What is a Product Manager? And More about PMs from #DENStartupWeek

• Report rights infringement
• published: 15 Oct 2015
• views: 288

Always wanted to be an amazing product manager? Experts share insights on what works and what doesn't. LEARN MORE: https://www.galvanize.com/blog Excerpt: What does being a Product Manager mean to you? Natty: I think this is actually maybe the hardest question that you're asking today, because I think it's a really hard thing to define. To me, the Product Manager is that person that's in the middle of everything that's going on. And by everything, I don't mean the stuff that's happening internally in the company, but also the things that are happening externally with the product and the customer base. So the product manager is really responsible for taking a lot of inputs and processing that, communicating what's happening in the products to the rest of the stakeholders that are involved, both internal and external. That doesn't mean that they're doing marketing copy, but it means that they're informing marketing on what the user behavior is within in the product. So I think about it as that piece in the middle that's making a lot of connections between all of the other functions and is really responsible for what is the product, what are we deciding to build, and really a deep understanding of what do the customers need. What are their needs and what do they want the product to be? So I think that's probably my best definition of what a Product Manager is but I think it's a difficult function to define. Eric: Yeah, not to copy too much of that, but to me it means getting to do something I love every day. And that means also not doing the same thing every day. It's the most multi-disciplinary role in a company, right? So you have to be comfortable on the technical side, on the user side, on the business side, and put all those together. Really, the intersection of those three is a brain teaser. Figuring out that solution that notches into those three just right, fits that bill, is ultimately very, very satisfying. So I love it and I evolved to it naturally, but being a Product Manager now means I made it and I get to do what I love. Dan: Everything that they said. Just to reiterate, it's such a broad range of skills and the things that you have to do every day just depends on what you encounter that day, right? And I think the important thing is being able to adapt and be nimble and go from this big picture, we're going to go after that hill and here's why, and then actually get into the details and into the weeds and find an incremental path and work so closely with your engineering team, represent the business, represent the users. You're a communicator, but you're also...I like to use military metaphors even though sometimes I get really strange reactions to that, but you're like the lieutenant of the squad or whatever that is going after that hill. And you're just equipped, and you are driving it. You're not necessarily doing all of the hands-on stuff, but you're close to it and you can steer and you can encounter obstacles and find a way around it. But communication, I think, is the biggest piece of it. You are a communicator. You are channeling communication. You're a decider or you are representing decisions, and you are communicating them.