ThoughtWorks
  • 联系我们
  • Español
  • Português
  • Deutsch
  • English
概况
  • 工匠精神和科技思维

    采用现代的软件开发方法,更快地交付价值

    智能驱动的决策机制

    利用数据资产解锁新价值来源

  • 低摩擦的运营模式

    提升组织的变革响应力

    企业级平台战略

    创建与经营战略发展同步的灵活的技术平台

  • 客户洞察和数字化产品能力

    快速设计、交付及演进优质产品和卓越体验

    合作伙伴

    利用我们可靠的合作商网络来扩大我们为客户提供的成果

概况
  • 汽车企业
  • 清洁技术,能源与公用事业
  • 金融和保险企业
  • 医疗企业
  • 媒体和出版业
  • 非盈利性组织
  • 公共服务机构
  • 零售业和电商
  • 旅游业和运输业
概况

特色

  • 技术

    深入探索企业技术与卓越工程管理

  • 商业

    及时了解数字领导者的最新业务和行业见解

  • 文化

    分享职业发展心得,以及我们对社会公正和包容性的见解

数字出版物和工具

  • 技术雷达

    对前沿技术提供意见和指引

  • 视野

    服务数字读者的出版物

  • 数字化流畅度模型

    可以将应对不确定性所需的数字能力进行优先级划分的模型

  • 解码器

    业务主管的A-Z技术指南

所有洞见

  • 文章

    助力商业的专业洞见

  • 博客

    ThoughtWorks 全球员工的洞见及观点

  • 书籍

    浏览更多我们的书籍

  • 播客

    分析商业和技术最新趋势的精彩对话

概况
  • 申请流程

    面试准备

  • 毕业生和变换职业者

    正确开启技术生涯

  • 搜索工作

    在您所在的区域寻找正在招聘的岗位

  • 保持联系

    订阅我们的月度新闻简报

概况
  • 会议与活动
  • 多元与包容
  • 新闻
  • 开源
  • 领导层
  • 社会影响力
  • Español
  • Português
  • Deutsch
  • English
ThoughtWorks菜单
  • 关闭   ✕
  • 产品及服务
  • 合作伙伴
  • 洞见
  • 加入我们
  • 关于我们
  • 联系我们
  • 返回
  • 关闭   ✕
  • 概况
  • 工匠精神和科技思维

    采用现代的软件开发方法,更快地交付价值

  • 客户洞察和数字化产品能力

    快速设计、交付及演进优质产品和卓越体验

  • 低摩擦的运营模式

    提升组织的变革响应力

  • 智能驱动的决策机制

    利用数据资产解锁新价值来源

  • 合作伙伴

    利用我们可靠的合作商网络来扩大我们为客户提供的成果

  • 企业级平台战略

    创建与经营战略发展同步的灵活的技术平台

  • 返回
  • 关闭   ✕
  • 概况
  • 汽车企业
  • 清洁技术,能源与公用事业
  • 金融和保险企业
  • 医疗企业
  • 媒体和出版业
  • 非盈利性组织
  • 公共服务机构
  • 零售业和电商
  • 旅游业和运输业
  • 返回
  • 关闭   ✕
  • 概况
  • 特色

  • 技术

    深入探索企业技术与卓越工程管理

  • 商业

    及时了解数字领导者的最新业务和行业见解

  • 文化

    分享职业发展心得,以及我们对社会公正和包容性的见解

  • 数字出版物和工具

  • 技术雷达

    对前沿技术提供意见和指引

  • 视野

    服务数字读者的出版物

  • 数字化流畅度模型

    可以将应对不确定性所需的数字能力进行优先级划分的模型

  • 解码器

    业务主管的A-Z技术指南

  • 所有洞见

  • 文章

    助力商业的专业洞见

  • 博客

    ThoughtWorks 全球员工的洞见及观点

  • 书籍

    浏览更多我们的书籍

  • 播客

    分析商业和技术最新趋势的精彩对话

  • 返回
  • 关闭   ✕
  • 概况
  • 申请流程

    面试准备

  • 毕业生和变换职业者

    正确开启技术生涯

  • 搜索工作

    在您所在的区域寻找正在招聘的岗位

  • 保持联系

    订阅我们的月度新闻简报

  • 返回
  • 关闭   ✕
  • 概况
  • 会议与活动
  • 多元与包容
  • 新闻
  • 开源
  • 领导层
  • 社会影响力
博客
选择主题
查看所有话题关闭
技术 
敏捷项目管理 云 持续交付 数据科学与工程 捍卫网络自由 演进式架构 体验设计 物联网 语言、工具与框架 遗留资产现代化 Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence 微服务 平台 安全 软件测试 技术策略 
商业 
金融服务 全球医疗 创新 零售行业 转型 
招聘 
职业心得 多元与融合 社会改变 
博客

