1. www.mironov.com1 How Engineering Can Work Better with Product Management Rich Mironov April 21, 2011

2. www.mironov.com2 About Rich Mironov  CEO of a stealth startup  Veteran product manager/strategist/exec  Business models, pricing, agile  Organizing product organizations  “What do customers want?”  Author of “The Art of Product Management” and Product Bytes blog  Founded Product Camp, chaired product stage at annual Agile conferences

3. www.mironov.com3 3 Agenda  Sharing: your good and bad product management experiences  What does a product manager do, anyway?  Agile product managers, agile product owners  7 ways to help your product manager

4. www.mironov.com4 Sharing Your Good And Bad Product Management Experiences

5. www.mironov.com5 5 Agenda  Sharing: your good and bad product management experiences  What does a product manager do, anyway?  Agile product managers, agile product owners  7 ways to help your product manager

6. www.mironov.com6 What Does a Product Manager Do?  For commercial / revenue software…  PM drives delivery and market acceptance of whole products  PM targets market segments, not individual customers  For strategic internal development…  PM resolves competing priorities  PM drives acceptance and adoption

7. www.mironov.com7 Development Mktg & Sales Executives Product Management What Does a Product Manager Do? market information, priorities, requirements, roadmaps, MRDs, personas, user stories… software strategy, forecasts, commitments, roadmaps, competitive intelligence budgets, staff, targets Field input, Market feedback Segmentation, messages, benefits/features, pricing, qualification, demos… Markets & Customers

8. www.mironov.com8 Product Mgmt Planning Horizons Daily Sprint Strategy Portfolio Product Release Exec PM Dev Team 2 wk 2-9 mon many mons years many years

9. www.mironov.com9 Pragmatic Marketing ® Framework Pricing Buy, Build or Partner Business Plan Product Profitability Win/Loss Analysis Distinctive Competence Market Problems Marketing Plan Customer Acquisition Customer Retention Program Effectiveness Buying Process Buyer Personas User Personas Positioning Product Portfolio Market Definition Distribution Strategy Innovation Competitive Landscape Technology Assessment Lead Generation Thought Leadership Referrals & References Launch Plan Use Scenarios Require- ments Status Dashboard Product Roadmap Presentations & Demos Event Support “Special” Calls Channel Support Channel Training Sales Process Collateral Sales Tools BusinessMarketProgramsPlanningStrategySupportReadinessBusinessMarketProgramsPlanningStrategySupportReadiness Dir, Prod Strategy Prod Mktg Mgr Tech Prod Mgr © 1993-2009 Pragmatic Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved

10. www.mironov.com10 Nature of PM Role  No natural sequence for PM  Must work all aspects in parallel  Entire planning onion  Intensely interrupt-driven  Bottoms-up shapes top-down, top-down shapes bottoms-up  Product Management must provide strategy, judgment and integration as well as execution

11. www.mironov.com11 Good product managers drive decisions despite uncertainty and contradictory goals

12. www.mironov.com12 “How Hard Could It Be?”  Imagine that I create a two-day seminar for “Senior Enterprise Software Architects”  Anyone can enroll  We talk about enterprise architecture  All attendees get a “Senior Enterprise Software Architect” certificate  Are they senior architects?

13. www.mironov.com13 Agenda  Participants: good and bad product management experiences  What does a product manager do, anyway?  Agile product managers, product owners  7 ways to help your product manager

14. www.mironov.com14 Disjoint Communities Product Managers Agile Community Nearly empty, very lonely

15. www.mironov.com15 Discussions about Agile…  Part philosophy and religion  Part process, tools, techniques, methods  Part organizational design

16. www.mironov.com16 Why Not Waterfall? Requirements and estimates Coding and unit test System integration & QA Operation and maintenance Design Waterfall projects rarely deliver according to plan

17. www.mironov.com17 Agile’s Inner Loop (Development) After: Mike Cohn

18. www.mironov.com18 Agile’s Strategic Outer Loop (PM) Markets Customers Biz Models Strategy Portfolios Funding Customers Sales Marketing Support Upgrades EOL/EOS

19. www.mironov.com19 Product Owner’s Calendar Borrowed from Catherine Connor, Rally

20. www.mironov.com20 Development Marketing/Sales Customers Executives product owner “small p” product owner priorities, requirements, personas, user stories… software

21. www.mironov.com21 Product Manager Failure Modes Solo Product Manager fails the agile team if…  Part-timer, not fully engaged in team  Lack of detail on stories, acceptance tests  Stale items in backlog  Handwaving and bluster  Best of intentions, but pulled in too many directions  “Build what I meant”

22. www.mironov.com22 Product Owner Failure Modes Solo Product Owner fails the market if…  Weak on real-world value: pricing, packaging, upgrades, service models, discounting, competitive dynamics  Disconnected from cross-functional teams (Marketing, Sales, Support…)  Belief in rational users and accurate ROI  Trading off company-wide product strategy for product-level features  Assuming that a few customers at showcase (demo) represent the market

23. www.mironov.com23 Agenda  Participants: good and bad product management experiences  What does a product manager do, anyway?  Agile product managers, product owners  7 ways to help your product manager

24. www.mironov.com24 7 Good Ways to Help Your PM 1.Ask about use cases and customer problems 2.Don’t demand PMs as technical as you are 3.Not every user story gets its own ROI 4.Expect PMs to translate features into customer-relevant benefits 5.Ask about forecasts, shipments and revenue 6.QUIETLY sit in on some customer meetings 7.Channel your inner Product Manager

25. www.mironov.com25 Contact Information +1-650-315-7394 rich@mironov.com www.mironov.com/articles/ @RichMironov www.linkedin.com/in/richmironov

26. www.mironov.com26 How Engineering Can Work Better with Product Management Rich Mironov April 21, 2011