The Cranky Product Manager was just thinking back -- oh so nostalgically -- on her MBA years.
Ah yes, what a joy it was to devote herself full-time to the study of BUSINESS.... so different than her undergrad years as an Engineering major at a random institute of technology.
No more studying seven days and nights a week and working endless hours in the lab, all to get a lousy "B" or "C".Nope.
Business School couldn't be more different than Engineering School. Ah yes, the easy A's. The off-da-charts drunken parties, multiple times a week. The hot men who worked out, showered, AND shaved EVERY single day! The random hook-ups with the aforementioned hot men. The four black tie events per year. The exotic vacations "study trips," funded by federally guaranteed student loans, to international locations with hot locals and lots of alcohol in need of the MONSTEROUS brains and awesome business expertise possessed by a gaggle of privileged 28-year-old MBA students.
What a time it was! Those were the days!
The Cranky Product Manager took classes on marketing, finance, accounting, organizational behavior, strategy, operations, statistics, etc. All that standard MBA stuff. Especially the marketing and the strategy. She ate that stuff up.
But in all her time as a drunken and downright slutty full-time MBA student, the Cranky PM never took a SINGLE class on developing products and services. She doesn't even recall such a class being offered. (see footnote)
...which is ODD, when you think about it. After all, EVERY SINGLE BUSINESS IN EXISTENCE sells either a PRODUCT or a SERVICE.
Why would a Top-10 MBA program essentially ignore the CORE of all business?
Perhaps it is because MBA types, including the professors, think of product and service development as being the realm of engineers? Did they think the engineering curriculum was covering it?
Maybe. But if so, what a horrible misjudgement. The Cranky Product Manager's computer engineering education consisted of a lot recursive loops, mathematical proofs, Turing Machines, oscilloscopes, FPGAs, and exhaustingly insane late nights (once stayed up 54 hours straight), trying to get some effing wire properly situated on a breadboard, or debugging a mind-bending multiple inheritance issue in some code written in an arcane/academic language.
The end result was that the Then-Engineer-Future-CrankyPM could probably build a product if someone told her EXACTLY what to build. She learned NOTHING about how you decide WHAT to build, how you determine if it should even be built in the first place, or how you get ideas. And that's probably pretty typical of most Engineering educations.
Aren't these questions absolutely fundamental to any business: how you decide WHAT to build, how you determine if it should even be built in the first place, and how you get ideas???
Footnote: Sure, the Intro to Marketing class touched on the "product", but as only one of The Four P's: product, price, promotion, placement. The Marketing Research class talked a bit about products too, but it wasn't truly central to the class.
by The Cranky Product Manager on June 21, 2010
in Your Career
Ah, Prague. How fondly the Cranky Product Manager remembers you. Such a beautiful city. Such wonderful espresso. Such fantastic Czech beer. Plus amazing architecture. *sigh*
And even better, Prague is where the Cranky Product Manager first learned the wicked awesome English word defenestration, as in "the defenestration of hotshot engineers is tempting for most product managers, but ultimately not advised."
Anyway, because Prague is so freakin' cool, the Cranky Product Manager is going to do something she's never done before: a job posting.
Don MacLennan, esteemed member of the Crankerati and frequent cranky commenter, happens to be the Sr. VP of Product Management at AVG. AVG is a purveyor of antivirus and security software with an interesting freemium business model.
Dan is hiring for two roles IN PRAGUE (or maybe Brno, CZ) that would report to him: a Director of Product Management and a Product Strategy Analyst.
You don't have to speak Czech, but you must be fluent in English, written and verbal. There are no citizenship requirements, as relocation and visa sponsorship are available.
The Cranky Product Manager emailed Don several tough questions about the nature of the Director position, as she believes that many companies don't fundamentally understand what product management is. Either that, or they set product management up for failure.
Well, she liked Don's answers -- he "gets" product management and his answers did not raise any red flags. She can't promise these positions will be All That And More, but at least it's a good start.
So, if you're a go-getter and a rock-star level product management pro, and you want to join a growing and thriving company IN PRAGUE, check it out. The Cranky Product Manager would apply herself if family circumstances allowed. Did she mention the positions were in PRAGUE and you don't have to be an EU citizen?
And for the record, the Cranky Product Manager does not know Don personally and she has no relationship whatsoever with AVG. She's received no compensation or benefits of any kind for making this post. These just sounded like a really cool jobs and she wanted to let you know about them. And it seems that Dan could be a cool (although potentially cranky-in-a-good-way) boss -- after all, he is a frequent reader of this blog.
Readers, do you DETEST or LOVE the CPM using this blog to profile cool-sounding PM jobs? Big mistake? Should she ever do it again? Please answer in the comments? Thanks!
