Product Management Then and Now
Organization:
Old: Marketing
New: Product (Product Management plus User Experience Design), a Peer to Technology and Marketing
Education:
Old: MBA
New: Computer Science or User Experience Design
Spends Days:
Old: Writing Requirements Documents
New: Product Discovery / Pursuing Minimum Viable Product
Learns About Customer Behavior:
Old: With Focus Groups
New: With User Testing and A/B Testing
Makes Case For Project Funding Based On:
Old: A Business Case
New: Customer and Product Discovery
Reads:
Old: The Wall Street Journal
New: TechCrunch and GigaOM
Deep Knowledge In:
Old: How To Use Excel
New: His Customers
Loves:
Old: To Be The Boss
New: To Apply Technology To Solve Problems
Sits With:
Old: “The Business”
New: His Product Team (Designers and Developers)
When Things Don’t Go Well:
Old: He Blames The Developers
New: He Blames Himself
Strives To Please:
Old: His Stakeholders
New: His Customers (because he’s learned that’s the only way to really please the stakeholders)
Makes Decisions Based On:
Old: Opinions
New: Data
Communicates With Stakeholders:
Old: With PowerPoint
New: With Prototypes
Attitude:
Old: Believes His Ideas Are Great
New: Knows At Least Half of Ideas Won’t Work
Worries About:
Old: His Competitors
New: Taking Care Of His Customers
Secret Weapon:
Old: Killer Features
New: User Experience
Strives To Create:
Old: Profit
New: Value (because it’s the best path to sustained profits)
This last point may not be so obvious to people and it is the subject of an upcoming article.
via @cagan
