Product Manager does not Mean Product Emperor (and other helpful suggestions for success as a Product Manager)
It’s long been my opinion that the Product Manager has one of the tougher jobs in an organization (see my post: In Support of the Product Manager as MVP). This position is one of those "all of the responsibility with none of the power" roles that grind up and spit out mere mortals with alarming frequency.
There are a number of common mistakes that I’ve observed both new and experienced Product Managers make, that if understood and avoided, might increase the survival and success rate of this endangered species. In no particular order, these common mistakes and hopefully, helpful hints, include:
Why Strategy is the Leader’s Most Potent Tool
As a leader, imagine having a metaphorical tool at your beck and call that was capable of catalyzing action, focusing the collective energies of your team members and providing a greater sense of purpose to everyone around you. This tool is strategy and all too often and for varying reasons, this tool is left idle in the bottom of the leadership toolbox, brought out only for special occasions like the annual off site or in preparation for budgeting. The best tool misapplied is no better than a crude implement. Unfortunately, strategy as a leadership tool is widely misunderstood and rarely or poorly applied.
Coping Strategies for the Project Manager Facing an Executive Mandate on Schedule
One of the most common challenges for Project Managers and Engineering teams in new product development organizations is balancing the executive "time to market" mandate with good project estimation and risk analysis techniques. Many a project has misfired after a CEO or top management group has boldly proclaimed to corporate stakeholders that, "Product X will be to market by (insert your aggressive date here).
Want to Change? Manage Strategy in Bursts!
Traditional strategic planning approaches often fail to deliver the results that firms require to jump start growth or pull out of a sustained decline. Legacy approaches emphasize a periodic focus on strategy—often an annual refresh against a long-range plan. This “strategy as an event” approach is increasingly obsolete in a world that changes overnight, with markets being born, maturing and dying at hyper-speed. Instead, what is needed is a more dynamic means for professionals to experiment, innovate and to assess results and refine activities in near-real time.
Organizations that learn to work in “Strategy Bursts” are able to learn, adapt and refine their strategic activities faster than more plodding competitors, but this new style requires learning and internalizing a new approach to strategy management and execution. For many leaders and executives, succeeding with this new model requires letting go of old strategy habits and biases.
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