Conceptual Clarity

It's a question that I'm often asked and I'm not sure that I've ever been able to give a really good answer.  The short answer is to say that the product manager is the person who is responsible for making a product marketable.  That doesn't just mean that a PM should fill a product full of flashy features the marketing department can leverage.  It means that the PM is the person responsible for making sure that the product being created can be sold to the market.  The need to work with the engineering team, the sales team, the marketing team, the CEO and just about everyone else in the company.  More importantly they need to be able to work with that most important group outside of the company - the clients.  It's their job to be in the clients' heads and to be the clients' advocate within an organization.

Actually, on second thoughts that definition doesn't sound half bad.  The step that I'm more likely to stumble on is the next question, which is almost invariably, "so what does the product manager actually do?"  For that answer I'm usually somewhat more glib and say something like "anything and everything" or "whatever's required".  However, with some new PMs coming on board at Ephox I feel compelled to work on developing a better definition.

I've been browsing around a bit today and so far I've come up with the excellent article on Ken Norton's blog entitled How to Hire a Product Manager (not that I'm encouraging anyone to start looking for my replacement).  Ken has done a nice job of summing up some of my experiences from product management and I think that this article serves as a good starting point for anyone looking for some insight on the questions about what a product manager actually does.  I can't point to one single thing that is more important than another in Ken's post so I guess my best advice is to get across them all if you're wanting to get into product management.  

In addition to the skills needed to get the job and the skills mentioned in Ken's post, I would like to add some of my own:

• Know your customers - This is an obvious one, but something I always like to remind myself of.  Over the years I've had the opportunity to meet quite a few of Ephox's clients in person and spoken to many hundreds more on the phone.  I'm still amazed at some of the insights that can be gotten when you take the time to sit down and talk with people.  There have been many ideas that ended up on the cutting room floor after a few in depth conversations and others that have been picked off the bottom of a pile of papers and implemented because it's more useful than anyone might think.  Above all things, remember that you are the voice of the customers in the development process.
• Know your customers (Part II) - There are some customers out there who will understand your product almost as well as you do, if not better - know these people.  They are some of the best people to field test new functionality with.  The good news is that these people usually aren't hard to find, they're the ones coming through with all the support requests.  If you don't know who those people are then go over and talk to the people in support because they'll know.
• Be your product's biggest fan - That might sound immodest but if you don't like it then no one else will.  If you don't believe in the things your product can do and the pain points it can address then you might as well give up now.  Yes, your product will have its flaws, they all do and you need to know them, but don't forget about the strengths, you'll need to know those too when it comes to talking with sales and marketing.

Finally, as someone who hopes he never stops learning, I would be interested in hearing from anyone else as to what they think is important for a product manager.  You'll find the comments field below…I'd love for you to use it.

It's been a while since I last wrote a post, in fact it's been almost two months.  However, despite the lack of posts things have been quite busy for me and, unfortunately, I just haven't managed to blog recently, despite having the intention to.  So this morning I promised I'd write a post and here it is.

I'm going to try and get back to posting every couple of days with something interesting, but before I get into that, here's a run down on what's been happening.

Role Changes

• The biggest news is that I'm no longer the EditLive! Product Manager, that title now goes to Rob (and he's doing a great job so far).  I am still at Ephox and I am still a product manager, only the products have changed.  I am now heading up our efforts with both IBM and a new initiative called E2.0.  For now I'm going to let that remain a mysterious code-word but you can be certain that there will be some more blog posts about that shortly.
• I'm also no longer in charge of non-IBM integrations with EditLive!.  That job now goes to Adrian.  This is an area where my attention was often lacking and I think that Adrian is going to do an excellent job.

Travel News

• I spent most of April in the USA talking with clients and attending conferences and came home with a suitcase full of shopping, great feedback on E2.0 and some interesting experiences in capital raising.  This time I was in the Bay Area for the whole time which made a nice change from my usually hectic travel schedules.
• I visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium whilst there and I must say it was amazing.  If you're ever in the Bay Area and can take the drive from San Francisco down to Monterey then I highly recommend visiting.  A few tips though:
  • Visit during the week, it was incredibly crowded on the weekend
  • Don't go when it's raining

Business News

• I've spent some time recently helping out a few friends with some business ideas.  Now, I know from meeting a lot of people in "The Valley" that I'm no business guru, but I do like to help where I can.  This has really opened my eyes to a few things and I hope to have some interesting posts about that in the coming week or two.
• I attended the Web 2.0 Expo whilst in San Francisco and was a little awed at the level of attention various technologies were getting.  I was excited by some of the demonstrations I saw, while many others had me wondering if another bubble was emerging - I guess time will tell.
• After talking with clients and with many a representative of Enterprise 2.0 startups I was amazed at the growing dichotomy in business software between traditional and cautious approaches to business software and new, innovative and consumerized approaches. Both approaches certainly have benefits and both approaches have often vocal proponents and opponents.  We are certainly living in interesting times and I'm going to be very interested to see what level of success Enterprise 2.0 startups (Ephox included) are going to have amongst the traditional enterprise customers and vendors.  Whatever happens I'm more convinced than ever that it's going to be a fun ride for the next few years and I'm glad that I'm on board.

School News

• Finally I am back at university, taking a business law subject to get that much closer to finishing my MBA.  I've only had one class so far, but it appears that Australia's legal framework may not be quite as dry as I once thought.  Certainly having an interesting lecturer helps on that front so a heads up to Gavin Nicholson (unfortunately I couldn't find if Gavin has a blog, so I've just linked to his QUT staff profile).