Introduction to The Product Manager’s Survival Guide
Early in my career, someone asked me why I like being a product manager. I had to think for a minute, then I answered: because every day is different, I grow by creating things from nothing, and I love running a business. Also, I grow when I know what is going on in a company and who is doing what with whom. I love learning from customers and I am amazed by the knowledge and experience of the people who help create great products. When I wrote the first edition of this book, I thought I would offer a timeless perspective to create passion (which I believe matters) for aspiring product managers or people who were new to the job.
I also realized that, since “business is business,” and given my assumption that business practices are timeless, what else was needed? As I learned — and as you will learn in your product management work — there is a life cycle for everything, including books, products, processes, and companies. Nothing is timeless.
Transformation[2] is the term currently used to describe the evolution of business. Every company wants long-term improvements in performance and tries to get them by changing employees’ mindsets, behaviors, and capabilities. Transformation always seems to include launching new products, services, and customer interactions. At its heart it also has new ways of interacting or partnering with customers and companies, and today it means faster product design and development, distribution through digital channels, or integrating hardware and software. In a related view, service-based business models that focus on improving outcomes for their customers continue to evolve. From a big-picture[3] view, businesses will keep changing themselves, and product managers will continue to work as key players in this evolving landscape.
The interesting point is that transformation in every organization has different starting points. For product managers, that can be a challenge. For example, you may already have worked in a company that was digital, or a company that was run as a software company from the start, or you may work in a company that is “traditional” and has added digital, software, or service-based products to its portfolio. Wherever your company is, or wherever you are targeting your career, you can use a foundational resource like this book to move up.
Needless to say, with this transformation or any other change that comes your way in the future, those firms that choose (or perhaps create) new business models (the disruptors[4]) tend to progress; they are the ones that do not simply slide down the life-cycle[5] curve. Compare the rise of Netflix[6] from an easy-to-rent movie service with postal delivery into a content powerhouse with Yahoo or IBM — companies that did not properly use the changes they needed, at the right time, to change themselves. Still, stay with us and look at how Netflix has evolved over a decade or two.
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At the heart of success is a product-management mindset that keeps companies ready for anything — whether they create new life cycles from old ones or rebuild a product along the way. It is said that the sea change[7] required brings with it a sense of urgency in views and attitudes. If you study successful companies and innovative products, you can see this every day.
In this updated book, I will share with you the things that inspired me: leaders of great companies who form incredible orchestras, and product teams that produce striking innovation. I hope these will inspire you to go out onto the business playing field every day and embrace the opportunity to understand what is best for customers and for the company you work in.
I also hope that by using this book I can create in you the same passion I have for product management. I will provide ways for you to get better and progress further. My hope is that this book will be a foundation for integrating how you think about your job, and more as a support for continuing your study of product management and advancing in your career.
As your guide, I will show you the different paths you can take in the world of product management. My perspectives have been formed from organizational assessments, workshops, and research I do. Through these opportunities, and as the founder of Sequential Learning Networks, a product-management training and consulting company, I have the privilege of having a vast learning laboratory at my fingertips that gives me insight into the best practices related to business success.
This edition, like the first edition of The Product Manager’s Survival Guide, is meant to help both novice and aspiring product managers become as productive as possible as soon as possible. Why? Because many companies want their product managers to move very fast and push forward. Without the right support, though, they fail.
The corporate world has little patience for failure. Leaders of large, complex companies — the kind of companies that are transforming — want their product managers to learn quickly. They take their cues from the startup world, where everything is lean[8] and agile[9]. Yet, as I learn from product managers in these complex companies, the real world is not always what bosses would like. Companies expect a lot. They want products to take off and be sold tomorrow, or used at scale.
Speed is the key word, because customer needs change quickly. Product updates, whether unpredictable for the customer or highly visible, require you to lead strategically every minute of the day. To succeed, you have to leave home with passion and compete while you focus an army of people every day on winning in the market.
This is where this edition of the book comes in. I want to make sure that aspiring product managers (whether you are new to the role or some of you just need a fresh burst of energy) have the mindset that you have both the capability (as skill) and the ability (as talent) to succeed.
This edition provides more context for the customers you focus on, the people you work with, and the products you have built and manage. My view of what I call “mixed-mode development”[10] means using product-development processes that follow a linear phase-gate[11] product-development process and agile (or iterative[12]) product development.
This book includes instructions, tips, and tools to help you do the work and lead, influence, and see clearly in the business environment. It also includes information that strengthens the perspectives you need about your role as a product manager in any company, regardless of technology or development method.
Welcome to the second edition of The Product Manager’s Survival Guide, where I help you master product-management skills.
To buy the book The Product Manager’s Survival Guide, visit the shop.
[2] Transformation
[3] Big-Picture
[4] Disruptors
[5] Life Cycle
[6] Netflix
[7] Sea Change
[8] Lean
[9] Agile
[10] Mixed-Mode Development
[11] Phase-Gate
[12] Iterative