We’re running a business, not a technology company

One thing I always try to remind myself of, is that in the end, my job is to make the business successful. Product Management is a business optimization function. In short: get the most valuable products to market with a limited set of development resources to generate enough revenue to meet or exceed the business goals.

Now, given we work in technology, there is a lot of pressure to “innovate”, to create new technological differentiation against competitors, to develop the next “big thing”, or produce a new or novel offering that can be positioned uniquely in the market.

And, while there is nothing wrong with any of that, it is important to remember that although those things may be important, they are not paramount. The most important thing to do is address market needs more effectively than anyone else. This could mean doing the more mundane things like playing well in their existing environment, or providing platform support, or creating command line tools, or making sure the products are easy to use.

None of those things may seem all that exciting or novel, but they are important to customers who must use these products to meet their business objectives. There is no point creating a unique product showcasing great technology that few people want to buy.

Keep in mind that technology changes much faster than many people’s abilities to accept that change, and one of the best things you can do for customers is to actually help them mitigate that change where possible.

Case in point. Back in the early days of Java, I was product manager for a line of Java components. Java was growing and changing quickly and Sun was deprecating APIs regularly. One of the things we did was to provide consistent APIs to our customers so that as they moved from Java (1) to Java 2, they didn’t need worry about those changes from Sun. In short, we provided them a layer of insulation from the underlying technology changes. This was hugely valuable to customers and helped our business as well as our reputation as a company that delivered real value to them.

In the end, optimizing for the business success, and NOT simply technological leadership, should be the goal of every product manager.

Saeed

What’s the deal with Software Product Management?

OK…this one has been bubbling inside me for a while, and tonight I decided to lay it out and see what feedback comes in. I’ll put on the flame proof suit now.

In our little world, we (Product Managers) think we are all that. We view ourselves as a critical component of the software development process.

How would developers know what to do if we weren’t around to provide market and product requirements?

How would the “sales droids” make their quotas without the help of Product Managers on those big deals?

Who else could define a coherent product strategy that is both aggressive in the market but achievable with limited resources?

Who else has the ability to be as technical as the engineers, as sales-savvy as the sales team and as hip and aware as the marketing team?

We are so dynamic, we can think strategically when needed, but can switch into tactical mode as the inevitable fires need dousing.

Yup, we’re definitely cut from a special stone.

Perhaps we are what we think we are and have the impact that we think we have in companies.

If that is the case, then let’s look at ourselves honestly and ask:

• Why is it so hard to find a standard or generally agreed upon definition of what Software Product Management is across the industry?

• Why are there really no formalized education programs for Product Management?

• How can a 3 day training course even begin to prepare someone to be a product manager?

• Why are our blogs and books filled with an endless supply of “tips and tricks”, as if that is the route to success?

• Why do people think that a smart sales engineer will automatically make a good product manager?

• Why do so many senior managers think that hiring lots of engineers is more important than hiring a few more product managers?

• Why are so many PM consulting firms selling templates and spreadsheets that are both “comprehensive”, yet “fully-customizable” and that enable you to “increase your professionalism”? Really? Is that what will make us successful?
  

If we take a step back and look at our profession, there are many other questions like this that are left unanswered. I wrote a bit about this topic previously in Product Management Maturity and If we’re so smart.

Think I’m being hard or unreasonable? I don’t think so. I’ve been in Product Management for over 10 years and I’m not looking to jump ship yet. I want to see if we can accelerate the process of maturing this field and helping those who are looking to become product managers avoid the struggles we “veterans” have faced.

What have we done in the last 10 years to make our lot better? And I don’t just mean incrementally better. I mean significantly better.

Software Engineering has really evolved in the last decade. The latest greatest things right now seems to be Agile/Scrum methodologies and mature development management tools. Sales and marketing both have matured as well.

Certainly marketing has taken a big leap forward given the integration of the Web and. in particular, hard analytics into the marketing process. Branding, positioning and other traditional marketing activities are still important, but the potential sophistication of marketing today is an order of magnitude above where it was a decade ago.

Selling still retains a lot of it’s old characteristics. Certainly there is no electronic replacement for a good relationship with a buyer or prospect. But sales automation has improved and there are a lot of mature and time tested sales methodologies to choose from.

