My talk to Product Managers at SAP Labs

1. BUILDING A
PRODUCTS
CAREER
Tathagat Varma
Country Head, Chinasoft India

2. CONTEXT
vProduct Development is complex, and the New Product
Development (NPD) is extremely risky.
vToday’s products have evolved far beyond basic functional or
utilitarian value. They must additionally focus on enhancing overall
user experience.
vWe often need diverse capabilities such as engineering, design,
customer support, pre-sales and solutioning, marketing, channel
sales, pricing strategy, manufacturing, etc.
vNo one team can deliver all such diverse capabilities! They often
have their different (and competing!) charters, goals, priorities,
timelines, ways of working, deliverables, etc.
vWe need a function, or a role to “coordinate” them all! Someone who
can bring and maintain the “Customer” or the “User” as the central
theme and orchestrate such diverse functions towards that common
goal…

3. WELCOME TO PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT!
https://help.prodpad.com/hc/en-us/article_attachments/201298417/productmanagement.png

4. EVOLUTION OF PM
Factor Then Now
Business Relatively long business cycles, Low
competition, Longevity, Protections
Volatile business cycles, Intense
competition, Ephemeral, Open
Tech Largely stable tech Mostly evolving tech
R&D Mostly large R&D / Capex / IP /
First World
Mostly frugal / Opex / Open
Source / Global & Distributed
User Relatively consistent / basic user
needs
Highly fragmented and constantly
evolving user wants
Market Long market windows in largely
proven markets (MRDs ~3-5 years)
Short market windows in new
markets (where is the MRD?)
Product Long gestation cycle (1-3 years),
Global products
Short gestation cycles (1-3 quarters),
Local products
Focus Focus was mostly tech Largely Product + UX + Design
Specs Market-research / Monolithic PRDs Hypotheses-validation / Dynamic
product backlogs
Dev Forecast driven / Predictive Feedback driven / Adaptive
Talent Techies grew into PMs Growing trend of hiring PMs

5. PM STATS…
Execs didn’t
understand
PM!
No PM role,
or not well
defined
75%
48%
PMs
undergone
training
2%

9. PRODUCT OWNER,
PRODUCT MANAGER OR
PRODUCT LEADER?
These roles represent different and increasing levels of impact of
the product management function from being highly development-
centric and execution-led to being customer-facing and extremely
strategic.
vProduct Owner: A role specific to Scrum, and somewhat used
generically in agile, responsible for guiding the development team
on “what” needs to be delivered in the next release, and more
tactically guiding the contents of the next upcoming sprint.
vProduct Manager: A role required to be more market-facing and
often responsible for responsibilities such as go to market, pricing,
etc.
vProduct Leader: We shall explore further in this talk…

10. PRODUCT OWNER

12. WHAT DO PMS DO?

13. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

14. WHAT DO PMS DON’T DO!
They don’t sell
They don’t do design
They don’t write code
They don’t launch products
They don’t create marketing campaigns
They don’t support customers
They don’t fix bugs
They don’t do siteops
…
…but…knowing and doing it doesn’t hurt!

15. IT’S A RATHER YOUNG
DISCIPLINE!

16. WHAT DID THEY DO
BEFORE?

17. TO CODE OR NOT TO
CODE?

18. USE DATA?

19. HOW DO THEY GET
IDEAS?

20. HOW DO THEY LEARN
BEST PRACTICES?

21. HOW THEY SPEND THEIR
TIME?

22. MEETING WITH INTERNAL
STAKEHOLDERS

23. TALKING TO CUSTOMERS

24. NAVIGATING INTERNAL
POLITICS

25. CRAFTING THE PRODUCT
ROADMAP

26. RUNNING PRODUCT
EXPERIMENTS

27. WRITING USER STORIES

28. KEEP UP WITH BEST
PRACTICES

29. CROSS-FUNCTIONAL
CAPABILITIES

30. MARKET RESEARCH
TEAM OR VENDOR

31. DESIGN TEAM OR
VENDOR

32. ENGINEERING TEAM OR
VENDOR

33. INNOVATION DEPARTMENT
OR VENDOR

34. PM VS PL

40. SO, WHO IS A PRODUCT
LEADER?
vVisionary: They need to be very creative and imaginative, and
imagine a future that others can’t see yet.
vBusiness: They have a great understanding of the overall
business context in which the product needs to be positioned.
vCustomer: They have deep understanding of the user behavior
and the gap between existing options.
vTechnical: They don’t need to be “technical” par se, but surely
understand technology and technical aspects of the product.
vInfluence: They have a great ability to influence without authority
and create a higher impact.

41. PRODUCT LEADER
PROFILE

42. CRITICAL SUCCESS
FACTORS?
vPassion for the product
vBroad functional knowledge and organizational understanding
vA strong product point of view and the willingness to say “No”
vGeneral understanding of technology
vAbility to pick and lead great talent

43. SO, HOW CAN I GET
THERE?

44. DO YOUR JOB DEVELOP
PASSION

45. DEVELOP A FIXED MEDICI
MINDSET
“T”

46. T-SHAPED PM
Core
PM
Skills
Market
Research UX Engineering
Business
Analysis
Finance &
Pricing
…
Tech Competition

47. FIND OPPORTUNITIES
SOLVE MESSY PROBLEMS

48. WAIT FOR ORDERS TAKE
INITIATIVE

49. THINK CONSERVATIVE
CREATIVE

50. START WRITING

51. BE A EXPERT CRITIC
COACH MAKER
http://www.sloma.org/images/makers2014.png

52. LEARN BY DOING
EXPERIMENTING SHIPPING

53. AVOID MITIGATE ACCEPT
EMBRACE FAILURES

54. BE A SCRIBE NEWSCASTER
STORYTELLER

55. WORK HARD SMART
HARD REALLY HARD!

56. INFLUENCE WITH
WITHOUT AUTHORITY

57. MANAGE CONTROL
TRUST THE TEAM

58. FEAR ENJOY THE RIDE!

59. RECAP
vProduct Manager is an orchestration role. Be a
leader, not a boss!
vWhile expertize of various functions is not really
required, knowledge of them could be handy
vThe “top” for a product leader is making the dent
in the universe!
vYou surely need to know PM skills
vMore importantly, a product mindset is a must!

60. REFERENCES
vProduct Leadership – Richard Banfield, Martin Eriksson & Nate Walkingshaw
vhttp://www.businessinsider.com/what-makes-a-great-product-leader-repost-2010-4?IR=T
vhttps://techproductmanagement.com/what-it-takes-to-be-a-great-product-leader-the-four-pillars/
vhttps://techproductmanagement.com/are-you-a-business-savvy-product-manager/
vhttps://blog.pendo.io/2017/03/23/rise-product-leadership/
vhttps://miscmagazine.com/understanding-product-leadership/
vhttps://medium.com/pminsider/what-does-it-take-to-rise-from-product-manager-to-product-leader-
67e0b953bd65
vhttps://community.uservoice.com/blog/product-leader-traits/
vAnatomy of a Product Leader - Spencer Stuart
v2017 PM Insights – Alpha Research
vhttps://www.quora.com/What-distinguishes-the-Top-1-of-product-managers-from-the-Top-10
vhttps://www.slideshare.net/Managewell/hacking-your-way-to-the-top-essential-skills-for-product-
leaders