Wednesday
Aug262009
does a product manager have a natural life-cycle?
Have been thinking about this lately and, based on past experience, I think that YES there probably is a natural life-cycle for a product manager working on an individual product.
This would be completely separate from the product life-cycle, of-course. The product life-cycle is typically determined by on-going relevance and success of a product in its market place.
So, what are the signs?
- The product works - you were there at the inception and at the delivery, you've iterated and the product does as intended. The question could arise: what else can you add? Contentment is probably a pretty dangerous feeling if you are a PM. In reality, the job is never done.
- Excitement is on the wane - a big part of PM'ing is about evangelising your product. If the necessary spark isn't there, this is harder and it will probably show.
What can you do to counter?
- Work harder - hard work generally produces heightened results and you may get enthusiasm back and discover your product could work better.
- Focus - revisit the primary goals and objectives for your product. Concentrate on these primary goals and ask yourself if your product meets them. This may well re-invigorate you and give new direction.
- Get back to basics - concentrate on working with tried and tested product management techniques. Product development is a process, the quicker you remember it the quicker your mojo will return.
- Try working in new ways - software advances are happening all around us - try new ways of communicating in your product team, try new wire-framing or prototyping techniques, put a different spin on gathering requirements or customer feedback. Every job or product has a boredom threshold, keeping your eyes open for things like this can really create impetus for you.
- Take a break - be more hands off for a while or chill-out a little. Maybe it is time for a promotion even, worth considering. There's a great post on webproductblog.com about being more relaxed day to day, this may help.
What if the above doesn't work?
- You need to do what you do either somewhere different or on another product.
- Are you in the right role? One product role is very much like another, there's masses of transferable skills, so take a breather and think about whether it's right for you. It's normal to feel like this every now and then, but if you find you are asking yourself this a lot it may be a sign to look at the situation a little more closely.
Do you agree/disagree? Have I missed something? I'd love to know what others thought on the subject....
Carl Knibbs
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Reader Comments (6)
Great post. I recognize two things. As an organization, some should have ownership of the product portfolio and consistently reviewing the products with the product manager to discuss "what else can you add?" The leadership role in product management whether the leader of the portfolio or the manager of the team has to be engaged and look for ways to maximize the resources, align the team etc. Now this assumes that the team is large enough and has a dedicated leader. In smaller product management teams, this role may be assigned or should be assigned to a leader within who understands the value and role or product management, how to manage and bring the best out of the team and is familiar with the technology and its roadmap.
Thanks Jim, all makes sense. There's a couple of great points there I missed, you are right - I could have added that the pm shouldn't feel isolated and the portfolio and people's roles should be reviewed regularly, as you say - to ensure maximum value for the product and from the product manager.
A robust product roadmap leaves no room for complacency. There is much to do in this phase of the technology adoption lifecycle, so that you are ready for the next. In the late market, there is still much to be done either by finding a new vector of differentiation, or dealing with strategy issues around countering pricing pressures, and digging deeper into the scope of the product beyond the interface and user task/activity considerations. This latter focus involves dealing with the hypecycle, and expectations around meta management issues like process synchronization.
Opportunities also exist in finding your multisided markets, moving more of the functionality out into an n-tiered value chain and increasing your horizontalness. Ops becomes a larger issue as your user base grows. Offer expansion, and demand-side service opportunities abound, but you have to plan for them, find them, and implement them.
Hopefully, when the product gets to the late market, another technology is entering the tornado. The late market product will no longer be the hot thing internally or externally, but it will certainly be profitable for a long time to come. The new technology should be elsewhere in terms of market and functionality. The second technology should not cannibalize the earlier technology.
Another point is that late in product life, the company has more money, more capabilities, more cost structure, more people. The environment in which things get done will be entirely different. A company in the post-IPO phase will be a different animal from that of the nascent startup with its "Other People's Money" ethic and bootstrapping necessities for immediate revenues and problems with cash flows and lack of budgets.
Our attitude will determine our outcomes as product managers. It is true that the head of product management needs to ensure the constant development of their product mangers, and determine if some product managers should stay focused in specific technology adoption market phases, or if they are up to learn the next phase of product life. There is also a need to manage an increasing number of product mangers, so some will have to be groomed to be managers of managers, a line position, as opposed to a matrix position.
There is life beyond SaaS. The product might leap to the cell phone, digital paper, sms, voice, or barcodes. The product might incorporate new communications channels. The product might move to an information appliance, become embedded, or just turn into a source of licensing revenues in the operating system stack. With so many places to go, why would a product manager get bored?
Thanks David, some really excellent points here. You summarise it perfectly when you say 'our attitude will determine our outcomes as product managers.' Attitude, evangilism, call it what you want - this is what PM's need to keep in tact. I agree, when considering a PM's own life-cycle working with a particular product, this is one of the key things the PM should check in on, regulalry.
Is something akin to a sports team changing the coach and/or manager? As a product management leader, it might be worthwhile to keep an eye on product performance and wonder what changes are needed if any. Great post!
Stewart
Thanks Stewart. I think that's a really useful analogy corroborating the point Jim made as well. The role of the pm leader is key here isn't it. I am glad you guys raised it. Best, Carl.