As posted earlier, the Cranky PM’s Kickstarter to write a book (tentative title: Product Management the Cranky Way) has been funded – we’re now at 133% of our original funding goal. The Kickstarter ends in a mere THREE DAYS, so act quickly if you haven’t already.
“Yeah!” thought the Cranky Product Manager, “I’m so happy! They LIKE me, they really, really LIKE me!”
followed by….
“Crap. Now I actually HAVE to write a freakin’ book instead of just FANTASIZING about it.”
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OK, dear readers. The Cranky Product Manager is looking forward to writing this book as her blogging swan song. After this, she’s committing blog suicide and ending this blog. The overall goal here is not to produce the authoritative tome on how to perform every activity in product management. Instead, the Cranky Product Manager wants to provide pragmatic advice about how to cut through the bullshit, get stuff done, and make your products big successes. (Don’t worry, snark will be abundant, as will comics, cranky “best of” tweets, and product haiku).
But she NEEDS YOUR HELP. Please provide some feedback in the comments,.
1. PLEASE VOTE FOR THREE OF THE FOLLOWING TOPICS
TOPIC 1. Be Careful What You Wish For: What is product management, is it for you, and how to break in?
TOPIC 2. A 30-day plan to become a wicked awesome product manager. day-by-day guide (if you are new to PM or just in a new job at a new company)
TOPIC 3. You’re the Hub, here’s how to deal with the spokes. How PMs can better work with other functions in the company. The archetypes you’ll see, their POV about product management, what they want from you, and what you need from them.
A. CodeBoyz and CodeGrrls
B. SalesDroids
C. Marketing Geniuses
D. Executives
E. Customers & Prospects
F. Outside Influencers – analysts, the press, etc.
E: Other insiders: professional services, support, etc.
TOPIC 4. What PMs do all damn day, and how to do it better:
interviewing customers, personas, market validation, requirements, user stories, designing roadmaps, product lifecycle management, beta testing, (WARNING: this might be far too much content for one book), product launces, pricing, product positioning
TOPIC 5. On Agile Product Management
TOPIC 6: Moving up and on. How to advance your career as a PM, how to manage other product managers, and progress your career within or beyond product management.
TOPIC 7: Write-in. What do you want to learn about?
2. PLEASE ANSWER: WHAT ARE THE THREE BIGGEST QUESTIONS YOU HAVE ABOUT PRODUCT MANAGEMENT?
The ones the Cranky Product Manager has been asked most often include 1) How do I get into Product Management?, 2) Do I need an MBA?, and 3) How do I do product pricing? But WHAT ELSE?
3. ANY OTHER ADVICE OR THINGS YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE?
{ 59 comments… read them below or add one }
1. TOP THREE TOPICS:
TOPIC 3
TOPIC 5
TOPIC 6
2. 3 BIGGEST QUESTIONS
a) How to break product management into an engineer driven culture
b) Product management and professional services – how to keep them from doing un-natural things with your product
c) How to deal with a perfectionist CEO
3. No other advice – you’re brilliant. Just keep it real – and help us not take ourselves too seriously!!
Topic #3, Topic #2, Topic #4
I agree:
4
2
3
6
That is in stack rank order.
Also, how to weave an overarching strategy into all of the above. How to balance setting business strategy with day to day work.
Congratulations Cranky PM. I’m glad you will really write your book.
From a member of the Crankerati
I vote for TOPIC 4, TOPIC 5, TOPIC 6
1. Top three topics:
3, 4 & 6
2. 3 biggest questions:
- What are the value of PM certifications?
- How to be a good strategist?
- How can a PM be influential?
3. How can one cope with ambiguity and half-baked ideas, and turn them successfully into products? How can a novice PM get a good mentor?
Question 1
2,3,4
Question 2
How does Business Analyst move to PdM?
How to be a good strategist?
Question 3
What are the best product management related reference books? Please list them…
I’d prefer Topic #3, Topic #2, Topic #4
Need your feedback on the forthcoming CrankyPM book – what do you want me to write about?:
As posted … http://t.co/98jL5ERt #prodmgmt
#4, #5, & #6 please.
Good news this is going ahead.
Topics #3, #4, #5 – thanks.
3, 4, and how to change your organizations view of product management from being a product support role to a product ownership role (in a P&L sense, not the Agile sense)
#3, #4 and #6
Need your feedback on the forthcoming CrankyPM book – what do you want me to write about? — The Cranky Product http://t.co/Q4WFc7sM
Question 1: 1, 3 & 4
Question 2:
a) Compare/contrast project management with product management
b) Present case studies – Good/Bad product management
c) Ways to quantify value of product management
Question 3:
Not so much about the book, but a suggestion to possibly help you organize survey input as you go through the project: http://www.surveymonkey.com/.
