Are you a true Product Manager or just engaging in Product Management Theater? (PWW #4)

Hi!

This week I am writing about a topic that might be painful for some…

Are you actually a Product Manager/Owner? Or merely playing the role on paper?

The question of what value a Product Manager or Product Owner adds is not new. A lot of well-meaning people go to two-day Scrum courses and hear all about how the PO is the "CEO of the product" and should have "ownership".

But upon returning to the real world, these POs quickly find out the truth: they "own" very little. They have senior managers dictating their roadmaps based on hunches. Stakeholders that feel like their opinion equals fact because they have been in the industry for decades.

This often quickly turns a well-meaning product team into a feature factory. A feature factory that just churns out whatever feature stakeholders deem most important that month. Without a long-term vision, without actual customer insights and crucially: without any added value from a Product Owner or Product Manager. Those have been demoted to mere backlog managers, akin to traditional project managers.

If you are 100% honest, how much ownership do you really have?

This week let's explore the underlying problem and some strategies to actually be a value adding PM/PO.

Have a great day 👋

Wouter

Worth reading

Product Management Theater by Marty Cagan

You know you're in for a treat when an article starts with: "Fair warning that for many of you, this article is going to feel like a heavy dose of tough love"…

Marty Cagan does an excellent job outlining the reckoning that is happening across tech companies right now. Companies are becoming more disillusioned with hiring Product Managers (PMs) or Product Owners (POs) under the belief that they would effectively guide a product in the right direction.

In reality, what they got were delivery team POs or feature team POs. Meaning they do essentially the same as 'regular' project managers, but they use Agile terminology and get paid a lot more. They got their Scrum certifications, but had no actual experience managing a product.

The final nails in the coffin are the trends of 'fake work' in tech companies and the 'day in the life of' videos posted by tech workers showing them enjoying the office perks but do no actual work. These have started painting a harmful picture of lazy tech workers, especially POs and PMs as their contributions are less concrete than actual code.

The reckoning

During 2023 and the first month of 2024 it was impossible to not see what was happening. Interest rates shot up, the unsustainable growth in the tech industry came to a halt, resulting in massive lay-offs at tech companies.

Within this context, let's put yourself in the shoes of a CEO. You have to reduce your workforce. Who would be at the top of your list to let go? A software engineer that contributes directly to building the companies core product? Or a product owner that merely manages a backlog, but contributes nearly nothing themselves?

I would not have to think long about this. The role of a feature factory product owner can easily be taken over by a development lead or engineering manager. Or can often be removed entirely.

The actual value a PO/PM should bring

As a PO or PM you need to realise where the value is in your role. It's not in the coordination between developers and stakeholders. It's also not about having an 'eye for design' or 'understanding technology'. You really need to focus on your business skills, data analysis skills and in-depth customer knowledge.

You need to be the person in the company that knows the most about customers day-to-day pain points and challenges.

Your value is in gathering these insights, quantifying them with data, and translating them into an actionable roadmap to move your product in the right direction. And what I mean by right direction is: to bring the most value to your customers and your company, in that order.

What you can do to get out of the product management theater

If you feel stuck in a feature factory set-up, or feel like you are not adding a lot of value: it's time to step-up. Start with things you can do yourself. Because you will not be able to change an entire organisation around you over-night.

The first step should be: schedule physical or video meetings with existing customers. Do it today. This can seem scary but it's really not. Most customers will be excited to talk to you.

Chat with those customers to learn more about their organisations, their work, and how they currently use your product. Learn about their workflows, and pain points. Ask questions and listen. Read between the lines. I will guarantee you: this will deliver fresh insights immediately.

Having done this guarantees you now have more in-depth customer knowledge than nearly anyone else in your company.

The next steps could include:

• Convert your customer insights into problem statements. Try to quantify the problems (like: "this problem causes X hours of extra work per week for this type of user").
• Analyse the usage data of your product (are there any surprising patterns to be found?).
• Formulate problem statements or experimental hypothesis around these customer insights and data insights

This will give you a set of problem statements and hypothesis that you can prioritise, and therefor: a customer-driven roadmap.

Of course this is by no means an exhaustive step-by-step program. But it is a very powerful starting point. And you can start doing this literally today!

Why you have to grab product ownership instead of waiting for it by Chris Lukassen

On a more up-beat note compared to the headline article this week: Chris describes some strategies on how to grab ownership.

He correctly identifies that too many Product Owners are expecting someone higher up in the chain to "give them mandate". But that is not how it works.

The reason Scrum has a role called Product Owner is:

The [Product Owner] was supposed to act as if it was their own business, their own money."

Time to take on the entrepreneurial spirit that is needed to actually grab mandate!

Recommended video

Casey Neistat exploring the limits of the Apple Vision Pro headset

You have most likely seen the new Apple Vision Pro headset come up in your social media feeds. This video is worth watching because it's not a traditional review.

Casey Neistat tries to find the limits of the technology. And while doing that he gives us a glimpse of what AR technology could be in the future.

I personally believe he is right: this type of interaction with technology can be a game-changer. But the technology is not there yet.

Wearing a heavy closed headset all day does not sound appealing to anyone. But what if this tech can ultimately be shrunk down into glasses or contact lenses?

I think this is worth keeping your eyes on over the coming years.