Cross Functional Teams and the Product Manager
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Transcript of Cross Functional Teams and the Product Manager
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Cross-functional teamsand the product manager
Ken Norton
Product Manager
Google, Inc.
Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-2.5
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My Background
• Currently: Product Manager at Google
• Formerly: JotSpot, Yahoo!, NBCi/Snap! and CNET
• 8 years in engineering, 6 in product management
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Tonight
• What I wish I’d known before I became a PM
• I am a pragmatically sarcastic optimist
• (There will only be two formulas)
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For PMs:Here’s the good news.
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You have the resources.
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You are completely accountable.
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You are ready to go.
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But…
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You have no authority.
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And everyone is skeptical.
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Why?
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Without sales, nothing would get sold.
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Without engineering, nothing would get built.
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Without support, customers would leave.
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Without product managers?
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Life would be just fine.
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(For a while.)
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What you learned in business school:
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Functional organization.
PM
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Weak matrix.
PM
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Strong matrix.
PM
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What you actually find.
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The real world.
PM
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Or maybe.
PM
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Or even.
PM
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And quite possibly.
PM
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More rarely.
PM
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(Very rare).
PM
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The reality.
• PMs usually not closely supervised.
• Little to no authority is handed to you.
• You don’t have direct managerial oversight for the people who work on your stuff.
• You are held accountable for success (or lack thereof).
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The team:Who you are working with
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7 ± 2
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7 ± 2(That’s the first formula).
George A. Miller. The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two. The Psychological Review, 1956, vol. 63, pp. 81-97
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Always trust your instincts.
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If you don’t have the right team, get it.
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There is nothing more important to invest “political capital” on.
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Be three things at once.
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1.“Never tell people how to do things.
Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”
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1.“Never tell people how to do things.
Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”
(General George Patton)
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2.Communicate to different people
in their own language.
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2.Communicate to different people
in their own language.
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3.Represent the people not in the room.
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3.Represent the people not in the room.
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The Modern Product Manager
1. 2. 3.
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How to get respect from engineers.
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1. Clear obstacles.
2. Get out of the way.
3. Always take the blame.
4. Ask dumb questions.
5. Explain the “why.”
6. Empathize.
7. Bring the donuts.
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How to get respect from sales.
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1. Know their number.
2. Get on the phone with customers.
3. Make promises so they don’t have to.
4. Help them be creative.
5. Bring the donuts.
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How to get respect from executives.
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1. Have a vision.
2. Be patient.
3. Have data.
4. Know your competition.
5. Ask smart questions.
6. Make your commitments.
7. Bring the donuts.
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How to get respect from customers.
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1. Understand what they want.
2. Call them out of the blue.
3. Keep your promises.
4. Take the blame.
5. Bring the donuts.
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Fuel for teams.
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A. B. S.
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Always Be Shipping.
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Nothing helps a team become efficient more than a steady release tempo.
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The Hackathon
• Basic rules:
• Valuable to the company
• Not what you’re “supposed” to be doing
• Idea to prototype in one day
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If you do nothing else…
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Have a fifteen minute daily meeting.
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Ask your team three questions:
1. What have you completed since yesterday?
2. What will you have done by tomorrow?
3. What’s standing in your way and how can we help?
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Getting smarter about estimating.
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Product Manager:“When can you get this done? Today?”
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Engineer:“Well, I think it needs more time.”
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Product Manager:“We need it ASAP.
What about tomorrow by end of day?”
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Engineer:“Uh, OK.”
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The right question:“What needs to happen for you to finish, and
what can I do to help?”
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Rule of thumb for estimates.
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Likely estimate (L):“How long do you think it will take?”
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Pessimistic estimate (P):“OK, but what’s the longest it could take, accounting for unforeseen roadblocks?”
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Optimistic estimate (O):“What’s the least amount of time required if
everything goes well?”
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O + (L x 4) + P6
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An even simpler approach.
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Use a simple High/Medium/Low or 1-5 scale.
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Find me.
http://www.heynorton.org