Pulled Every Which Way
Product managers get pulled in a ton of different directions. Leading by indirect influence can also put you in the middle of a lot of things you don’t have the authority to prevent or solve yourself. Or, think you are guiding folks down the right path, only to have it turn out needing to be completely different at the end of the day? it’s gross.
I will say this, for all of the process and procedure Scott goes through for requirements, I’ve been working with the alternative (i.e., not doing much at all), and while beneficial from a speed perspective, it’s very easy to get people off the page you are on and/or not be on the same as them.
To all those that are trying to avoid 1,000+ page requirements documents, I will tell you this (from experience):
Walk over to people’s desks and talk. Or, if that’s not possible, get on the phone.
Get on the phone and talk through key product enhancements and projects early and often.
Get prospects on the phone to interview them about what you are doing. Get clients on the phone and treat them almost like design partners. (hint: you can do that even when writing large requirements docs).
Get Sales & Marketing on the phone. Get in front of support. Client Services.
And of course, get to your Senior Management team. Being “too busy” to talk about key product-level initiatives is not an excuse for them — or a product manager. I don’t care if you are Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. If management isn’t in the loop, when they get something that isn’t what they expected, you will get a phone call, and it won’t be to say “happy birthday.”
You don’t need forms or signatures. You need to talk. The worst case thing that can happen is development working on something that is a) not attuned to the market and/or b) not communicated well to key folks in the organization, no matter how big that company may be
To be an effective product manager, you must not fall into a trap of being “too burned out” or overloaded with other tasks to talk to customers. Conversely, if you absolutely cannot talk to customers / prospects regularly, you better make sure you have folks covering that aspect, and more importantly actually writing things down, that you trust.
This all ties together. It may seem crazy, but it’s true.
Don’t stop talking. And don’t avoid getting in front of prospects and customers. Your shareholders and VC’s will thank you later, even if you do take a bit of heat for it up front.
March 26th, 2007 at 11:17 am
Hey Adam,
Thanks for the shout-out. You’re absolutely right that the most important thing _after_ being on the _right_ page is having everyone on the _same_ page.
If your team can do it without the rigamarole, that’s awesome. One thing many people glossing over agile conclude is that it is anti-documentation. It isn’t. Agile is about doing just-enough-documentation. When your team dynamics allow you to use less documentation, you should.
It can be easier for product managers to track less, because the team is more likely to be both focused and aligned. Business Analysts (who I also write for) often don’t have the luxury of single-focus, aligned, dedicated teams. They usually find themselves in some form of inescapable corporate dynamic that makes (more) documentation critical to the long term success of the project.
Regardless - you have the right focus, and everyone should find the right balance for their project.