You “regular” people will probably never understand this, but it is TOUGH TOUGH TOUGH being a fictional product management celebrity. (Please, cry for me, Argentina.)
For one, the paparazzi never leave you alone.
Second, you never get any ”real-world” Web-2.0 cred – even at a time when everyone else is vomiting ”social media brand-building” all over their resumes. Well, guess who has more social media cred than 95% of you? THE CRANKY PRODUCT MANAGER, THAT’S WHO. But does the Cranky PM get to brag about such things on her “real world” resume, and maybe angle for a better paying job (or at least keep the one she has)? HELL NO. In this respect, the CPM’s “real world” resume looks like a 60-year-old grandma’s (see note 1).
Third drawback? Well, every now and then, an attention-whoring, self-promoting, link-baiting JACKASS has the AUDACITY to call you FICTIONAL!
GAH! How DARE he? That JACKASS!
But then the CPM is like, “Well, DUH, of COURSE I’m fictional!”
But CRIPES it ticks her off, especially when he further posits that the CPM is a project of a commercial firm, written by someone who is familiar with product management but never had the role, and that the author is just making shit up in her posts.
So the CPM debated the issue with herself:
CHOICE #1: Bitch about it on Twitter for 60 seconds and then move on. Reasons for:
- Attempting to “prove” the CPM’s legitimacy might compromise her real-world identity.
- What this Jackass wants – DESPERATELY, more than ANYTHING — is for the Cranky PM to send her 5000+ regular readers to his site. all so the Jackass can attempt to convince them to buy training from HIM. (not gonna happen…)
- Tom Grant already defended the Cranky Product Manager’s honor on her behalf. Why beat a dead horse?
CHOICE #2: Defend self & take The Jackass to task. Reasons for:
- The Cranky Product Manager rarely backs away from a fight, especially when her FAMILY NAME is besmirched so scandalously. She has the scars from many a middle-school scuffle to prove it.
- The Cranky Product Manager is extremely flawed, prideful, and dumb. Emphasis on dumb.
Hmm…. Well, Choice #1 seems to be the most rational, thoughtful choice. But the CPM has been dealing all day with a whining toddler who has apparently forgotten everything about using the potty. She is on her last nerve and therefore she unwisely picks Choice #2.
SO, FOR THE RECORD, the following is THE TRUTH:
- The Cranky Product Manager is written by an INDIVIDUAL, with occasional guest posters and the help of a “Cranky Sales Engineer” friend. All guest posts are clearly labeled. The Cranky Product Manager is NOT the project of a commercial firm or product management organization. The Cranky PM only WISHES she was actually paid to blog or had regular help to keep this schtick up. (Hear that, Pragmatic /Sequent /ZigZag /Pivotal /Enthiosys /PDMA /280 Group /Rally /AIPMM /Blackbot – and yes, you, Aass University? BUY ME! The CPM will gladly entertain any reasonable offer. She is a capitalist, after all.)
- As is abundantly apparent to every reader EXCEPT The Jackass, the Cranky Product Manager’s author is a REAL product manager at and has been for <insert number between 5 and 15> years at <insert number greater than two> software vendors and online services.
- Regarding the story The Jackass claims “didn’t happen,” and thus cites as “proof” that the CPM is not a real product manager….well, SORRY, Jackass, but it DID happen. Not to the Cranky Product Manager personally, as is the case with 75% of the stories in this blog (seriously, the CPM would have a seriously sucky real-world life if all this crap really happened to one person), but to a <former/current> co-worker who is indeed a product manager.
The Jackass claims any PM would be fired if s/he called sales people to develop a product forecast. OK… well, maybe if the product manager was enslaved at one of those dreary companies with which The Jackass is familiar, where the primary (sole?) function of the so-called Product Manager is ”keeper of the tick-list.” The Cranky Product Manager can’t comment on that type of company because she has never — and would never – work at a place with such an profoundly limited view of the product management role; her jobs have always had more of a “Product Leader” (both tactical and strategic), “Voice of the Market,” and ”Buck Stops Here” emphasis.
But even at that dismal type of company, the PM would NOT be fired if the CEO ordered her to call individual sales reps to build a forecast. Seriously, Jackass, did you even READ the post?
The Cranky Product Manager has to say, she is really dismayed by The Jackass’s small-minded view of product management, especially given his own history in the PM trenches. Thank Cheezus she never worked for or with him. Keeper of the Tick-list! GAH! The CPM thought we left that limited definition behind over 10 years ago.
That The Jackass is out there proselytizing this outmoded view… well it makes the CPM sad. Very sad. Because he might be undoing the good work others (including the PM training firms that The Jackass disparages) have done educate senior executives and to show how the product management role can operate at its finest. And, frankly, it’s an insult to PMs everywhere for him to present the 5% of the job that is the most boring and trivial as the whole picture of the product management profession.
But, gentle readers, it might surprise you that the Cranky PM agrees with the Jackass on one main point: if the PM function reports into you, if you think product management’s main job is maintaining the tick-list, and if you simply cannot be convinced otherwise, well then the Cranky Product Manager URGES you to do what the Jackass recommends. Automate away the PM role with some kind of feature voting tool.
Why? Because the CPM does not want to WASTE HER TIME applying for your so-called “product management” job. She’d rather focus her energy on companies that want someone to research customer problems, to be the voice of the MARKET (and not just current customers), to develop visions and road maps for the product’s future, to develop business cases and product strategies, to shepherd new products from concept to reality, and to properly position products and successfully launch them. And she will then KICK YOUR PRODUCT’S ASS since you ignored all those activities, concentrating on “feature votes” from current customers instead of focusing on the MARKET problems and solutions that land the customers you don’t yet have, and thus providing the only real avenue for growth.
‘Nuff said. Now excuse the Cranky Product Manager while she gets back to getting a fictional pedicure while sipping a fictional margarita on a fictional tropical beach.
(Oh, and thanks to Tom Grant for chivalrously defending the Cranky Product Manager’s honor.)
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Note 1: For those of you who suggest that the Cranky PM’s real world author establish her own independent social media presence…. well, she tried that. Let’s just say it is the road to madness and to getting caught. If you are a highly distractible and semi-careless individual like the Cranky PM, you will — without a doubt — tweet/email/blog/update from the wrong account. Trust her. She’s done it, a few times. How the Cranky Product Manager’s true identity continues to remain a secret is a miracle.
