Prasanna Krishnamoorthy’s Post

Product Manager: Don't try to match your Engineering team's level of technical skills. It's counterproductive. Instead, adopt the following approach: 1. Prioritize a profound comprehension of your customers. Delve into their pain points, objectives, and day-to-day experiences. 2. Cultivate expertise in strategic development. Understand the nuances of formulating a compelling vision and a meticulously crafted strategy. 3. Acquire sufficient technical acumen to engage in meaningful discourse with your engineering counterparts. 4. Facilitate judicious decision-making. Foster a robust collaborative dynamic, respecting and harnessing each other's strengths. 5. Do not hesitate to seek elucidation. Assert, "For the benefit of the non-technical participants, could you elucidate this in layman's terms?" Remember, your role is not to write code but to deliver a product that aligns with market demand and generates value for both your customers and your company. Therefore, empower your Engineering team to excel in their technical domain while you navigate the product vision with precision. In essence, govern the product, not the technology. #ProductManagement #ProductStrategy #Product

Ultimately the job of a Product Manager is talking to customers to get their commitment that what we tell engineers to build those customers will actually pay for. That's the job. #productmanagement #productdevelopment #productengineering

Is your lack of technical understanding causing tension with your engineering team? Here’s how to build strong relationships with engineers as a Product Manager 1/5: Treat your engineers as part of the team Don’t view product and engineering as separate entities, but as part of the same agile development team. That means ensuring that everyone understands the customer’s needs, and team mission, and the product vision. 2/5: Share your knowledge with the team. Engineers want to understand the context and reasoning behind decisions made by the product team. They also want to understand the impact of their work on the business. Make sure to communicate as to why the selected work is important 3/5: Trust engineers to do their jobs. Their job is to build solutions to customer problems. As product managers, we provide the problem, an explanation as to why it’s important to the user. Then leave it to the engineers to determine how to implement the solution 4/5: Communicate the “what” and the “why” to the engineers. As product managers, we communicate the customer problem that team will solve. While giving them the creativity they crave to come up with the “how” themselves 5/5: When communicating the "why" Start with the user value. Use the Value proposition Canvas to document that the user experience and opportunities to fix user pain points and create value. Also use data to back up your conclusions and communicate them like a funnel. Finally, provide time for questions and feedback. Give the team opportunities to ask why particular features or requests are important to the overall strategy. This can take place in settings like standup or grooming sessions. #product #productmanager

Different responsibilities of Product Managers, Technical Program Managers, and Engineering in a product-based organization? Product Managers are responsible for defining a product road map by understanding customer and business pain points. They bring the vision of the product and its value, defining the "What" and "Why". Technical Program Managers, on the other hand, build the cross-functional technical strategy and implementation road map for the product vision in collaboration with Product Managers and the Engineering Organization. Finally, Engineering defines the "How" for the product road map and owns the execution track, building the technology solution for the business problem. It's important to understand the distinct responsibilities of each role to ensure a successful product launch.

Product management is broken. It started as a promising concept: The Product Manager and the Engineering Manager team up. The Product Manager decides WHAT should be made, understanding the customers’ needs and talking to stakeholders. The engineers plan HOW to build these ideas, and then code without distractions from customers. In reality? 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗝𝗨𝗦𝗧 𝗗𝗢𝗘𝗦𝗡’𝗧 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗞! In the article, I covered in depth why: https://lnkd.in/dkGTB-mg In short - engineers build something without ever talking to the customer, and with no direct input from their side. So why can’t the customers just talk to engineers? Because "Engineers are not good at dealing with customers!” That might have been true in the 80s, when engineers were mostly hard-core geeks. It’s definitely not true anymore. The shift is already happening: PostHog is hiring ONLY product engineers. Ian Vanagas covered it in a great article: https://lnkd.in/dCNaqfhd This is just the start. Product management roles won't be eliminated, but will undergo a huge transformation. As engineers, it's part of OUR JOB to understand the product world better. For me, newsletters is the best way to learn. There are 3 ones I highly recommend: 1. 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗨𝗻𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱 by Kyle Poyar: https://lnkd.in/dWzfh2qt     2. 𝗨𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 by David Pereira https://lnkd.in/dja8QkSf     3. 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗯𝘆 Aakash Gupta: https://lnkd.in/d9HPpyHz