Next post will be "No Excuses Product Management #3 - Do Your Freakin' Product Strategy Already!" Promise.
Just wanted to clarify the Cranky Product Manager's previous post on training.
The Cranky Product Manager is NOT against training for product managers. Not at all.
In fact, she HEARTS training, and any effort product professionals make to improve their skills and knowledge. There are some really great classes out there! (see note 1)
It's the PASSIVE nature of the 'sit-back-and-train-me' attitude that drives the Cranky Product Manager bonkers. Especially when used as an excuse for not getting the job done.
The Cranky Product Manager says this as someone who has supervised a fair number of product managers: if you want to use 'lack of training' as an excuse, your performance review had better NOT be the first time your boss hears about your training needs.
Instead, you should have been making the business case for training as soon as you concluded your skill gaps were getting in the way.
Now, here's the Cranky Product Manager's recipe for "Convincing your boss to give you training." It works. Really. Well a lot of the time (probably not in early-stage startups).
1. Make a 30 minute appointment with your boss.
2. Go into this 30 minute appointment with a half-page, bulleted printed handout that he/she can review. This handout should make the case for getting you trained and give your boss several options to consider.
3. If you're stuck, structure your doc according to a classic "Situation, Complication, Recommendation" outline.
Situation:
- The specific skills you already have
- Where you would like to be, and why your boss should agree that this is a good goal for you. (maybe refer to a previous performance review)
Complication:
- The gap between your current skills and where you want to be
- If you were to remedy this gap, how would the company benefit? What's in it for your boss? In which release would your boss's life improve, due to your improved skills?
Recommendations:
- List a few different options for closing the skill gap (bosses love to pick from different options). For each, list the pros/cons, the cost, and the time frame.
- The Cranky PM recommends that you suggest at least one option that involves no budget but instead involves time.
- For example, your boss could tutor you in this specific skill and meet with you once or twice a week. In proposing this option, you should be very specific about how often you'd want to meet and what you would need from the boss (without seeming too needy). Example: (provide face-to-face feedback on the latest version of my product strategy document once a week, help me brainstorm how to segment the market, give me a lollipop and a "you're a SUPERSTAR" sticker at the end, etc).
- Note that the bigger the time commitment needed for your "free" option, the more likely your boss is to pick another option.
- Make sure you highlight which option YOU recommend and why.
- Acknowledge that there are several constraints at play: budget, release schedules, who will pick up the slack while you sit in training, etc. Explain how you will minimize these impacts.
4. Go over the handout in the meeting. Get your boss nodding "yes" as you mention each point. Hopefully that yes-nodding will get her/his neck limbered up, and s/he will also agree to one of your training options.
5. If your boss immediately picks an option, great. Go back to your desk, write an email to the boss saying something "Thanks for meeting with me today. We agreed that I should sign up for training class X." Then go sign up. Hurry. (But pray there is a decent cancellation policy if your boss is one of those people who changes his/her mind every 3 minutes).
If your boss wants more time to think about it, do NOT leave the meeting without nailing down a time frame for a decision. Immediately set a meeting for follow-up.
6. Remember, NO WHINING! No "you owe me." Keep focused on the benefits of your training to YOUR BOSS and the company.
7. If the boss says "no," be mature about it. Try to understand why. Then go educate yourself as directed in the previous post, using all the resources of the online PM community. And then, in a few months, try again.
Now, you might worry that all this would be pestering and annoying to your boss. That's a valid worry. But more likely is that your boss would be 20% annoyed (because now s/he has to make a decision and maybe spend some money) and 80% patting him/herself on the back for hiring such a high-potential, results-focused product manager. Because the way you approach the training issue shows how you would also approach the rest of your job.
Note 1: The Cranky Product has partaken of many training opportunities (a self-funded MBA, Product Camps, UC Extension, Pragmatic Marketing), but her employers never paid. Apparently, she did not master the above-described technique until too late in her career, when she became the boss and found herself on the receiving end.
In this post, The Cranky Product Manager continues her vendetta against all those sniveling product managers who trot out pathetic excuses for NOT DOING THEIR FREAKIN' JOBS.
This is Part 2 of here NO EXCUSES PRODUCT MANAGEMENT series. Enjoy Part 1 here. There will be at least parts 3 and 4 (and who knows, maybe there will be more).
LAME-ASS PRODUCT MANAGEMENT EXCUSE #2: "I never received training on how to do that."
Ah, young product manager, do you think you are in Sales or Customer Support or something? Training? For Product Managers? Surely, you must be drunk. Part of your job is to CREATE and GIVE training to everyone else at the company, and yet you somehow have the temerity to expect to get some for yourself?
