Do you really need a Product Manager for a successful Product?
This post is a summary of a series of “Mentoring” and “Advisory” calls I did with some early stage startups, over the past 6 months. Most of the time, one of the founder ideates, one builds/leads the build. But, they want to go fast and think they need a Product Manager. Unfortunately, most of them don’t need a Product Manager. If you are at a similar juncture, read on to find out more..
The title is a controversial question, I know!
The State of Product Management:
Off lately, Product Managers have to wear too many hats, leaving the role vague and blurring the boundaries of their area of responsibility. This ultimately leads to diminishing the value of the product manager’s core functions. Product Management is a strategic, cross-functional, front-line role that brings great value to the product and business.
But, it commonly gets abused by many fast-paced organisations expecting product managers to fill in the gaps in various disciplines. This may be process, pricing, unit-economics, partnerships, product-marketing to name a few. They can definitely do that due to their broad professional background.
Admittedly, product managers do have a broad background, otherwise they would have a hard time to be able to effectively collaborate with the stakeholders, lead the product and make the informed decisions. But this definitely should not end up with the product managers becoming de-facto “deciders” or “doers” originally intended to be done by other roles in other functions.
How do you decide if you need a Product Manager or Not?
Like any problem, there are two approaches, if an intellectual debate is more to your taste, continue reading on. If it is more of a rational “doer” approach, head straight down to it.
Intellectual Approach
Ask yourselves some questions:
If you are a founder or a leader or a decision maker, before hiring a Product Manager, question yourself as to your expectations from the product manager.
Think hard on what you want them to do:
- What do you want your new product manager to change/fix in your organization? What is it that you are unable to do?
- Do you not already have the in-house expertise that would help you address the current issues?
If you are still unsure about whether or not you need a product manager “in the house”,
I recommend that you go through this checklist and answer Yes/No to each of its questions:
- Do you have a vision for your product? Do you believe it is aligned with the market needs?
- Are you sure you are building the right product — the one that delivers value to your target audience?
- Do you have a direction for your product? A long-term and a short-term roadmap?
- Till now, have you been able to execute your roadmap without major distractions?
- Are you capable of maintaining the strategic focus across all levels of the organization?
- Do you know your competitors and what they have on the game? Proposition, not features.
- Do you have an established feedback loop with your clients? (Not the feature request types)
- Do you mostly base your decisions on evidence/data?
- Do you find it easy to say “No” to various stakeholders from various functions while hearing their “suggestions” and “inputs” and explain them why what they think is not the “most” right thing?
If you answered “No” to more than 4 questions, you probably need a Product Manager, No doubt in that.
But the reality is, that hiring a highly capable Product Manager won’t magically change the DNA of your organisation. I have seen multiple orgs regress into a worser situation than before. Because, the person responsibl has delegated the product decisions to that Product manager with a shiny belt, without enabling/empowering him/her.
The result
Rational Approach
If you’re a CEO, founder, or senior leader considering hiring a PM, check this list and see if you need one. Lets play a guess and eliminate game.
If you can see your organisation is reflected in this article, don’t bother hiring a PM — save some money and hire a cheaper role. You would also spare a PM some misery.
Don’t bother hiring a PM…
If you have a fixed idea of what to build
You already know what you want to build, you just need somebody to build it. You’ve hired some engineers. You need somebody to gather the requirements from you and the team, and maybe manage the back-and-forth of different requirements from many stakeholders. This person then passes the requirements along to the engineers and makes sure they deliver on time.
You need a Project Manager, not a Product Manager.
If your Sales team or clients are dictating what to build
You have a handful of big clients and you’re ready to bend over backwards to deliver what they need, including building custom features. Your Sales team knows best what to build, surely, as they’re the ones talking to the customers all the time. Now it’s just a matter of writing the stories and prioritising them.
You need a Delivery Manager, not a Product Manager
If they won’t have access to your customers
You have some very-important-people as customers and their time is precious. You don’t want the new person you just hired to talk to them directly — may be they will say something untoward?
I don’t know what you need, but you certainly don’t need a Product Manager.
If you’re not ready to delegate authority
You know that product managers should be given a problem to solve, not a feature to build. Heck, you were probably a Product person yourself, who has now set up your own startup. You have the vision and the strategy and you know exactly how to get there…
What’s left for the Product Managers to do, then? Maybe hire an Engineering Manager or a Tech Lead?
If you see technology as a support function
An easy way to assess this: How much of your company budget is dedicated for product/technology/innovation? If you’re not willing to invest significant resources to staff the product/technology team properly, they’ll be left firefighting all year long.
Don’t hire a Product Manager — yet. Assess how you see technology plays a role in your company’s vision. Set aside a proper budget, hire a strong CTO or CPO, and let them build their team. Only do that if you’re willing to listen to them though — or don’t bother doing it at all.
In Sum and summary, Hire a Product Manager only if you believe you can delegate authority, and can come to a rational decision based on data. If not, hire a Project Manager, Engineering Manager or any of the other roles.
