Comments on: Defending the CPM’s Fictional Name

By: Meeshka

Meeshka — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:13:58 +0000

I can confirm that the Cranky PM is a person… but you probably won’t believe me because I’m a dog.

By: Rick Chapman

Rick Chapman — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:38:15 +0000

+++ “A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.” (Winston Churchill) +++

“There’s a sucker born every minute.”
P.T. Barnum

By: Tom Grant

Tom Grant — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:34:49 +0000

“A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.” (Winston Churchill)

By: Rick Chapman

Rick Chapman — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:27:51 +0000

A response to this post is now up at:

http://www.saasuniversity.com/COMMUNITY/Forum/tabid/1230/forumid/1/postid/33/view/topic/Default.aspx

By: A Despondent PM

A Despondent PM — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:43:47 +0000

CrankyPM – I can understand how some might think the duties you describe would not, could not and (god forbid) never should be performed by Product Management. These people tend to be Marketing types that view the role of Product Managers as little more than release managers. They don’t understand what Product Management is or what it should be. These people also believe that marketing has the sole responsibility of interfacing with sales, and keep such information as sales forecasts as privileged information never to be shared outside the bounds of the ivory tower, and certainly never with the folks that need to prioritize the development of features.

This view is common when the Product Management group exists inside the engineering department and reports to a pocket protector VP. Product Mangers in such an organization struggle to get out and do the most simple strategic tasks. Things like attend the User Conference and visit with clients, unless of course the client is about to kick us out because they are having issues and the sale droid wants to impress the point that it really wasn’t the fact that they positioned the product incorrectly but that we need to prioritize the development of a one-off toaster add-on to make the client happy so they can use them as a reference. Product Managers in such an organization never have any input to actually set the price of the products they develop and usually only hear about any packaging or pricing decisions after the fact. They also deal with requests for tactical enhancements which get prioritized over strategic initiatives, because the latter won’t help us make this Qs number.

Unfortunately I now am a PM is such an organization and is one of the reasons I took issue with one of your posts that purports to say that it doesn’t really matter where the PM lives in the organization. Fact is it does matter. I’ve had the privilege of working as a PM where we were our own department reporting to the head honcho (best), and where we reported to Marketing (OK, but not ideal), and where we reported to Engineering (worst of all). PM needs to be an independent arbiter of all things marketing and engineering and can’t be viewed as submissive to one or the other.

By: LPC

LPC — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:53:07 +0000

hahahaha. how many data sheet have I thrown into the air in despair for writing like that.

By: Paco

Paco — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:40:40 +0000

There’s absolutely NO WAY your blog is written by a commercial firm. If it were, it would obviously suck. We’re talking black-hole-within-another-black-hole kind of suck. Why? Because if a group of people really were writing this stuff week after week, it would read like a stream of vomited product data sheets:

“Today was a game-changing day. Leveraging my strategic partnership with my husband, a leading provider of male parenting, we delivered a real-time, interactive, multi-cereal breakfast experience to our child. Pushing beyond the boundaries of Meal 1.0 thinking, we’re exploring ways to build new platforms to support the dynamic needs and high-growth potential of our customer – an innovator in the toddler space. And with the launch of this latest solution, MealTime, we’ve expanded our comprehensive portfolio of solutions to encompass all aspects of the toddler-service market: MealTime, e-Poo, and Nap-Master Enterprise 9000.”

And the jack*** is indeed doing our profession a disservice by propagating the tick-list view. That’s the same line of thinking that prompts jack*** coworkers to ask Product Managers questions like “so how well do you know MS Project?” and “are you PMI certified?”.

The CPM is dead! Long-live the CPM!

By: Cranky Product Mgr

Cranky Product Mgr — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:05:06 +0000

New blog post: Don’t Mess with the Cranky Product Manager’s Fictional Name. http://tinyurl.com/q7edpp

By: Cranky Product Mgr

Cranky Product Mgr — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:58:39 +0000

New Cranky Blog Post! “Defending the CPM’s Fictional Name” – http://bit.ly/yBTTV

By: Stacey Helenbrook

Stacey Helenbrook — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:04:32 +0000

I don’t care if you’re fictional or not. Your posts ring true every time. However, your rant supports Penelope Trunk’s assertion that you shouldn’t blog anonymously and there are a lot of reasons to do it with your real name: http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2007/07/19/blog-under-your-real-name-and-ignore-the-harassment/

At least then you’d get the credit you rightly deserve.