Leadership In Product Management by Ivan Chong at SVPMA Monthly Event May 2003

1. Leadership in
Product Management
Ivan Chong
SVPMA
May 7, 2003
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2. Informatica Corporate Overview
 Founded (1993); Nasdaq: INFA (1999)
Corporate
 Over 800 employees worldwide
 Industry-leading solutions for deploying business
analytics across the extended enterprise:
Products - Data integration - Data Warehouses
- Business Intelligence - Analytic Applications
 Over 1700 companies worldwide
Customers
 79 of the Fortune 100 and 80%+ of Dow Jones
 Over 300 sales, marketing and implementation partners
Partners
 Including: i2, IBM, JDE, PeopleSoft, Siebel, SAP, WebM
 2000: $154 million revenue; 147% growth
Financials  2001: $197 million revenue; 28% (YoY) growth
 2002: $195 million revenue; Flat in a down economy
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3. What does it take to be a Great Product Manager?
 Winning in the Marketplace?
 Writing great MRD’s, Functional Specs, or
Product Availability Matrices?
 Infinite bandwidth?
 Giving great demos?
 Running flawless beta programs?
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4. Good is the Enemy of Great
 Customer Visits/Meetings
 Partner Visits/Meetings
 Beta Programs
 Product Requirements Documents (PRDs)
 Strategic Competitive Analysis
 Benchmarks
 Concepts Documents
 Demos
 Features and Benefits Documents
 Platform Availability Matrices (PAMs)
 Product Presentations (PowerPoint)
 Roadmaps
 Technical Briefs
 Release Management
 Training
 Industry or Partner Conferences
 Usability Requirements Documents
 Functional/Design Reviews
 Product Marketing Coordination
 Support Coordination
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5. Product Management TPOV
A Teachable Point Of View ™
Ideas/Business
Theory Values
3
E
Emotional
Energy/Edge
C 2000 by Noel Tichy The University of Michigan
5
Teachable Point of View and The Leadership Engine are registered trademarks of Tichy Cohen Associates

6. Ideas, a Product Manager’s political capital
Be the expert on Be the expert on
the Customer the Product
Be the expert on Be the expert on
the Market the Engineering
Team
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7. Be the Expert on the Customer
 Study the Research Reports
 Identify Customer Pain Points
…do not merely relay requests
 Understand the Customer Mindset
− What drives their decisions?
− What other choices do they have?
 Communicate Customer Anecdotes
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8. IT Headlines (from searchCIO.com)
“Study: BI not being used intelligently”
“Tips for Legacy System Integration”
“Going offshore is the IT thing to do”
“Forrester: CIO’s should beware the penguin stampede”
“New Code Red Variant is even more dangerous”
“Who’s responsible for security problems? – that’s right, you are”
“When CIO’s and CEO’s disagree”
“Study gives IT in UK an ‘F’”
“IT drives productivity growth”
“The ‘real-time enterprise’ needs a fast network”
“ERP consolidation efforts may cost more than you think”
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9. Be the Expert on the Product
 Install Your Product
 Use Your Product
 Demo Your Product
 Adopt New Releases of Your Product ASAP
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10. Be the Expert on the Market
 Know your competitors
 Know your partners
 Know about other products that touch your
product
 Know about other products your customers use
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11. Be the Expert on the Engineering Team
 Stay on top of reality in the project
− Rely on multiple sources of information: QA, Project
Manager, Architects, Coders
 Understand the Engineering mindset
− How are decisions really made?
− How much detail is needed to gain traction?
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12. Product Management TPOV
A Teachable Point Of View ™
Ideas/Business
Theory Values
3
E
Emotional
Energy/Edge
C 2000 by Noel Tichy The University of Michigan
12
Teachable Point of View and The Leadership Engine are registered trademarks of Tichy Cohen Associates

13. Operational Values
 Definition
− Criteria under which decisions are prioritized
− Should encourage behavior successful to the business
 Prioritization
− Must be able to make tough calls and be decisive on
tradeoffs
 Alignment of Values Critical for Gaining Traction
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14. Foundational Values
 Traits of an Exceptional Leader
- based loosely on Good to Great, Collins Copyright © 2001
− Passionately dedicated to the success of the product
− Exceptional Work Ethic
− Quick to deflect credit when things go well
− Quick to take responsibility when things go poorly
− Display compelling modesty, are self-effacing/understated
 Can you inspire those that you lead?
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15. Product Management TPOV
A Teachable Point Of View ™
Ideas/Business
Theory Values
3
E
Emotional
Energy/Edge
C 2000 by Noel Tichy The University of Michigan
15
Teachable Point of View and The Leadership Engine are registered trademarks of Tichy Cohen Associates

16. Emotional Energy and Edge
 Goal: Motivate Cross Functional Team Members
 Enthusiasm and Work Ethic
 Vision
− Case for Change
− Vivid picture of how much better things can be
− Realistic roadmap for how to get there
 Edge: Ability to make tough Yes/No Decisions
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17. 2 Teachable Points of View
1) Your Product
2) Your Responsibilities
i.e., Define your role as Product Manager, or
else someone else will.
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18. Example: Information Supply Chain
Product Engineering
Strategy
Technical
Support
Product
Management
Product
Sales
a
Marketing
Sales
Support Corp/Brand
Professional a
Marketing
Services
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19. Example: Information Supply Chain
 Work Proactively
 Streamline Work
Efforts
 Educate Cross
Functional Team on
Breadth of
Responsibilities
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20. The Leadership Imperative
Ideas/Business
Theory
Values
3
E
Emotional
Energy/Edge
Not so Great Great
Product Manager Product Manager
Information Incomplete view Information
on the situation comes to you
Decisions Left out of the Decisions require
loop your input
Team Interaction Relegated to Do’ers come to
“gopher” you
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