And then we come to product management. What have we done in the last 10 years to really improve our profession and define ourselves to those around us? Given that there still isn’t some well understood definition of what we do, I’d say we haven’t done enough.

Instead of getting all hot and heavy about the latest development methodology, let’s develop our own well defined, clearly beneficial and easily understood models for product management. No one else is going to do it for us.

And a few years from now, if I’m still writing this blog, I’d hate to have to look back at this post and say, gee, not much has changed has it.

Saeed

What’s the opposite of “analysis paralysis”?

I was discussing something with Alan today and during the conversation he said something like:

Well, you don’t want to get stuck in analysis paralysis but you don’t want to go to the other extreme either.

So, I though to myself, “What is the other extreme? Does it have a name?”

We all know that “analysis paralysis” is the state where one cannot make a decision because they get stuck trying to figure out all the possibilities. I’ve seen it happen in people a few times, and it can be painful to watch, as they hum and ha and try to figure out what is the right decision.

On the other end of the scale are those situations where a decision is made by someone with little or no debate, research or analysis, and the person is convinced this is the only, or possibly the best of all options. This to me is the opposite of analysis paralysis.

I call this state “utopia myopia“.

Essentially, a very limited perspective is used to achieve a theoretically ideal outcome, ignoring other perspectives or outcomes. This is very common when discussing new product ideas or solutions to problems. There is always a small number of people or sometimes a sole individual in the group who has a very strong opinion of what to build and why, and will not change their view, nor will they agree that additional research or investigation is needed before a final decision is made.

I once worked for a company where the CEO had a real disdain for market research and said at a planning meeting:

There’s no value in doing research. By the time you do your research, you could already have finished building the product.

Needless to say, that company was not very successful at all.

So, that’s my contribution to the English language this week. Use the phrase if it applies. For example, if someone is stuck on some idea and won’t budge. say:

You know what, you’re suffering from utopia myopia, and you really need to broaden your perspecitves.

Watch how they react, and drop me a line and let me know what kind of response you are getting when using this phrase.

Saeed

The Benefits of Focus

Most products do a lot. It’s tempting to try to sell all that functionality at once. But a lot of products benefit from having less as opposed to more. Yesterday I ran into a problem: I bought a new car. OK, that wasn’t the problem. My new car has a roof mounted antenna, one that goes back at 45 degrees. Driving into my garage is no problem but backing out again results in the antenna snagging against the bottom of the garage door. My fix was to unscrew the antenna. The unfortunate side effect was the we lost radio reception a lot sooner than normal as we drove out of town.

I figured there must be someone out there that has a solution to this problem. I mean, a shorter antenna isn’t exactly rocket science. I eventually found a site that had a solution so compelling I bought is right away - something very unusual for me, who normally spends an hour of research per dollar (yes, it takes me 2.99 hours to buy a loaf of bread). The miracle site? http://www.stubbyantenna.com/

Never have I found a more focused site. I mean, if you want a stubby antenna, this is the place. There’s selection and nothing to distract me from my task of finding a short - sorry, stubby - antenna.

I know that your product is a lot more amazing than a stubby antenna, but I doubt you could close a sale in five minutes. What could you remove - from your marketing material, if not your product - that would at least cut your sales cycle in half?

New Software, now with blue dots!

You know, sometimes I wonder why I’m not working in consumer products. Not consumer software, but consumer products.

I’ve joked about this with my software product management friends before. Life would be a lot easier it seems. Forget about all the detailed technical work, and all the efforts to keep pace or leap frog the competition, and all the tedium of ensuring compatibility with 3rd party products. Just make the packaging bigger, or smaller, or add a nice lemony scent, or blue dots or something else, and launch a big new campaign to get customers!

One recent consumer campaign, at least here in Canada, has just got me laughing. Ah, if life in the technology industry was only that easy. Take a look and tell me what you think? And if you have any ideas about how to achieve something similar (and meaningful) in the tech industry, please share.

While clearly these two videos are tongue in cheek, the campaign is quite real. Here’s a link to the home page.

Clearly this is a publicity campaign, and the fact that I’m actually writing about it shows it has some impact, but does it make me or want to go and buy Shreddies? Nope, I think I’ll stick with Muffets.

Saeed