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“ Product management has not changed, but our way of working has. ”
With over 17 years’ experience building distributed teams at the companies he has founded, Hiten Shah knows what it takes to make great products in a distributed world.
In a talk he gave at our recent Product Excellence Summit, the CEO & co-founder of FYI explained that although many things have changed in those 17 years, the fundamentals of the job remain the same. Adapting to the former and understanding the latter is the key to building excellent products in today’s distributed environment.
In case you missed the Summit, here’s an overview of the key points made during Hiten’s talk.
Last year, Hiten and his team conducted a survey asking product managers what they thought their top challenges would be in 2020. The three main issues that came up were:
As Hiten points out, these challenges haven’t changed. They continue to come up, time and again, regardless of what year it is. And interestingly, they map out to our Product Excellence framework. When teams master the three pillars of Product Excellence—vision, strategy, and execution, they are well on their way to building excellent products. Yet accordingly to Hiten’s data, teams struggle with this.
A little refresh on the three pillars of Product Excellence:
Getting the vision, strategy, and execution right is the ultimate goal for any product manager, regardless of how their team is organized or where they are based.
“ These core skills were essential in the pre-distributed world, and they continue to be essential today. ”
Last year, as part of his Product Habits newsletter, Hiten and his team conducted research into how 51 leading tech firms define the role of product manager in their job descriptions. This research revealed the following common themes.
Companies want PMs who can write and articulate ideas clearly
The number one requirement was that PMs should own product documentation. This requires strong writing skills, allowing PMs to communicate technical details and customer needs clearly and effectively. It is also critical that they can use writing to present ideas and strategies in a convincing way.
“ This idea of writing and communicating clearly sounds so pithy and simple. But it is one of the things we probably spend most of our time making sure that we’re really good at. ”
Interpersonal and communication skills are essential
Companies specifically look for PMs who can influence a group, simplify complex issues, and move a product forward. Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to converse with stakeholders from all levels of the organization are key.
PMs are expected to work with engineering
The research showed that companies want PMs to understand technical architecture and be technically fluent enough to work with engineers.
“ The simple way to think about product management is that we’re just helping to make really logical decisions that align with customer needs. And if we don’t understand the technical implications of them, we’re not going to be able to do that well. We’re going to run into all kinds of problems. ”
Empathy is one of the most important skills a PM can have
Companies want PMs who are able to understand and communicate how their customers feel and articulate their needs.
“ The one big thing that stands out for me is being a good human. And I think empathy really boils down to being a good human. ”
As Hiten points out, if this information tells us anything, it’s that the role of product manager hasn’t really changed.
The job may not have changed, but the way we work certainly has. This year alone has accelerated digital transformation by years, with the COVID-19 crisis forcing many companies to adopt a fully remote model virtually overnight. For better or worse, this has transformed the way we communicate and collaborate.
Traditionally, teams engaged in synchronous, offline collaboration. In other words, they’d all be in the same place at the same time – think conference rooms, whiteboards, watercooler conversations, and offsite retreats.
Now, with increasing numbers of people working remotely, the norm is synchronous and asynchronous online collaboration, with a growing need for the latter. This new approach involves documentation and wikis, voice and video calls, email and instant messaging, and screen-sharing.
Naturally, this shift to a distributed model affects the way we pursue our product vision, strategy, and execution, bringing up new challenges and forcing us to do things differently. Let’s take a closer look at how each pillar has been impacted.
Vision
Before the events of this year, most product teams had plenty of opportunities to interact with each other face-to-face, including their customer-facing colleagues. They also had plenty of opportunities to conduct user research in-person, allowing them to understand the specific environment and context that their customers are working in.
Today, face-to-face interactions are either limited or impossible, so product teams must have better systems for capturing inputs asynchronously. On top of this, people are generally more stressed and less willing to talk, so you have to make better use of what you have.
With user research and interviews carried out over Zoom, it is much harder to understand the context around user problems. On the flip side, it is perhaps easier to involve developers and engineers in the process, who can listen in on calls or join virtual meetings with ease.
Strategy
Before the COVID-19 crisis, companies were able to set their strategies with fewer financial constraints. Product teams were competing against Sales and Marketing for resources and attention. And with synchronous, face-to-face communication the norm, there were more opportunities for group prioritization sessions, and for product managers and developers to align on user needs and objectives.
In response to the challenges of today, companies are having to set or reset their strategies under more constraints than perhaps ever before. As a result, marketing and sales activities have been reigned in, meaning a stronger focus on product. Now, prioritization must often happen asynchronously and virtually. And with fewer opportunities for ad hoc discussions, alignment must be systematized.
Execution
In the pre-remote era, teams and stakeholders were able to meet in person on a more informal basis. This helped ensure that there were no surprises in big meetings regarding the roadmap or where the product is heading. Anyone with any real sway would already know what to expect, helping product teams avoid explosive meetings where people push back strongly or undercut ideas.
Now, working in a distributed way, product teams have several pressing questions to answer. How do you involve key stakeholders from across the organization in the roadmapping process so that they are invested in the product’s direction? What does a roadmap presentation look like now? What does it look like to share your vision?
“ For PMs, there is now a stronger need than ever for clear and open communication, concise writing and documentation, regular check-ins and follow-ups, and clarity around ownership – all of which require the right tools to be effective. ”
To build excellent products, there are three things you have to get right: Vision, strategy, and execution. This was the case 17 years ago, when Hiten Shah founded his first company, and it is still the case today. But the ways in which we pursue these goals – and the challenges we may face along the way – are changing.
In today’s distributed world, it has never been more important to drive alignment, to have a process for gathering insights, to set and communicate a clear product vision and strategy, and to proactively share and collaborate on your product roadmap.
