Introduction

What being influential means for you, and how to use this book.

Why “The Influential Product Manager”?

When I started working in consumer internet businesses (for a company called LookSmart), the role of product manager was largely undefined. I was labeled a “business analyst,” charged with tracking and understanding product performance and gathering market insights. Over time I gradually assumed more and more of the responsibilities we would now expect of a product manager—defining and prioritizing features; designing, building, and launching the product with the user experience and development teams; and ultimately managing the full product lifecycle.

Product managers learned by doing. So in a startup environment, through trial and error, I invented new approaches and processes—creating whatever was needed to deliver a product. Leading my first product launch, I made all the rookie mistakes. I upset the engineering team by thinking I was qualified enough to design a user interface, which was roundly and justly rejected both by users and my more creative peers. I did little in the way of customer research, believing in the power of my own ideas. And I deployed a bug-filled product just days before a high-stakes PR event (to be held in full view of Australian media and government ministers), much to the anxiety of my stakeholders. Yet somehow things fell together at the last minute, and the PR event went off well.

I got lucky. And in more ways than one—because, as it turned out, I had also found my passion in product management. This was early in my career, and I never looked back. I still love working across the realms of business and technology, from high-level strategy to detailed execution. I love collaborating with a team of talented individuals who have complementary skills, coordinating and focusing our collective efforts to solve critical customer problems. There are few things more satisfying than watching an idea turn into reality through sweat (and, yes, sometimes tears), and seeing users not just use but also enjoy using your product!

Of course, the product manager’s role has evolved since my early days. Techniques, processes, tools, and frameworks are now well-defined. Product management can be learned beyond trial and error, and the craft can be honed with practice.

But what makes a truly outstanding product manager? It’s not just the ability to deliver a product to market. It is also the ability to empathize and determine customers’ needs; to persuade, motivate, and align a cross-functional group of professionals behind a common purpose; and to navigate teams and stakeholders to achieve successful outcomes for their business and their customers.

In order to be successful, product managers must rely on the success of others. They have no direct authority—only influence. To be effective over the long-term, they must use data and facts along with conviction and vision, and they must have a deep understanding of business, technology, and user needs. Counterintuitively, they are successful because they can only achieve their goals by being objective and influential. They must optimize for the needs of the customer and business over their own goals. They must build trusted relationships, and they must collaborate and compromise to deliver outcomes—bringing their team and stakeholders with them on every step of the journey.

Who Is This Book For?

You! You may be

•   an established or aspiring product manager looking to grow and advance your career;

•   a career-switcher, looking to parlay your business, design, or engineering expertise to transition into product management;

•   in an engineering, design, or business function working with product managers and desiring to understand more about product management best practices;

•   a leader or manager of a product-management team looking for a practical self-training guide to give your team members; or

•   a learning and development professional looking for a resource to help you attract, train, and retain high-impact product managers for your company.

My goal is to provide current and aspiring product managers with the tools, techniques, skills, and empathy required to be successful in navigating the critical “human” or “people” component of their role. That means building products that delight customers, avoiding common pitfalls, and establishing a strong reputation with peers, stakeholders, and customers.

The outlined practices will be useful to those managing existing products or trying to create new ones, and the products covered include those related to software, internet, mobile, web, and SaaS—whether in consumer or enterprise industries. You will likely find some sections more relevant than others. If you’re working with highly technical or “platform” products, for example, you may find the sections on customer discovery and user validation less applicable. Or, if you are a product manager at a startup company, you may have little access to existing business or product data, making data-driven decisions and metrics harder (but not impossible). Conversely, if you are working in a company with well-established product management, development, and launch processes, you may find specific recommendations in some chapters less applicable but the overall concepts still relevant.

In other words, you must decide which approaches are appropriate within your organization. Far from providing a one-size-fits-all framework, this book is meant to be a “toolkit”—a series of frameworks, methodologies, best practices, processes, and ways of thinking or empathizing. Pick, apply, or adapt the right tool for you or a given situation.

How to Use This Book—and a Bonus!

This book consolidates over 20 years of hands-on experience and is your guide to learning what it takes to succeed as an influential product manager in modern technology companies.

Working as an influential product manager requires you to master effective interpersonal, collaborative, and empathetic techniques across the product lifecycle. You should be able to imagine yourself applying these techniques in your business environment:

•   as you determine the mindset in which you will approach your role;

•   as you build relationships within your organization;

•   when you evaluate your market and validate with your customer;

•   as you prioritize, define, and execute the desired product solution;

•   during and after launch, in determining how you thoughtfully go to market; and

•   in choosing the appropriate metrics to measure success.

The book is loosely organized around each lifecycle step—ideation, discovery, prioritization, definition, implementation, launch, and measurement. Each chapter begins with a summary of learning objectives—the three key outcomes you will take away in each. Then each concept is simply described and kept in context, telling what the concept is, why it is important, and how to apply it. You will learn about the needs and obstacles you will face and your unique role on the team—often challenging preconceived notions. I steer clear of theory, preferring simple frameworks and practical advice that you can immediately use in your work environment. I’ve also included examples and brief personal stories for further explanation.

This book is intended to be highly approachable and readily applicable, a complete and practical guide to becoming influential and successful as a product manager. It should be used as a reference when you need help, providing easily comprehensible solutions you can apply in likely situations and to common issues. When you need to decide how to move forward, this book is there to guide you with an easy-to-follow and likely to be successful next step.

As a bonus, you also have access to an extensive set of complementary online resources at http://www.influentialpm.com.

The resources include the following:

•   Copies of introduced frameworks and templates, with completed examples.

•   Additional downloadable written materials and deeper appendices expanding on what’s covered in this book.

•   Recommended third-party online and offline references.

•   A set of exercises that will help you to put into practice the techniques outlined in a way that is immediately relevant to your current product challenges.

•   Sample answers with explanations to select exercises.

Throughout this book, I refer collectively to your team and your management as your stakeholders. By “your team” I am referring to the cross-functional group of people assigned to work toward the product solution (engineers, designers, project managers, those in charge of quality assurance, and those who will support the product once it’s in the market). “Management” refers to any (generally more senior) stakeholder; in other words, anyone who is responsible for making key decisions and has a substantial say in the direction you take (such as your direct manager, executives, and managers of other team members).

Legend