Jock Busuttil's Blog: I Manage Products, page 33

What does a product manager do (and not do)?

Compared to when I started out in product management, we’re a lot better at defining the role of a product manager. It’s always worth a reminder, so I’d like to share with you a talk I gave last summer, What does a product manager do (and not do)?

In the talk I answer the following questions:

What is a product?
What is product management?
What does a product manager do?
What does a product manager not do?
Why do we need product management?
What makes a good product manager?

Have a watch! Ther...

70: You need a delivery manager on your team

In the UK government digital teams, you don’t see project managers or even Scrum masters. Why? Because they have delivery managers instead. In this article, I’m going to convince you why you need delivery managers on your teams.

Not a project manager

Imagine a project manager: their role is to keep the project team on track, on time and on budget, to enforce the process, and to communicate progress and seek help from above when the team is blocked.

Now imagine them evolving from a role centred ...

May you live in interesting times

Even if its not actually an ancient (or modern) Chinese curse1, the saying is well understood. Author Arthur C. Clarke wrote in 1965:

As the old Chinese curse has it: May you live in interesting times, and the twentieth century is probably the most interesting period mankind has ever known.

The following year, Robert F. Kennedy referred to the same saying in a speech, adding:

Like it or not, we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also the most...

69: It matters what you say and what you do

One of the things I find myself advising product teams to do most often is to work on their product vision. Rather than trying to be the market leader in X or achieve Y% market share, they need to identify the positive human impact of their product why it matters a goal which in turn will inspire the team to work hard to achieve.

What I perhaps naïvely assume each time is that words are backed by actions that the stated product vision and company mission are in fact what the organisation...

68: 4 common user persona mistakes

User personas can be a valuable visual reminder for your teams about the people relying on your product. More often than not, user personas instead end up being just a laborious way to decorate the walls. Are you making these common mistakes?

1. Writing them too early

One of the first things many people do when embarking on a new product is to write their user personas. They then declare them complete, dont update them again for years, then wonder why they never bore any relation to their...

67: Why cake is important for product leaders

I have a patchy record of baking cakes.

Right back when I first started, I’d look at the cake recipe as more of a guideline and then freestyle it. Unsurprisingly, my early cakes were complete rubbish.

As I went along, it began to dawn on me why the recipe’s method was telling me to do things in a particular way, and little by little, my cakes become increasingly edible. After some time, I realised that to achieve a decent result, I needed to have the right ingredients for the thing I was...

66: Show the thing

I’m writing aboutone hundred things I’ve learned about product management.

I was introduced to the concept of ‘show the thing’ sessions back in 2014 when I was interim head of product for the Ministry of Justice Digital team. I’ve encouraged every subsequent organisation I’ve worked with to start running ‘show the thing’ sessions weekly to foster a culture of openness, to spread ideas and learning between teams, and to erode the reluctance to demo anything that wasn’t considered ‘perfect’....

Podcast: Learning Product Leadership

I’ve just been on Ross Webb’s new Product Coach podcast talking about product leadership. You can listen to it on the widget below or at Buzzsprout.

We cover a fair amount, including:

why I think 9 out of 10 recruiters haven’t a clue should you hire product managers with market specialism? frustrations for new product managers does following a process drive product success? the skills and abilities of a product leader getting the non-tech parts of the organisation to buy into product failing versus learning time management: personal, project and roadmap a quick w...

Q&A: Interview for Working Products conference

Here are my answers to three questions I was asked recently during an interview for the forthcoming Working Products 2019 conference in Hamburg. I’ll be speaking and running a workshop there in June.

Do get in touch if you’d like me speak at your event.

What exactly is a “Freelance Head of Product”?What is a great product?What are the key criteria for a great team?

Read on for my replies.

1: What exactly is a “Freelance Head of Product”?

I typically work with organisations for short periods of tim...

Q&A: What makes a good UX designer?

I’m asked questions about product management from time to time. Here’s one I’ve answered recently:

Hi Jock,

Based on your experience, what makes a good UX Designer from the perspective of a product manager?
Cheers,

S

Read on for my reply.

Hi S,

Ooh – a tricky question :-)

In no particular order:

Experienced in their own discipline but still keen to learn moreWilling to share their knowledge with others (so everyone gets to know the principles of good UX / design)Open to discussions with / perspective...