OK, seriously. The Cranky Product Manager sympathizes, but just a little. After all, she never had an ounce of employer-sponsored PM training bestowed upon her until, well, never. (On second thought, the Cranky Product Manager has absolutely no sympathy for you at all.)
Your passive "sit-back-and-train-me" attitude, especially when used as a responsibility dodge, makes the Cranky Product Manager want to slap you fire you. WTF?!? You're a product manager for Dog's sake! Your CORE INSTINCT is supposed to be identifying what's needed and where the gaps are, and then figuring out a way -- if necessary, a CREATIVE way -- to eliminate the gaps.
So if your PM skills are lacking, then figure out WHAT training you need and WHY (see Note 1). Then make the business case to your boss - just as you would for building a new product or a new feature!
And if your boss says "no budget", well, show some initiative and EDUCATE YOURSELF. Go to Product Camps. Read blogs and articles. Ask questions of people and LinkedIn. Watch online webinars or some of the free online courses. Join a local product management association that hosts monthly speakers. Read some books. NO EXCUSES! All this stuff is FREE or a complete bargain.
(Yes, the Cranky Product Manager realizes that she should not be yelling at you, an Esteemed Member of the Crankerati. The fact that you are even reading this post means that you probably read other more educational PM blogs and have taken charge of your own professional development. Please forgive the Cranky PM for lashing out.)
To wrap up, let's address a potential hole in the Cranky Product Manager's logic that you may have spotted: namely, her argument that if you lack Product Management skills, well you should use your Product Management skills to get some training or train yourself. Seems a bit circular, but only if you believe that determination, taking initiative, and resourcefulness are "skills" that can be taught in a training class. Au contraire, the Cranky Product Manager believes these are personality traits that can't be taught to a fully formed adult without psychotherapy or a religious experience.
Now, repeat after me: NO EXCUSES!
NOTE 1: If you don't know where to get training, check the comments on this post. The Cranky Product Manager expects that many of the product management training vendors will post something.
But vendors, listen up! Don't abuse the Cranky Product Manager's comment section, or she'll delete your ass.
First, your training company may post exactly ONE "pitch" comment, with exactly ONE link.
Second, if the comments section (or the Cranky PM's email/Twitter accounts) turns into a bad-mouthing or whining fest, akin to the local junior high school scene, the Cranky Product Manager will shut the whole thing down. Promise.
by The Cranky Product Manager on February 25, 2009
in Your Career
These days, lots of people arrive here with Google searches like "how to find a new product management position."
Not surprising. So many of us have gotten the axe recently.
SO, darling and esteemed Crankerati, the Cranky Product Manager asks you to help:
What/who are the best resources for people looking for PM jobs? - Please leave your "Most Helpful Job Search Resources for PMs/PMMs" in the comments.
Please share your favorite resources.
Especially if you are a hiring manager - where do you look for candidates?
Below are a few resources that come to mind - services and recruiters that the Cranky Product Manager has encountered or used (as a satisfied user and nothing more - no kickbacks or $$ or anything involved)
Online Job Search Resources
Recruiters / Headhunters that focus on product management and product marketing jobs
PM Training on the cheap ( as in FREE)
Related Posts:
Paco continues his guest post arc on the plight of the unemployed product manager (see parts 1, 2, and 3). Give him some love and a job already!
Guest Post: A Short Guide to Being an Unemployed Product Manager, Part Four
Ahh, the final installment. Time to wrap this puppy up. Sadly, I can't really afford a puppy right now, so I'll probably have it euthanized, but hey, let's not dwell on the negatives.
OK, let's dwell on one:
Why Big Career Switches Suck Right Now
OK, I've tried this. When I first got laid-off, I studied and got certified in another field. Yeah, I'm being ambiguous cuz I'm trying to remain anonymous - duh. Suffice it to say the training classes and cert exam weren't cheap, and I rocked the cert. And it's for a field that's constantly hiring, even now.
After applying for job after job in that new field for a couple months, I decided to just focus on PM and related work.
Why? Because NOBODY in the new field wanted to hire someone without experience when there's a ton of people with experience who are also looking for work.
So before you decide to change fields completely, try to find out if you'll actually find work in it with no experience. If it's a field where they're still hiring lots of people straight out of school, great. Otherwise, you might just be wasting your time.
Last Bit of Advice
Well, if none of the advice in these installments works out for you, the FBI is currently on a hiring blitz. They're looking to hire around 800+ special agents, and computer skills definitely help. Plus, you may finally get the opportunity to pistol-whip somebody as part of your daily job. And what PM hasn't wanted to do that?
Or if you've always wanted to travel to the Middle East and you want to get back into shape without joining a gym, the Marines would kill two birds with one stone. I think they also teach you how to do that, literally.
Oh, and a have a homebrew.
Just sayin'...