It’s easy to use, plus I think it could make your life easier too. Just a thought. If you agree, then feel free to weight all my votes by a factor of 10 or so. 8-)
Topics #2, #3, & #5.
Questions
1). How do you balance developing new features against fixing existing bugs?
2). What is the reasonable expectation for work hours for developers per week, considering that they can work remotely?
3). What are the best incentives to get developers to do more than is expected of them (other than $$$)?
#3 please
Or anything you want – it’s your book.
Topics #3, #4, #6
Topics: #3, 2, 6
Biggest Question:
We’re a small company with a number of products. Since our leadership has a software mindset, those products are sometimes considered variations of a single product. (Think Apple.. iPhone, iPad… two distinct products, but since they both run iOS… software-centered folks like to think of them as the same). Being the product manager is a ton of work because I need to manage the hardware lifecycle, software versioning, etc. How do I convince the company we need more resources doing product management, because the perspective is ‘well, we already have a product manager at this company’.
2, 3, 6 please. Looking forward to it.
Need your feedback on the forthcoming CrankyPM book – what do you want me to write about? http://t.co/RKzXShxe #productmanagement
3
4
5
Questions:
1) How do we change a culture of product management based on what the CEO or customer asks for to a culture of product management based on what the customer needs (learned through our probing questions, not based on what they tell us initially)?
2) How do we move from an engineering-driven culture (developers code what they want) to a product management-driven culture (developers code what’s in the requirements, but can offer their own suggestions too)?
2) How do we get more respect as product owners/leaders in the org?
Topics #2,4,6
Questions:
* Best ways to construct and socialize a SWAG without being held too closely accountable for it later?
* How to get better at saying no, to stakeholders, developers, and other product managers.
* How to implement product management best practices at a larger organization.
Question 1: Topics #2, 4, 6
Question 2:
– How to manage up your bosses when you’re in a PM role?
– Best software/apps for PMs you have experience with
– If you are new to PM, how to choose your product or what type of companies should you target with respect to their product lines?
– Tips on running meetings where work is actually done and consensus is reached within the time frame.
TOPIC 2. A 30-day plan to become a wicked awesome product manager. day-by-day guide
TOPIC 5. On Agile Product Management
TOPIC 3. You’re the Hub, here’s how to deal with the spokes.
Write In Topic: “Getting to No: How to get your management to agree that your company should focus on a few things and do them well rather than trying to be everything to everyone. Or, how to stop playing ‘color in the Bucky Balls’”
my priorities in this order.
topic 1
topic 2
topic 4
topic 3
topic 6
topic 5
Topics 2, 3, and 4
How do you set expectations when given stiff requirements?
How can I deal with unrealistic time constraints?
How can I tell stakeholders no without being the bad guy?
Topics: 2,3,5
(Cranky) Questions:
1. How do I “undo” the stupid, constraining, myopic mandate that has been given to me and my product from on high?
2. What’s an effective way to call bs on a tech-team that is trying to blow smoke up my roadmap with jargony hand-waiving?
3. When do I know that my hypotheses are “good enough” and when do I need more market data?
Other stuff I’d like to see:
(a) The proper response to hiring managers who prioritize domain experience over skill at the craft.
(b) Suggestions on how to do cross-portfolio projects (where coordinated investment in multiple products is required)
(c) Bonus snarkiness.
Congrats on getting the funding!
I vote for 1, 3, 5
Thanks
2,3,4
+∞ for snark!!
Topics 2, 4 & 3 in that order for me.
Also I always found the immediate pressure’s were given priority & so I used to spend a lot of time scrambling & never doing the things that everyone in the group agreed we should do. A section about this, including the reasons why, how to get around it (including the Cranky PM’s conversation with the director explaining this) would be awesome.
Option 2, 4 & 5
Topics: 3,5,1 in order
Topics 2 or 5
Topic 1 may not be worth the effort. No one reads a book on product management until he/she becomes a product manager. By then, it would be too late.
Though Topic 3 looks interesting, you may not need a book for that. you will learn it on your own. And there is already a book by Dan Condon that talks about this. Not many liked that book.
Topic 4 may set unrealistic expectations. Unless you have a team to review and plenty of time to research and write, you should not take it up.
Topic 6: You should write this book only if you have something of real value. I do not know how moving the career up and down is different from anybody else. Enlighten me if my wrong.
Personally, I want to read about Topic 5.
Stack ranked order = #, #4, #5, #6, #2, #1
Issues important to me are:
How frequently should the roadmap be revised with a full Exec review (annually, quarterly, as needed)
How to harness and leverage product marketing personnel
1. TOPIC 2
2. TOPIC 5
3. TOPIC 6
1. Topics #3, #4, #6 – #3 should include those newfangled User eXperience “DesignGrrls” and “DesignBoyz”
2. My (interrelated) questions are:
What makes a product manager really different from just a senior analyst?
