The Good Product Manager vs. The Bad Product Manager

Today I came across the Good Product Manager/Bad Product Manager courtesy lecture at the Stanford university by Ben Horowitz, I believe this post is a classic for product management.

I have summarized Ben's points as follows:

 

 Bad Product Manager

• Always makes lots of excuses.

• A bad product manager is not the product's CEO.

• Lacks in communication skills. Bad product managers don't communicate well with the engineering team and tend to blame them when things go wrong due to bad communication.

• Puts out fires all day and complains that is swamped by questions and interruptions.

• When things go wrong they quickly point out that they predicted they would fail and the "powers of be" didn't do anything about it.

• Bad product managers focus the team on the feature that the competition is building.

• Bad product managers get confused on how to position their products on the market and how to leverage it.

• Bad product managers don't know how to work with the press, they don't manage the press.

• Bad product managers always want to be told what to do.

• Bad product managers don't produce status reports on time and are not disciplined.
  
• Bad product managers don't take responsibility and tend to blame others.

Good Product Manager

• Knows the product, the market and the competition really well.

• Is the CEO of the product.

• Takes responsibility for all aspects off the product.

• Manages himself based on the product's performance on the market.

• Takes responsibility for devising and executing a winning plan.

• Good product managers manage the product team and not every detail of every aspect of everyone's work. He/she knows how to delegate and manage the team effectively.

• Good product managers are focused on strategic decisions, ensuring that the product is flexible and adaptable to a changing business environment.
  
• Good product managers create lots of collateral to support the day-to-day operations of the team. He/she is not swamped by questions about the product and ensure that they are not the only ones that can answer questions about the product.

• Following from the previous point, good product managers equip their team to handle the day to day activities allowing them to focus on strategic topics such as market positioning, timing, etc...

• Good product managers focus the team on revenue and customers,

• Good product managers focus on delivering value to the market place and not on just matching the competition.

• Good product managers think about the story they want published on the press and they manage the press, not the other way around.

• Good product managers are disciplined and produce status reports on time.

The courtesy lecture I read today can be found here.

One skill that is vital for good product management is the ability to build good professional relationships. In this article I explain the importance of building professional relationships in the context of IT Management. The same principles apply to product management, in fact, these principles apply to any profession these days.

Whilst the following articles are not written in the context of product management, the principles apply. As a matter of fact, I believe that many product managers lack good planning and management skills which hinder their ability to really excel in their product management career.

•  Management theory and IT Management Part 1 - Planning
• Management theory and IT Management Part 2 - Organizing
• The effective IT manager, the importance of relationship management

 In essence a good product manager is the CEO of the product, knows how to manage the team, the press and ensures to deliver value to the market place.

What are your experiences in product management, what makes a good product manager in your view?