SpringOne 2020 What Makes a Great Product Manager Michael Gresham, Sr. Product Manager at VMWare Jennifer Handler, Services Strategy & Product Management Lead at VMware Adrien Hensley, Agile Transformation Coach at The Boeing Company Kenneth McDougall, Director of Product at Kessel Run

1. What Makes a
Great Product Manager?
Jen Handler (VMware) with:
Ken McDougall (Kessel Run)
Adrien Hensley (The Boeing Company)
Mike Gresham (VMware)

2. 2
What brings you here?
● I want to learn more about Product Management
● I might want to be a Product Manager
● I am a Product Manager, and want to hear your perspective
● I think I might need a Product Manager
● I want to create an environment for Product Managers to
succeed

3. 3
What we’ll cover today
● What is Product Management?
● What do Product Managers do?
● What are the qualities of great product managers?
● Where can you find them?
● How can you support them?
● Q&A

4. 4
About us
Jen Handler
VMware
15+ years
Ken McDougall
Kessel Run
8 years
Adrien Hensley
The Boeing Company
9.5 years
Mike Gresham
VMware
7 years

5. 5
What is Product Management?
What do Product Managers do?
Art credit: Bart Laugs, from Noun Project

6. 6
Product Management is...
The practice of leading teams
to discover and deliver products
that create meaningful value
for their users and company

7. 7
Will it be useful, usable
and even desirable?
What’s the leanest way
to build it?
Will it be valuable for the
business?
That’s a hot
product!
Product Managers think
about this
ALL THE TIME
(Design)(Development)

8. 8
Product Managers facilitate decision making
in service of shipping successful features

9. 9
Will it be useful, usable
and even desirable?
What’s the leanest way
to build it?
Will it be valuable for the
business?
That’s a hot
product!
Product Managers think
about this
ALL THE TIMEDiverse perspectives
make this happen
(Design)(Development)

10. 10
This means…
● Knowing the result/outcome you’re after
● Identifying good leading indicators
● Framing every feature as a new opportunity for value
● Shipping as early as value is available
● Measuring progress
Product Managers try to get value for the business,
ASAP

11. 11
“If I ran out of money today,
would there be value?”
Product Managers are ruthless prioritizers
Art credit: Pelin Kahraman, from Noun Project

12. 12
● Find the assumptions
● Attack the riskiest ones
● Experiment
● Learn
● Repeat
Product Managers love de-risking value

13. 13
Product Managers keep work and outcomes tied
together
Vision
The WHAT and WHY
Strategy
HOW we will REALIZE the vision
Roadmap
TIMELINE and TACTICS for how
we intend to execute the strategy
Backlog
The DETAILS we need to create
the product
More changeLess change
Art credits: (Vision) Nook Fulloption, (Strategy)
Ibrandify, (Roadmap) Davo Sime, (Backlog)
Sharon Showalter, from Noun Project

14. 14
Orienting toward outcomes
Ruthless prioritization
De-risking product
Absorbing + adapting to change
Sustainable pace for the team
Awesome product
+

15. 15
What are some qualities of
great product managers?
Art credit: myiconfinder, from Noun Projectc

16. 16
People who are…
● Passionate about solving big problems
● Understand the value of outcomes over outputs
● Obsessed with metrics + measurement, as well as
learning + improvement
● Good decision makers, who are also good at
making decisions easy for others
● Strong at motivating & engaging diverse teams
● Adaptable to change, and able to lead their team
and stakeholders through it (Maybe known as
change agents)
● Known networkers who invest in relationships
● Opinionated, but humble
Things to look for...
Art credit: Iconathon, US, from Noun Project

17. 17
People who are…
● Driven by ego
● Trepidatious about decision making with
imperfect information
● Passive
● Unable to influence others
● Prone to hoarding and siloing information
● Prone to being a “hero” by working alone
and working long hours to reach goals or
save the day
Some qualities that may be red flags
Art credit:Cristiano Zucas, from Noun Project

18. 18
Where do great product
managers come from?
Art credit: myiconfinder, from Noun Project

19. 19
Source: VMware

20. 20
Source: Kessel Run

21. 21
Source: LinkedIn (Jen’s network)

22. 22
Three stories...

23. 23
What do great product
managers need to deliver
their best?
Art credit: Andrei Yushchenko, from Noun Project

24. 24
Connect with us (we love talking about this stuff)
Jen Handler
https://www.linkedin.com/in
/jenweisshandler/
Ken McDougall
https://www.linkedin.com/in
/kenmcdougall/
Lin
Adrien Hensley
https://www.linkedin.com/in
/adrienhensley/
Mike Gresham
http://linkedin.com/in
/mikegresham/

25. 25
Questions?
(Join us after!)
Art credit: Birckhead Creative, from Noun Project

26. 26
Thank you!
Art credit: Adrien Coquet, from Noun Project

27. Further reading
Here are some additional resources to learn more about Product
Management:
● Good Product Manager/Bad Product Manager blog posts (original by Ben
Horowitz, and more recent, by Hemal Shah)
● Mind the Product: Organization for product management
● Product Management posts from Product Managers @ VMware
● Outcomes over Output (Josh Seiden)
● The North Star Playbook (Amplitude)
● Products over Projects (Martin Fowler)
● The Future of Product Management and Balanced Team (Janice Fraser)
● Testing Business Ideas: A Field Guide for Rapid Experimentation (David J
Bland, Alex Osterwalder)