What are some essential innate skills you should have before getting on this path?
What are the skills you need to learn/hone to be successful?
3. THE WORST POWERPOINT SLIDES YOU’VE EVER SEEN (OR GIVEN)
3, 4, 6
Q2&3:
- How do you balance few in-depth customer interviews with the overloud demands of sales (shortsighted) upper management (too visionary, sometimes disconnected) coderz (stability vs. new features) and your own vision?
- Product pricing – as much insight as you can
- How NOT to do a product roadmap presentation
- who to share what roadmap with
2
3
4
#3, 4 and 6
Pleas and thank you :)
You once posted an excellent graphic of a salesdroid’s brain. I loved it because it was just so true! Can you create one of a product manager’s brain? It would include all of the obvious topics like: work on personas, work on pricing, create a roadmap, stack rank everything i want in life, etc
but it would also contain all those other things we like to think about like “how did that sales person/IT guy/etc get a job here?” “how does that sales person/IT guy/etc keep their job?” Product Marketing Managers “I wish I was the PM”. Product Managers “I wish I was the PMM”. People who have to do both “I wish I could retire”
Topic 4 – - Specifically:
a. Effective methods to use to prioritize what you work on and in what order
b. Methods of obtaining market research – - and translating that information info requirements
c. Effective product positioning methods
d. Methods for pricing SaaS software offerings
Q1 – Topics: 6, 3, 4
Q2 – How to balance customer (and/or executive) tactical demands against product strategy?
How to set software product boundaries?
Companies that are good examples?
Q3 – Software product management vs. other product management
I like this one:
TOPIC 2. A 30-day plan to become a wicked awesome product manager. day-by-day guide (if you are new to PM or just in a new job at a new company)
As for numbers 2 & 3: its often hard me to see a corollary between my job as a PM & some of the things that a PM in other companies do, is that a topic that could be explored? Is being a PM for a large enterprise software different than a small start up or a niche off the shelf software? How can we switch in our careers to other PM job expectations in different industries or larger/smaller companies?
For Q1:
Topic 6
Topic 5
Topic 7 – What things can you do without that you’ve been told PM’s own (things that nobody – including you – ever seem to look at after working on it).
As for Q2
My questions are:
1. How much time do we balance working on H3 ideas vs. our own current products?
2. What do you tend to drop first from the list when all competing priorities are ‘must haves’?
3. What 3-5 qualities do you seek out most when looking to groom new talent/promote from within or hire new employees?
Topics (in order of preference):
3, 4 (the real life, down-in-the-trenches side)
& a hybrid of 1 and 6 (how-do-you-purposely(or not)-stumble-into-and-orient-your-PM career side)
Ah yes, from the fantasy to the reality! God guide and bless you sensai on your journey to PM authorship!
This list looks more like a “top-three book ideas” list to me, and here’s the order in which I’d buy them, if they were sitting on a shelf next to each other:
The “4 and 5″ book.
The “3″ book.
The “1, 2, and 6″ book.
#7…measurement. From objectives, to goals, to KPI, to segments, to metrics, to KPI again. Professions like Product Management need this type of pudding proof.
Top three questions, off-the-cuff:
How best should a product manager’s facilitate a pilot/multivariate/beta/rollout?
What should a product manager concentrate creative energy on today to replace the antiquated sell-sheet/booth notion of marcom?
Is product management a centralized discipline lateral to groups in the org, a functional skill set embedded in the org, or an assigned resource of multiple project/program teams?
Thanks William! I often think how to promote PM in my small, but growing company, and your last question hits it on the head. Perhaps in the book (under something broader that covers 3,4 & 5) she could suggest an answer to this. I would venture to say that all models may work depending on the company’s organizational style.
My top three topics would be: 3, 4, 6.
My biggest question would be: “My organisation isn’t willing to let me engage with clients; (apart from leave) how can I gain access to the people who use my product everyday?”
Thank you thank you all you peeplz. The Cranky Product Manager has made tallied up your answers and found that Topic 3 (you’re the hub, deal with the spokes) and Topic 4 (what PMs do all damn day and how to do it better) to be the most popular by far.
So, the book is going to be a combination of those two book concepts.
Each of these topics is a book unto itself. Maybe, if this (first/only) book becomes successful, the Cranky Product Manager will have a chance to write the other ones too…. one day.
Q1:
Topic 3, 4, 5 (in that order of importance)
Q2:
How do I find time to do more value added activities?
How to manage lots of requests with a small budget?
How useful will an MBA be to my career as a product manager?
Q3:
any industry specific information to be an effective product manager, i.e. consumer product vs industrial product
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