话题

选择主题
  • 技术
    技术
  • 技术 概观
  • 敏捷项目管理
  • 云
  • 持续交付
  • 数据科学与工程
  • 捍卫网络自由
  • 演进式架构
  • 体验设计
  • 物联网
  • 语言、工具与框架
  • 遗留资产现代化
  • Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence
  • 微服务
  • 平台
  • 安全
  • 软件测试
  • 技术策略
  • 商业
    商业
  • 商业 概观
  • 金融服务
  • 全球医疗
  • 创新
  • 零售行业
  • 转型
  • 招聘
    招聘
  • 招聘 概观
  • 职业心得
  • 多元与融合
  • 社会改变
职业心得New York招聘

What Good Product Managers Need to Succeed

Paul Sullivan Paul Sullivan

Published: Dec 23, 2014

My colleagues Aaron Sachs and Anupam Kundu recently posted an article with the provocative title, “Is it Time to Fire Your Product Manager?” You should read it if you are curious about the pressures of being in Product Management or how Product Managers should be evaluated.

I agree with what Aaron and Anupam are saying here. It’s extremely hard to succeed without a good Product Manager. A bad Product Manager can be fatal to an otherwise talented team. But I have often found that the root cause of underperforming teams lives farther up the food chain.

So I put together this list of things leaders need to do to create an environment where good Product Managers can thrive.

1. Give them problems to solve, not features to build

Nothing kills morale and innovation like a giving a team a list of features to deliver. It robs the team of the ability to think creatively. The team is left to blindly follow the mandate, reverse engineering why these features are important, and what problems they solve along the way. This causes churn as the team is endlessly trying to get on the same page with each other and leadership.

Teams that are given problems to solve and who are empowered to discover solutions are more likely to innovate. The different disciplines within the team will approach solutions from different angles. When these perspectives come together they often allow the team to explore non-intuitive paths to a solution.

And the team will be happier. They’ll care more because it is their solution, they created it and they own it.

2. Give them a clear, actionable mission and vision

I like how Paul Adams from Intercom describes mission and vision:

Mission: Why do we exist other than to make money?

Vision: What do we believe about the future? How will it help us reach our mission?

A good mission should be a provocative and specific statement about what the team values. It should be clear and actionable, not a list of obvious platitudes that could apply to any company. It should make it easier for product managers to make decisions about what to do and what not to do.

An example of a good mission is the Agile Manifesto which says, among other things, “We value individuals and interactions over processes and tools.” It is not saying that processes and tools have no value, it is just saying that when faced when evaluating new ways of developing software, Agile teams should individuals and interactions more. It’s specific and actionable.

3. Give them  a clear way to measure success

When there is no clear, commonly understood way to measure success, everyone will fill in their own fuzzy measurements and change them when it’s convenient. You not only risk misalignment, but you are forced to constantly shift tactics to serve constantly shifting success metrics. And you never get anything done.

Clear success metrics provide accountability. To a Product Owner, accountability is a gift. It allows you to focus on the important things and say no the the unimportant.

Good success metrics should measure when the team actually adds value, not just creates more stuff. Vanity metrics like Story Points, pageviews and time on site should be avoided. After all, you can make something harder to do and add pageviews and time spent on site. Concentrate success metrics on things that indicate real value has been achieved, like revenue or other types of conversions.

4. Give them the ability to release software easily and often

I don’t want to beat up on the developers here. But if your technology leadership is not embracing things like Continuous Delivery and automated testing, chances are that regularly launching new stuff is a slow and painful process.

It is really, really hard to be an effective Product Manager if you are can’t regularly get high-quality, low defect code into production with a minimum of fuss.

5. Remove tight controls and heavy process

Leaders often don’t understand that successful products are built by fostering a learning mindset through experimentation. They might see some early failures and put tight controls into place to “ensure against failure”. Unfortunately this usually leads to bureaucratic process where each new feature requires a spec document, review meetings and other gate checks at each step. Now everyone wants to put their stamp on the idea and the product team can’t move fast to test new ideas. That has a funny way of “ensuring against success”.

I think David Bland put it best:

6. Give them direct access to users

You are not your users. Your users have different needs, pains, and lives. They use your product in different contexts. You need to discover all of this and more. The best way to do this is to talk to them.

Your users are also precious. You don’t want to pester or annoy them. You want to partner with them. I have found that people are almost always willing to talk to you about their problems or your product as long as you are respectful of them and their time (especially if you pay them).

Good leaders will actively promote, or even mandate, that product managers habitually talk to users. The balance between gathering information and protecting users must be negotiated, especially in heavily regulated markets. But there is usually a way to get in front of users, it just might take some creativity.

Good Product Managers are expert influencers. If you are a Product Owner and are not being supported in these ways, use your influence to change your organization. It won’t be easy, but I promise you it will be worth it.

  • 产品及服务
  • 合作伙伴
  • 洞见
  • 加入我们
  • 关于我们
  • 联系我们

WeChat

×
QR code to ThoughtWorks China WeChat subscription account

媒体与第三方机构垂询 | 政策声明 | Modern Slavery statement ThoughtWorks| 辅助功能 | © 2021 ThoughtWorks, Inc.