How technical should a PM be?

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Should a PM know how to code? Director, Product Manager @ Labs Graham Siener @gsiener Technical Literacy

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AKA why should I care? • Enterprise Software Developer • Startup Product Owner • Helped grow our PM team from 4 to 50 About Me

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AKA how can I help? • Developers • Product Owners • Taxidermists Who are you?

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What makes a PM successful?

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Do you improve your product every time you push new features?

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Do you improve your product every time you push new features? Can you prove it?

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Does anybody like what you’re building?

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Does anybody like what you’re building? Who are they? What do they have in common?

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How do you prioritize your product’s roadmap?

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How do you prioritize your product’s roadmap? Does your team agree?

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From the experts

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(Good PM, Bad PM) Ben Horowitz Good product managers know the market, the product, the product line and the competition extremely well and operate from a strong basis of knowledge and conﬁdence. ...is the CEO of the product. ...takes full responsibility and measures themselves in terms of the success of the product. They are responsible for right product/right time and all that entails.

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(How to hire a PM) Ken Norton Hire Smart people Strong technical background Spidey-sense product instincts and creativity Leadership that's earned Ability to channel multiple points-of-view

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(Customer Development) Steve Blank Build Measure Learn

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(Customer Development) Steve Blank Form Measure Learn

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(Metrics for Pirates) Dave McClure Acquisition Activation Retention Referral Revenue

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(need to be technical to be a PM?) Ellen Chisa

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(Confessions of a Non-Tech PM) Julie Babb The Product is the boss Tell a great story Be available Ask questions Speak up + Listen @awkward_hug

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Agile Lean Empathy (This talk) Me ==> Fluency

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Where a PM lives

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Who a PM lives with

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PM Des Dev Ubiquitous Language

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Convey needs of product Know when to call YAGNI

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Development is the most expensive part of your process, optimize for it

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Do as much work as you can before you need a developer to help.

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Run your app locally Write SQL queries Run rails console Understand logﬁles Use curl to accept API stories