Note from Art: this post came about through my on-going research with a colleague into best organizational practices in product management and product manager career development.  For additional information on this topic, check out my recent podcast interview with Michael Ray Hopkin at The Product Management Pulse and stay tuned for future posts.  

Product Managers face significant organizational challenges in their quest to expand their roles and increase their value-creating contributions to their firms.  

Through a recent and on-going series of interviews with senior executives as well as product managers across a variety of technology and manufacturing organizations, it is becoming clear that more and more organizations recognize the potential for product management to create tremendous value.  It is also clear that enlightened executives increasingly recognize that the professionals that work in product management roles are a ready-made source of high potential contributors and emerging leaders.  

Consider:

  • The Product Manager has the difficult and unenviable challenge of leading and influencing others across the organization without formal authority. The nature of the role requires the development of the lateral influence skills so critical to driving cooperation and execution inside organizations. 
  • Product Managers are charged with shaping market and offering strategies and are critical links to the Voice of the Customer.  The best product managers learn to interpret and translate this sometimes confusing “voice” into offerings that solve problems and create value for stakeholders.  
  • All too often, product managers and product management organizations struggle to transcend the persona of taskmasters and move beyond the never-ending, highly tactical activities.  Organizations that treat this function tactically are wasting remarkable opportunities to create value.
  • The role of product manager is a remarkable training grounds for a firm’s future leaders.  These professionals see the organization from all perspectives; survive and prosper on their abilities to educate, motivate and inspire action and are at the epicenter of driving strategy and execution. 

It’s encouraging to see that some senior leaders and leadership teams are beginning to “get it” when it comes to expanding the involvement, accountability and authority of product management teams and professionals. However, from the school of “be careful what you ask for,” product  managers also need to step up their game several levels in order to fulfill their expanding missions. 

Part of the feedback that my colleague, Joe Zurawski, and I are hearing from executives is that that the core functional skills that product managers have honed over time must be augmented by the development and expansion of a set of senior leadership skills that will allow for increased contribution.  

Senior executives are looking for their emerging senior contributors in product management to bring more advanced skills to the party, in the areas of: Leadership, Strategic Thinking, Executive Presence and Process Optimization.

Core functional/vocational skills are critical, but not enough to allow well-intentioned product management professionals to expand their contributions.  Nor is the “make it so” mandate from senior management that has decided it is time for this function and these professionals to provide more. 

To survive and prosper as senior contributors and emerging executives, product managers must:

1.  Strengthen lateral influence skills (the ability to lead and motivate without authority and across the organization).

2.  Develop the ability to recognize emerging patterns in the marketplace and translate that recognition into ideas (strategy & strategic thinking skills)

3.  Improve their ability to articulate and command credibility with senior executives (executive presence).

4.  Work relentlessly to improve execution and continuous improvement around value creation activities across the organization (process optimization).

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Developing the abilities and skills in those areas is no small task.  A deliberate focus by executives and their high potential product managers on developing skills and gaining experience in those four areas is essential.

All parties must engage in a focused development initiative that emphasizes exposure to diverse situations and ever-increasing levels of ambiguity and challenge.  Education and training are a part of the process, but mentoring and coaching should earn the lion’s share of focus.  Only through deliberate and focused action will organizations derive top value from their high potential product management assets. 

Anything less is a formula for same-old, same-old. In this economy, no one can afford to stand pat on the bad old practices of the recent past.