alarms and No SurprisesStaying User-Centric in a World of Company PoliticsTactical Trade-Offs, Not Emotional ManipulationThrowing the Poker Game in Practice: Two Common Scenarios for Senior Stakeholder ManagementScenario OneScenario TwoSummary: This Is Part of Your Job, Not an Impediment to Your JobYour Checklist:
Stakeholders and Users Are DifferentYes, You Need to Learn How to Talk to Users“Quick Wins” for Better User ResearchLeveling Up Versus Zooming In, or Another Way to “Why”Summary: No, Seriously, You Need to Learn How to Talk to UsersYour Checklist:
The Trouble with the “D” WordDon’t Hide Your Assumptions—Document Them!Focusing on Metrics That Matter“Up and to the Right” Is a Signal, Not a StrategyFrom “Accountability” to ActionAcknowledging the Limitations of Obfuscating Quantitative ProxiesKeeping It AccessibleSummary: No Shortcuts!Your Checklist:
It’s Not the Roadmap, It’s How You Use the Roadmap“The Product Manager Owns the Roadmap!”Structure and Facilitate Ideas for the Roadmap, Don’t Own ThemYour Product Spec Is Not Your ProductWait, You Mean We Actually Have to Build This Now?SMART Goals, CLEAR Goals, OKRs, and so onTaking Your Goals for a Test DriveMaking Room for Old Stuff and (Truly) New StuffBut This Is an Emergency!Prioritization in Practice: Same Features, Different GoalsSummary: Let Them In!Your Checklist:

Debunking Three Common Myths About AgileTurning to the Agile ManifestoFrom Manifesto to MonsterUsing Alistair Cockburn’s “Heart of Agile” to Bridge Values and PracticesFour Steps to Future-Proof AgileA Few General Caveats About AgileYou Are HereSummary: Ambiguity Lives Here, TooYour Checklist:
The Soothing Lull of an Organization on AutopilotThe Good Times Aren’t (Always) the Easy TimesCarrying the Weight of the WorldSummary: It’s Hard Work, but It’s Worth ItYour Checklist:

Content preview from Product Management in Practice

Introduction

Why I Wrote This Book: My First Day as a Product Manager

I never felt more prepared for anything than I did for my first day as a product manager. Ever the eager student, I had made a point of reading up on the basic tenets of user experience, sharpening my programming skills, and learning about product development processes like Scrum and XP. I could recite the Agile Manifesto by heart, and knew about the industry-standard bounce rates for comparable web properties. After settling in at my new workstation, I approached my boss—who was not a product manager himself but had worked with enough of them to know the type—with the overconfident swagger of a young person who had read a lot of books very quickly.

“I’m so excited to really dig into this work,” I told him. “Where’s the latest version of the product roadmap? What are our quarterly goals and KPIs? And who should I be talking to if I want to better understand the needs of our users?”

He gave me a weary look and took a deep breath. “You’re smart,” he said, “Figure it out.”

Aside from a very generous assessment of my intelligence at the time, my boss gave me the greatest gift a new product manager can receive: a grim but resolute understanding that guidance would be very, very hard to come by. For all the books that I had read and all the methodologies that I had studied, the only thing I was left with when I sat back down at my desk was, “What the hell am I supposed to do every day?” If there was no roadmap, ...