Dark Side of Product Management

1. The Dark Side of
Product Management
Nuno Jonet
ProductCampSG 2014

2. The Dark Side of Product Management
A sharing session on the
“not-so-nice” aspects of
product management,
based on one man’s
experience.
It’s not all about lean, UX,
startups, market data,
happy customers and fun.
Some of it sucks…

3. Who is Nuno?
Portuguese since birth
Singapore since 2001
Product Manager since 2007
Worked at:
• PSA Corp - System Analyst
• Savi - Business Analyst
• Savi - Product Manager
• Fusion Garage - Product Manager
• Standard Chartered - ScrumMaster/Coach
• Standard Chartered - Product Manager
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed are my own. They do not reflect those of my past, present or future employers.
@njjonet

4. Responsibility without Authority
How did we get into product management ?
Product Management is still a hard to define
role. In fact, there are many different kinds of
product management
Always a position of enormous power and
influence but almost never with real authority
Get good at making hard decisions based on
little information or - even worse - biased
opinions.
Not everybody has clear metrics as a priority…

5. Jack of all trades
Look at all the different things we do!
It’s impossible to be good at all
things related to managing products.
Develop relationships with these
areas as quickly and deeply as you
can.
Sometimes we are asked to do
exotic stuff, you will need help.
• Bill of materials
• Licensing
• Procurement

6. Product or project?
How many times has somebody “misspelled” your profession?
Many companies hire product managers to handle projects.
It’s not impossible to do product management with projects,
but it’s much harder.
Projects don’t scale, products do.

7. Agile helps Or does it?
Agile practices accelerate
feedback loops and increase
confidence
Remember that agile is a
culture, not a cult (Agile vs agile)
Product managers can be
quickly overwhelmed by the
demands of Agile practices
Product owner is a role, not a job
description

8. Sometimes, there's nothing you
can do…
Even when you have the:
• right idea
• right marketing
• right UX
• right pricing
• right <insert you favourite here>
You/your product/your company can still drown
… and it’s OK!

9. So what can I do?
1. Learn and practice diplomacy
2. Learn how to create rapport as quickly as possible
3. Learn and practice negotiation skills
4. Become an expert at detailing benefit cases
5. Don’t be afraid to “poke” into other parts of the business
6. Be comfortable in failure, it’s where learning happens
7. Always be looking for feedback