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How to land on your feet as a product manager
March 30, 2016Paul HurwitzHealth Tech Product Director
Parachuting into an Existing Product
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About Paul Hurwitz
• 15+ Years in technology roles• 10 Years in Product roles• Finance/Accounting, Life Sciences & Health Tech products• Have parachuted 3 times into existing products.
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About Paul Hurwitz
• Have parachuted 3 times into existing products.– Centage Corporation (Financial/Accounting)– Medidata Solutions (Life Sciences/Pharma)– ActiveHealth Management (Population Health Management)
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In the first 2 weeks – 5 Steps• First impressions are very important
• Difficult to recover from a bad first impression
• Learn how product managers are perceived
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1) Meet with Key Stakeholders
•Window into short-term urgency for your product
• Find out what the real priorities are
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Business Stakeholders
• CEO (depends on size of company)• Marketing director• Adjacent product managers• Sales director• Account Management
Technical Stakeholders
• VP Engineering / Development Lead• QA Lead• Customer Support Lead
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Discussions with Stakeholders
What is the problem that we are trying to solve?
• Face to Face (if possible)• Listen! Don’t talk too much.• Take notes
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2) Find (or Create) the backlog•What’s already been promised?
• Any golf course deals?
• Don’t make any commitments until you know the full scope
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3) Book Calls with Customers
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4) Learn Your Product•You only have a few days to experience your product as a naïve user
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5) Introduce yourself to the Development team (gently)•“Be a mensch instead of an MBA” – Rich Mironov
•Position yourself as their champion
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First 30 - 60 Days – Another 5 steps
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1) At least 5-10 Calls with Customers
•Write up summaries
•here’s what I heard from customers
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2) Create a Product Strategy
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3) Get intimate with your financials
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4) Prepare the business for a roadmap reset•Set proper expectations
•What really, truly has to be in the next release?
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5) Get a few quick wins
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Conclusion
"A great product manager has the brain of an engineer, the heart of a designer, and the speech of a diplomat.“
-Deep Nishar, former SVP for products and user experience at LinkedIn
Before you parachute in, have a plan to engage with people and issues. Remember that titles don’t matter, but driving collaboration and product success do.
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Contact Info
•www.phurwitz.com
• http://lnkdin.me/phurwitz
• http://twitter.com/phurwitzma
