Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
Leading cross-functional teams and the product manager
Search
Ken Norton
April 11, 2013
Technology
25
80k
Leading cross-functional teams and the product manager
What I wish I'd known before I became a PM.
More of my writing and speaking at
Bring the Donuts
.
Ken Norton
April 11, 2013
Tweet
Share
More Decks by Ken Norton
See All by Ken Norton
Google Tech Hubs: OKRs and Product Management
kennethn
4
590
Communicating for Product Managers
kennethn
4
23k
How to work with engineers
kennethn
31
260k
Other Decks in Technology
See All in Technology
大規模ドラレコデータ収集・機械学習基盤を支える AWS CDK 〜導入・運用事例紹介〜
pemugi
0
110
推薦システムを本番導入する上で一番優先すべきだったこと~NewsPicks記事推薦機能の改善事例を元に~
morinota
0
120
エンジニアの生存戦略 〜クラウド潮流の経験から紐解く技術トレンドのメカニズムと乗りこなし方〜
shimy
9
1.9k
たくさん本を読んだけど 1年後には綺麗サッパリ!を乗り越えて 学習の鬼になるぞ👹
yum3
0
160
AIアシスタントの活用で品質の向上と開発ワークフローのスピードアップ
nagix
1
200
楽しくGoを学び合う、LayerXの勉強会文化 / LayerX's study culture of having fun and learning Go together
ar_tama
2
350
DevIO2024_レガシー運用からの脱却 -クラウド活用の実践事例とベストプラクティス-
jun2882
0
210
RAGのサービスをリリースして1年3ヶ月が経ちました
segavvy
4
910
MySQLのロックの種類とその競合
yoku0825
6
1.6k
AWSでRAGを作る法方
sonoda_mj
1
140
ゆめみのアクセシビリティの現在地と今後
ryokatsuse
3
290
CTOから見た事業開発とプロダクト開発 / My Perspective on Business and Product Development as CTO
keisuke69
4
960
Featured
See All Featured
Robots, Beer and Maslow
schacon
PRO
157
8.1k
How GitHub Uses GitHub to Build GitHub
holman
471
290k
Cheating the UX When There Is Nothing More to Optimize - PixelPioneers
stephaniewalter
277
13k
5 minutes of I Can Smell Your CMS
philhawksworth
200
19k
Let's Do A Bunch of Simple Stuff to Make Websites Faster
chriscoyier
502
140k
Gamification - CAS2011
davidbonilla
78
4.9k
Design by the Numbers
sachag
277
18k
10 Git Anti Patterns You Should be Aware of
lemiorhan
652
58k
Statistics for Hackers
jakevdp
792
220k
Building Effective Engineering Teams - LeadDev
addyosmani
47
2.2k
ReactJS: Keep Simple. Everything can be a component!
pedronauck
662
120k
Agile that works and the tools we love
rasmusluckow
325
20k
Transcript
Leading Cross-Functional Teams Ken Norton VP, Products JotSpot, Inc.
What am I going to talk about • A disjointed
set of learnings • What I wish I’d known before • (There will only be two formulas)
Here’s the good news.
You have the resources.
You are completely accountable.
You are ready to go.
But…
You have no authority.
And everyone is skeptical.
Why?
Without sales, nobody would sell. Without engineering, nobody would build.
Without support, customers would riot.
Without product managers?
Life would be just fine.
(For a while.)
Organizational structure: What you are working with
What you’ve probably learned:
Functional organization. PM
Weak matrix. PM
Strong matrix. PM
What you actually find.
The real world. PM
The reality. • You will not be closely supervised. •
Little to no authority will be handed to you. • You will not have direct managerial oversight for the people who work on your stuff. • You will be highly accountable for success (or lack thereof).
The team: Who you are working with
7 ± 2 Ideal team size.
7 ± 2 (That’s the first formula).
Always trust your instincts.
If you don’t have the right team, get it.
There is nothing more important to invest “political capital” on.
Communicating: How you are working with who you are working
with
There are only three things you need to remember.
1. “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them
what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” (General George Patton)
2. Communicate to different people in their own language.
3. Represent the points of view of the people not
in the room.
How to get respect from engineers.
Clear obstacles. Always take the blame. Ask smart questions. Explain
the “why.” Empathize. Bring the donuts.
How to get respect from sales.
Know their number. Get on the phone with customers. Make
promises so they don’t have to. Help them be creative. Bring the donuts.
How to get respect from executives.
Have a vision. Be patient. Know your competition. Make your
commitments. Bring the donuts.
How to get respect from customers.
Understand what they want. Call them out of the blue.
Keep your promises. Take the blame. Bring the donuts.
A. B. S.
Always Be Shipping.
Nothing helps a team become efficient more than a steady
release tempo.
Agile development.
Can be extremely effective.
But requires hard work and experience.
If you do nothing else…
Have a fifteen minute daily meeting.
Ask your team three questions: • What have you completed
since our last meeting? • What will you have done by tomorrow’s meeting? • What’s standing in your way and how can I help?
Estimating work.
Product Manager: “When can you get this done? Today?”
Engineer: “Well, I think it needs more time.”
Product Manager: “We need it ASAP. What about tomorrow by
end of day?”
Engineer: “Uh, OK.”
The right question: “What needs to happen for you to
finish, and what can I do to help?”
Rule of thumb for estimates.
Likely estimate (L): “How long do you think it will
take?”
Pessimistic estimate (P): “OK, but what’s the longest it could
take, accounting for unforeseen roadblocks?”
Optimistic estimate (O): “What’s the least amount of time required
if everything goes well?”
O + (L x 4) + P 6 What you
plan.
Another rule of thumb for estimates.
Never assume more than 5 hours of progress per developer
per day.