1. Working effectively with Engineering
Atul Suklikar
Co-founder, VP Product Management
Softrock Systems
2. Speaker Background
Education: BS EE, MS CS, MBA
Oracle Corporation: 4 years in Engineering
Siebel Systems: 6 years in Product Marketing
Softrock Systems: 6 weeks
3. An Engineer’s Demonization of a PM Courtesy Billy Connolly
Sub-second response time
FLEXIBILITY
Usability
Huge market
Press coverage
Standards support
Features
Bugs
SENSE OF Enhancements
URGENCY Bells & whistles
4. Agenda
The Goal
The Context
The Keys to Success - Provide value to Engineering
• What constitutes value?
• How do I provide it?
Summary
Questions and Insights
5. The Goal
Translate Product Strategy into a successful
Product Reality
Build lasting relationships with Engineers
Have fun building products
6. The context
3 Possible Organizational Relationships between PM and Engineering
GM/CEO GM/CEO GM/CEO
PM ENG ENG PM
PM ENG
Typical Rare
8. Agenda
The Goal
The Context
The Keys to Success - Provide value to Engineering
• What constitutes value?
• How do I provide it?
Summary
9. What value can a PM provide to an Engineer?
Be the voice of the customer
• Synthesize market requirements, customer pain-points, and competitive
landscape
Prioritize product development
• Release themes, product features
Guide product wins
• Sales, market perception
Help career progression
• Product success, internal visibility, external exposure
10. How can the PM provide that value?
Fully understand
• Customer
Expert
• Market
• Current Product
Gain the trust by being
• Reasonable
Partner
• Flexible
• Personable
Effectively promote
Champion
• The Product
• The Engineers
11. Value provided by the PM - Details
Establish yourself as the Expert
Build a Partnership
Be a Champion
12. Establish yourself as the expert
Areas of expertise:
• Customer
• Market
• Product
Key parties to target
• Architects, Managers, Directors
Who can help
• Other perceived Experts – PM, Sales, Services
• Architects
13. Building and Communicating Customer Expertise
Familiarize yourself with customer usage
• High level knowledge about a large number of customers
• Deep knowledge about a small number of customers
Use specific customer/prospect names and usage data in MRD use
cases and in conversations
Have your management reiterate your stature as an expert
• In meetings, conversations, emails…
Reinforce the perception through first-hand contact
• Appropriate Sales or Service people
• Customers
14. Building and Communicating Market Expertise
Familiarize yourself with the competitive landscape
• High level knowledge about a large number of competitors
• Deep knowledge about a small number of competitors
Share this information periodically with Engineering through white
papers, demos, news clippings
Present a balanced view about their strengths and weaknesses and
how you compete against them
Use Engineering’s help in analyzing underlying technology trends
to augment your reading
Limited first-hand contact with Analysts
15. Building and Communicating Product Expertise
Familiarize yourself with the existing product
• Technical training
• Install development builds frequently
• Participate in testing of the product
Understand the architecture through conversations with Engineers
• Focus on the what as well as the why
Reinforce the perception that you understand the product
• MRDs contain references to how things currently work
• Explaining current product behavior in joint Engineering & PM meetings
Be balanced in your communications
16. Value provided by the PM - Details
Establish yourself as the Expert
Build a Partnership
Be a Champion
17. Build a partnership
Characteristics of a good partner
• Reasonable
• Flexible
• Personable
Key Parties to target
• Engineer, Staff Engineer, Architect, Manager, Director
Who can help
• Your manager
• Architects, Managers
18. Being Reasonable
Common pitfalls
• Request 10 X the number of features that would fit in a given release
• 80% of features are marked as P1
A better approach
• Articulate a multi-release vision for the product
• Get the Architects and Directors to embrace and own that vision
• Jointly work with them to define the delivery roadmap
Over time, develop a feel for (crude) estimations of level of effort
Involve Architects and Staff Engineers early in the definition
process
19. Being Flexible
Always keep the big picture in mind
• This is a repeated interaction game – many releases, many products, many
features
Prioritize judiciously
Break down features into granular sub-features so that the
essential aspects are not compromised
Entertain alternate implementations to achieve the same end goals
If resources are insufficient, offer to make the case to management
for additional investment or reallocation
20. Being Personable
Interact with Engineers in non-work settings
• Take your Engineering team to lunch
• Explore common interests – sports, movies, etc.
Make it a point to get to know the (junior) Engineers well
• Drop by their office to chat about what they are working on
• Ask for demos and provide ad-hoc feedback
Always share positive product feedback
• Forward congratulatory emails regarding sales, deployments, etc.
Attend Engineering staff meetings on an as-needed basis
Invite the Engineering Manager to your staff meetings
21. Value provided by the PM - Details
Establish yourself as the Expert
Build a Partnership
Be a Champion
22. Be a Champion
Things to champion
• The Product
• The Engineering team
Key Parties to target
• Product – All
• Team – Especially Engineers, Staff Engineers, and Managers
Who can help
• Your management
23. Champion the Product
This is part of your normal responsibilities
The key is to keep Engineering informed and excited
Present a successful pitch or conference presentation to the
Engineering team
Share favorable Product Press immediately
Debrief the Engineering team on conference feedback
Share clever applications of the product developed for sales deals
or by customers
24. Champion the Engineering team
Give visibility to key accomplishments
• Especially for Engineers, Staff Engineers, and Managers
• Examples:
— An email to all of PM advertising a brand new feature acknowledging the developers
— An email to PM and Sales Management crediting developers of a particular feature
that was key to winning a deal
Increase name awareness of the Engineers among your management
during meetings, conversations, etc.
Nominate Engineers you work with for awards
Recognize good work by Engineers by conveying your appreciation
to their managers and director
25. Value provided by the PM - Details
Establish yourself as the Expert
Build a Partnership
Be a Champion
26. Summary
The Goal – A successful Product Reality
The Context & Structure
The Keys to Success - Provide value to Engineering
Expert
Partner
Champion
Questions and Insights
27. Thank you
Atul Suklikar
asuklikar@softrocksystems.com