An engineer's guide to working with product managers

Transcript

1. An engineer's guide to working with product managers Adam Wiggins April 2013
2. What do product people do?
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV7u1VBhWCE
4. Bob's approach to product management
5. Customer Product manager Engineer
6. Customer Product manager Engineer
7. Customer Product manager Engineer
8. Now, real product management
9. Customer problems Product manager
10. Customer problems Engineering Product manager Prototypes, ideas, technology needs
11. Customer problems Engineering Usage analysis Watching the competition Support needs Sales needs S Product manager Prototypes, ideas, technology needs
12. Customer problems Engineering Usage analysis Watching the competition Support needs Sales needs S Product manager Synthesis & judgement Prototypes, ideas, technology needs
13. Customer problems Engineering Usage analysis Watching the competition Support needs Sales needs S Product manager Synthesis & judgement Requirements Prototypes, ideas, technology needs
14. Why have product specialists?
15. To build something people will use and love.
16. How?
17. • customer-centric • understanding the problem • putting the solution into customer terms
19. Product Engineering
20. Product • problems • customers • build the right thing • solutions • technology • build it right Engineering
21. Aspects of product work
22. • customer validation • prioritization • internal communication • external communication • analysis & synthesis
23. How can a product manager help you?
24. • defining the problem • determining what's important • non-technical decision-making • unblocking you • usage analysis • notifying users of changes • coordination across teams • coordination with 3rd parties
25. What to expect from a good product manager
26. • evidence • customer perspective • context ("why" to match the "what") • fast decision-making • internal marketing & buy-in • tracking & documentation
27. What does a product manager expect from you, the engineer?
28. • building stuff • frequent status reports • tight feedback loops • reporting on technical blockers • new possibilities with the technology
29. What makes something a product?
30. • validated with customers • docs & announcements • pricing • interfaces (CLI, web, API, mobile) • workflows • naming • code ownership • scalability & capacity planning • deploy process
31. • validated with customers • docs & announcements • pricing • interfaces (CLI, web, API, mobile) • workflows • naming • code ownership • scalability & capacity planning • deploy process Product Design Engineering
32. Insist on a product owner for your project! fin.