The Cranky PM

 

One of our product managers sent around a link to the site www.crankypm.com which describes the fictional life of a product manager at a mythical software company.  Having read a few of the essays on "A Day in the Life" and "All the Responsibility and No Authority" I think it's a pretty accurate description of life in the trenches in product management. 

Product Management is not an easy job, but its an important one.  In fact, these guys are the unsung heros.  Its amazing to me how many companies don't understand the role of product management.  If you're looking for ways to make sure that the products you build solve problems that customers care about, you should hire product managers that understands both your customers needs and your technology.  If your product managers don't understand those two items, then they may be doing something interesting, but they are not helping to manage your products.  Good product managers are as rare as hen's teeth.  I've had a lot of luck recruiting product managers from the field, among customers, users and, beleive it or not, sales engineers.  The key thing is to have passion for the products and have enough experience to understand which features will make a difference in customers lives and which won't.  And unlike marketing guys, they have to really understand the technology so that they can go toe-to-toe with engineering when necessary.

If you're an engineer or in product marketing, it's worth reading some of the articles below just to understand how the other half lives.  Despite the, ah, cranky nature of her writing, CPM is pretty darned insightful into what it takes to ship great software and what gets in the way.  Also, my guess is she's really hot. 

Check out the links below from Cranky Product Manager and elsewhere.  Sense of humor optional.

• Cranky PM: Blog, A Day in the Life, Responsibility and No Authority
• The Product Management View: Blog, Requirements Management, Process
• Pragmatic Marketing: Articles, Blog, Who Needs Product Management?
• Product Beautiful: Blog, You Might be a Product Manager if
• Valley of the Geeks: Lonely at the Middle, Project Management

Comments

[JD Duncan]

Sales Engineers!? Outlandish!

[The Cranky Product Manager]

You are correct, sir! The Cranky Product Management is indeed HOT - sizzling, in fact. That is, if you find severe dandruff HOT. (The Cranky PM's infliction is so bad it requires perscription drugs).

Thanks for the shout out!

[ZUrlocker]

Thanks for the comments

--Zack