Product Owner/Manager Similarities/Differences?

[nelsonic]

While listening to Tim Ferriss' latest Podcast featuring Ben Horowitz tim.blog/2019/10/24/ben-horowitz I was reminded of how important Product Management is in the context of a product-focussed startup.

I would highly recommend people listen to the podcast (skip the ads and listen at 1.5x speed) as Ben Horowitz is one of the few people in the world who has not only done the hard work of starting (building/managing) and selling several seriously successful software product companies, he has made the time to write about it extensively so that others can learn his lessons much faster.

In the podcast Tim asks Ben about his famous blog post Good Product Manager/Bad Product Manager: https://a16z.com/2012/06/15/good-product-managerbad-product-manager [5 min read]

A few highlights from the post:

• Good product managers know the market, the product, the product line and the competition extremely well and operate from a strong basis of knowledge and confidence.
• A good product manager is the CEO of the product.
• Good product managers communicate crisply to engineering in writing as well as verbally. Good product managers don’t give direction informally.
• Bad product managers have lots of excuses. Never make excuses...
• Good product managers focus the team on revenue and customers. Bad product managers focus team on how many features Microsoft is building.
• Good product managers think in terms of delivering superior value to the market place during inbound planning and achieving market share and revenue goals during outbound. Bad product managers get very confused about the differences amongst delivering value, matching competitive features, pricing, and ubiquity. Good product managers decompose problems. Bad product managers combine all problems into one.
• Good product managers think about the story they want written by the press.
• Good product managers anticipate the serious product flaws and build real solutions. Bad product managers put out fires all day. Good product managers take written positions on important issues.

🥚Easter Egg: Ben's commencement address at Columbia University youtu.be/WRYRBGX4lVM on figuring out what to do with your life, was referenced in our super popular email sending tutorial ... if you didn't think to watch it while reading the tutorial at the time, watch it now (add it to your list to watch in your next pomodoro break)! 🍅 It's worth your time. Gist: "Do NOT follow your passion, follow your contribution." 💡 "You will be the generation that unlocked human potential." 16:39

Side Note: really looking forward to read Ben's new book "What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture" https://www.amazon.com/What-You-Do-Who-Are/dp/B07Q4S712S (considering getting it on Audible ...) 📘 🎧 💭

Todo

• [ ] Research and write up the difference between the Product Owner and Product Manager Role.
  • [ ] @iteles to decide where the content should go. (i.e. should it be a section of this repo or a distinct new one on Product Management? Can/should we use it as opportunity to start our "blog"...?)
• [ ] Which Metrics should the Product Manager focus on (When and Why) ? e.g: the Product Manager could focus on Growth in Revenue from paying customers. Or number of referrals (people who started using the product because a friend referred them) But these metrics are "lagging" because it can only be the focus once customer satisfaction and product market fit are achieved.
• [ ] How should the Product Manger's performance be measured?
  • [ ] Consequently, should the Product Manager's [bonus] compensation be linked to the metric? 💭
• [ ] If your team/company only has the budget for one of the roles which should it be? or if the person on your team has the ability to do both roles how should they split their time? e.g: 60% Product Ownership / 40% Product Management
  • [ ] Which role has more impact at the various stages of the product lifecycle? e.g: the Product Manager might be responsible for researching competitors developing the overall "strategy" before a Product Owner is needed to flesh out the details of the product features ...
• [ ] List the best resources available for learning how to become an excellent Product Manager:
  • [ ] Books?
  • [ ] Blog posts (written by people who are doing the work)
  • [ ] Online courses free/paid?
  • [ ] Videos? (share links! and include a brief summary of the "key takeaways")

If you are keen to help us research and write this up, please communicate your interest by commenting! We are very happy to pay you for your time (e.g: in Amazon Vouchers if you're a first-time contributor or invoice us if you have already/previously worked with us!) As always estimate the expected time required before starting the task!

[nelsonic]

What Are the Basics of a Product Manager Role by Google PM

20 Years of Product Management in 25 Minutes by Dave Wascha https://youtu.be/i69U0lvi89c

[nelsonic]

https://youtu.be/huTSPanUlQM

[nelsonic]

Top 75+ Resources for Product Managers: https://www.sachinrekhi.com/top-resources-for-product-managers

[nelsonic]

https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/the-product-minded-engineer/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21732027

[nelsonic]

And then the Pandemic Hit and all "This Week" priorities were obliterated. @iteles do you think you will have time to pick this up? or can we assign it to @Shamus-88 ?

[seaneady]

I'm more than happy to jump in here and carry on the research. Would that be in the form of a new issue/thread? Or just continuing on this one?

[nelsonic]

@seaneady please add more to this issue. But ultimately we’re going to create a .md file here on GitHub and then publish it as a “blog” post.