Daily Post #3 Engineering and Product: Friends not Foes It’s a common trope to paint the picture of Product and Engineering Managers going nine rounds over what should be prioritized and worked. But in my experience, what each side wants actually aligns pretty closely more often than not. Granted, I’ve worked with some really great Product Managers like Jay Garmon and Alexandra Cook (if they are on the market when you read this, act quickly, because they won’t be for long). But, no matter what, you both want the same thing at the end of the day: to build the best possible product. This means Product Managers want to create a smooth operating and scalable experience just like engineers. So, where does the stigma come from? Quite often it’s a shoot-the-messenger scenario. Product managers are getting pressure from all sorts of angles: revenue (sales), customers, executive leadership, and even engineering. Quite often, their hands are being forced to implement solutions with short-sighted benefits, and engineering doesn’t always have the purview to see that’s what’s going on. With that in mind, learn to work with your product manager to make your case for a better long-term product to the company at large. They will be able to hammer out a strong business case while you provide the technical justification. Interested in me brining this expertise to your organization? Don’t hesitate to connect and reach out.

As a product manager, I've learned that one of the most crucial relationships you'll need to cultivate is with your engineering team. The partnership between product and engineering is the backbone of successful product development, and fostering a strong, collaborative dynamic is essential for delivering high-quality products that meet user needs. So, what are some key strategies for working effectively with engineering teams? #ProductManagement #Engineering #Collaboration #Teamwork #productdevelopment #crossfunctionalteam

I went from Engineering Manager to Product Manager It honestly doesn’t feel too different… … at least from a product awareness POV. Technical Product Management with a good understanding of the engineering is really exciting. Engineering and Product needs to walk in lockstep With deep understanding of each other At least between decision makers When I started my career we had large requirement docs Sent by someone I didn’t even know It treats engineering as a task to be done Ignores that the best engineers have deep product knowledge But… The best engineers have deep product understanding Creating great solutions for users 🌟 💬 Does your eng and product team work closely together? P.S. Being a Product Manager does have some notable differences to being an engineering manager, but I’ll save that for another post

I don’t think you need to be technical to be a product manager but I believe learning on the go and getting an understanding of tech is essential. 🤔 Why? Because you want to build products that that push the boundaries of tech with the aim to solve customer needs. In order to do so, you need to understand the capabilities of tech. ❓What are some practical ways to gain a technical understanding? ❓ ➡️ read the engineering strategy and reach out to experts in your company to better understand the rationale and the decisioning behind it ➡️ pair with engineers during the demo and dive deep into how the features work ➡️ don’t shy away from looking at code and asking your engineerings to walk you through it ➡️ work closely with your engineering manager or engineering lead to understand feasibility constraints for ideas What are other ways in which you expand your understanding of tech? #productmanager #productmanagement #productmanagerskills

⚙ How to make your Engineers LOVE working with You!⚙ As product managers, our engineers are the backbone of our products. How we support and empower them shapes the success of what we deliver to our customers. It's the difference between a seamless product launch and a potential disaster. Here are three key tones to adopt when working with engineers, fostering a collaborative and effective environment: 👂 Empathetic: Understand their challenges and frustrations. What may seem like technical roadblocks to us are their daily battles. By empathizing with their perspective, we can better support them through complex projects and potential delays. 🌟 Optimistic: Recognize that as product managers, we're not the technical experts. It's not our job to dictate what's feasible or not. Instead, let's approach each challenge with optimism, trusting in the expertise of our engineering team to find innovative solutions. 🤝 Collaborative: While we may not write code, we're co-creators of the product alongside our engineers. Let's foster an environment where their insights and directions are valued. Collaboration breeds success. Remember, any issues within our team translate to problems with our product and, ultimately, impact our users. By nurturing a positive and supportive relationship with our engineers, we pave the way for smoother processes and exceptional outcomes. What did I leave out? Comment your best tips for collaborating between PM's and Engineers! #ProductManagement #EngineeringExcellence #sfpg