 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
Is There a Difference? How Product Management Should Work in a Small Company |
| |
|
|
|
I was recently reading in a blog post where the author asked about recommended books and resources for product managers who worked in small companies or start-ups. The message implied in that post was that Product Management was somehow different in these types of companies and that books (like mine) and others, as well as training programs (like mine) and others, simply didn’t address the needs of product managers in these smaller firms.
With genuine curiosity and a burning desire to find out what people think, I posted a question on a couple of Linkedin® groups and posted a tweet on Twitter. The question: “Do product managers in small/start-up co’s feel they can’t do ‘real’ Product Management? What gives?”
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE REALITIES IN A START-UP OR SMALLER FIRM?
At one end of the spectrum, there were responses that concluded start-ups are just different because of the need to closely watch money and that good decisions were in short supply due to emotional attachments (e.g., to products, technologies, etc.). Others alluded to the fact that someone in a start-up is really the master of all the products. Someone else suggested there’s no parachute in a start-up (to shield you from a hard landing – i.e., bad decisions and other harmful outcomes). Here’s another slant that I didn’t expect: the respondent basically said that in a very small start-up in the financial services sector, there just wasn’t enough time to do “traditional” Product Management.
The following list summarizes the many comments reflecting the challenges that product managers face in a smaller company or start-up:
- Too many things to do
- Not enough time to plan
- CEO/boss/founder drives everything based on their personal vision
- Shortage of resources
- Conflict
- Role confusion
- Reactive
- Financial limitations
- Have to play the role of sales engineer
- Emotional attachment
- Poor decisions
- Need to create differential advantage
- Need to get customers
- No safety net
Hmmm . . . Do these sound familiar to you? It sounds very much like what we hear from our product management clients in Fortune 500 companies.
WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT THIS JOB IN A SMALLER FIRM, THEN?
At the completely opposite end of the spectrum, one person said that a small company is the only place where real Product Management is carried out because product managers are where the rubber meets the road. There were others that talked about being able to carry out important work. I’ll paraphrase to stay brief: the importance of strategic mindset, market focus, and surfacing and meeting customer needs, the criticality of good execution and that business actions (strategies and tactics) are dependent on the product’s position in its life cycle. People also related the importance of cross-functional participation and that someone (product managers) needed to be the leader. I was thrilled to hear that an understanding the financial and operational impact of decisions was of great importance, too.
IS THERE REALLY A DIFFERENCE?
As I look at the various comments and suggestions, one conclusion is that the wide variety of comments is driven based upon different perceptions about the role that that person plays, their overall experience, the company in which they work, the product itself, the market environment, and the industry. The answers represent the beliefs of people, cultivated by the functions people worked in, and the culture in the organizations where they work(ed).
The issue with the descriptions provided from all fronts is that each person’s view represents their singular piece (or for experienced people, their pieces) of the overall puzzle of Product Management. So the situation we’re left with is that everyone has a different idea of what Product Management is or should be. Most people seem to confuse the ‘function’ of Product Management with their role in Product Management because their job requires them to carry out a variety of activities. And often those activities are out of sync with the ideal they have for what Product Management should be. And of course, we are humans, so we complain we cannot do our jobs because we don’t have control of the vision, or because customers want too much from us, or because Development wants to do what they want to do, and so on.
Our benchmarking and ongoing research substantiates that best practices are best practices – whether you’re in a start-up, smaller company, or a Fortune 100 firm. Here’s the challenge for you: If we can put our professional faith in, and subscribe to a standard Product Management body of knowledge – and – if we can believe that Product Management is merely the holistic management of products as small businesses (either on their own or in larger organizations), then we can all work together to raise the bar on our own profession.
SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
You can and should constantly strive to achieve the following to bolster your skills and your profession. Consider the following:
** If product managers use a common vocabulary, standard documents (sorry Agilistas – we do need documents), and flexible processes, we can put a solid business foundation in place.
** If product managers use effective techniques to monitor customers, competitors, and the industry, we can develop the best insights that drive strategies and tactics.
** If product managers employ solid business and financial metrics to the businesses of our products and services, and can monitor and respond to those metrics, we will have earned empowerment and will have contributed the value of the firm.
** If product managers use facts and data to make informed recommendations and decisions, we can help our colleagues who work in other business functions to see the impact of decisions on the future state of the business.
** If product managers can influence and lead people who don’t work directly for them by their knowledge of the business and belief about where the product should be heading, then we will have established our role as business leaders.
** If product managers hold themselves accountable for setting objectives and achieving results, then we will have held ourselves up to a higher standard than any other function in the company.
So in the end, size really doesn’t matter. Effective Product Management does.
--------------------------------------
Steven Haines is the author of "The Product Manager's Desk Reference" and is the President and founder of Sequent Learning Networks.
|
| |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| |