P.S. If any of you lovely, intelligent, and oh-so-generous readers is looking for a salty PM in the Twin Cities area, feel free to contact me at
sometimespaco-social@yahoo.com :)
The Cranky Sales Engineer has been reading Paco's musings on moving into sales with some interest. Having been laid off four times, and having made the transition between marketing and sales and back and back again, and having been a manager of sales engineers, he offers the following suggestions:
Numbers, Numbers, Numbers—The Cranky Sales Engineer is not interested in generic tasks that stink of pointless meetings. The Cranky Sales Engineer is impressed by numbers. A resume entry that says, "Led a cross-functional team responsible for..." is headed for the trash. A resume that says, "Grew product from $5M to $15M in revenue in 5-years" will get an interview.
Customers, Customers, Customers—The field is not interested in your ability to run a meeting or set a direction. The field is interested in your ability to please a customer. The Cranky Sales Engineer and his cohorts view customer satisfaction as the most important thing in the world. Specific entries on satisfying specific customers are key. "Conducted a customer satisfaction survey" is bad. "Increased customer satisfaction from 50% to 90% at Big-Company through a user council meeting" is good.
Sales, Sales, Sales—The Cranky Sales Engineer has reservations about misrepresenting one's title on a resume. In the CSE's organization, such a deception will get the applicant a quick visit to the exit. That said, highlighting one's sales experience in explicit terms is good. If you were part of a $10M deal, say, "Worked with field to drive closure of a $10M deal" or better yet, "Instrumental in closing $10M deal at Big-Company" or better yet, "Instrumental in driving $12M in business in 2008."
The Cranky Sales Engineer's parting advice: "Numbers talk, bullshit walks." Find out the real numbers behind the value you created. If you don't have any real numbers this time, make sure you have them for the next time.
Paco continues his guest post arc (see part 1 and part 2),
allowing the Cranky Product Manager to enjoy some time with her kid. Thanks!
Guest Post: A Short Guide to Being an Unemployed PM, Part Three
Last time, I waxed poetic (I'm being generous) about learning to drink dirt once the Product Management well runs dry. Some of you may already have looked-up many dirt-based mixers to add to your little bartending book. OOOoh - that's another good transitional career for PMs!
But once you've made the switch, how do you make it seem like you're not a total newbie?
Convincing Others You've Drank Dirt for Years
Prepare to have umpteen versions of your resume. Why? Because no measly HR schmuck or IT recruiter is going to read "Product Manager" and equate that with all the other roles you could fill.
No, when one of these dips is tasked to fill a position for "Senior Monkey Trainer", they look for those exact words on every resume. So if you apply and your resume shows your previous title as "Tarzan Lord of the Jungle", it's not going to click in their tiny wind-up brains and you will go on the reject pile. Even worse, you may have to apply through one of those utterly horrible online job applications - they're scanning for keywords, and job title will be one of them.
And don't try explaining in your cover letter that "a PM fills the same responsibilities as X/Y/Z roles". Been there, tried that, doesn't work. Again, their tiny wind-up brains can't handle such wildly abstract explanations. There's a reason why your high school guidance counselor could only get a job as a high school guidance counselor. Same reason why these schmucks could only get a job as HR recruiters.
So what to do?
Simple. Replace your "Product Management" title with the title you're applying for. Really. Of course, this assumes that you've actually filled the responsibilities for that role - then it's just semantics that your past employers gave you one title while this prospective employer will give you another. The point is, you've done the work before, and that's what "experience" is about - what you did, not what your title was.
This also means cutting out all the stuff that obviously doesn't apply to the new position. Otherwise, they'll think it's odd that a Sales Engineer was responsible for updating the quarterly roadmap, etc.
Is this deceptive? No. Again, it's getting over the hurdle that is the recruiter's tiny brain. When you get an interview with the actual hiring manager, be forthright about what your previous PM roles were and how they match what they're looking for. Fact is, the hiring manager has probably heard of Product Management and will understand it more.
OK, I'm sure some of you are calling BS on this tactic, thinking that it's lying about your past experience. If it makes you feel better, I actually use a "slash" title - "Product Manager / Pre-Sales" or "Product Manager / Business Analyst". This gets me by the keyword scanners, and it even clicks with tiny-brained recruiters. Plus, it doesn't make me feel dirty, like I'm turning my back on my one masochistic true love - Product Management. Oh, it hurts me so...
That brings us to the end of this installment - I have to get back to spinning my resume into myriad mythical forms. I don't know about you, but I think my experience manning trade show booths makes me more than qualified to be a seal trainer at the zoo. Bucket of fish, bucket of tchockes - both are good at getting an audience to slap their fins together. What's your take? How far would you feel comfortable "rebranding" yourself to find work? In the next installment, we reach the end and I reveal my best advice to date.
