Good PM, Bad PM, Extraordinary PM
An updated view on the classic essay from Ben Horowitz, 25 years later.
Around 1997, if I’m not mistaken, Ben Horowitz wrote, what is now, a classic essay entitled Good PM, Bad PM. Although the profession has matured a lot during these 20+ years, there are still many great points about being a good Product Manager.
I decided to revisit the article and bring the perspective of what I believe to be the traits of extraordinary product managers.
Good product managers know the market, the product, the product line and the competition extremely well and operate from a strong basis of knowledge and confidence. A good product manager is the CEO of the product. A good product manager takes full responsibility and measures themselves in terms of the success of the product. They are responsible for right product/right time and all that entails. A good product manager knows the context going in (the company, our revenue funding, competition, etc.), and they take responsibility for devising and executing a winning plan (no excuses).
Bad product managers have lots of excuses. Not enough funding, the engineering manager is an idiot, Microsoft has 10 times as many engineers working on it, I’m overworked, I don’t get enough direction. Barksdale doesn’t make these kinds of excuses and neither should the CEO of a product.
Extraordinary product managers are relentless in making it work. Extraordinary product managers bring the team together to make it happen. Extraordinary product managers learn fast. Extraordinary product managers know the unknowns and work on them. Extraordinary product managers brings the missing context to the team to build the right product/right time. Extraordinary product managers praise their team and give them credit.
Good product managers don’t get all of their time sucked up by the various organizations that must work together to deliver right product/right time. They don’t take all the product team minutes, they don’t project manage the various functions, they are not gophers for engineering. They are not part of the product team; they manage the product team. Engineering teams don’t consider Good Product Managers a “marketing resource.” Good product managers are the marketing counterpart of the engineering manager. Good product managers crisply define the target, the “what” (as opposed to the how) and manage the delivery of the “what.”
Bad product managers feel best about themselves when they figure out “how”.
Extraordinary product managers navigate the team through the why. Extraordinary product managers empower the team with alignment, autonomy and trust.
Good product managers communicate crisply to engineering in writing as well as verbally. Good product managers don’t give direction informally. Good product managers gather information informally. Good product managers create leveragable collateral, FAQs, presentations, white papers.
Bad product managers complain that they spend all day answering questions for the sales force and are swamped.
Extraordinary product managers use documentation to drive strategy. Extraordinary product managers use documentation to create an experimentation culture. Extraordinary product managers constantly learn from customers, market, competitors, experimenting and gut feelings. Extraordinary product managers connect the dots.
Good product managers anticipate the serious product flaws and build real solutions.
Bad product managers put out fires all day.
Extraordinary product managers minimize value and business risks beforehand. Extraordinary product managers make decision in the right time and with the right data. Extraordinary product managers move on when necessary.
Good product managers take written positions on important issues (competitive silver bullets, tough architectural choices, tough product decisions, markets to attack or yield).
Bad product managers voice their opinion verbally and lament that the “powers that be” won’t let it happen. Once bad product managers fail, they point out that they predicted they would fail.
Extraordinary product managers don’t give up until proven (by the market and customers) otherwise. Extraordinary product managers execute towards the goal tenaciously.
Good product managers focus the team on revenue and customers.
Bad product managers focus the team on how many features Microsoft is building.
Extraordinary product managers create reinforcing feedback loops for the most critical metrics. Extraordinary product managers create balancing feedback loops to drive the best behaviors.
Good product managers define good products that can be executed with a strong effort.
Bad product managers define good products that can’t be executed or let engineering build whatever they want (i.e. solve the hardest problem).
Extraordinary product managers find the way to product-market fit and beyond. Extraordinary product managers help the team execute the right product/right time.
Good product managers think in terms of delivering superior value to the market place during inbound planning and achieving market share and revenue goals during outbound.
Bad product managers get very confused about the differences amongst delivering value, matching competitive features, pricing, and ubiquity.
Extraordinary product managers understand their users´ journey and deliver value in layers through time, building the long-term strategy.
Good product managers decompose problems.
Bad product managers combine all problems into one.
Extraordinary product managers understand first principles and solve root problems, generating immense value.
Good product managers think about the story they want written by the press.
Bad product managers think about covering every feature and being really technically accurate with the press.
Extraordinary product managers nurture great press.
Good product managers ask the press questions.
Bad product managers answer any press question.
Extraordinary product managers drive the press towards the story that will power up key metrics.
Good product managers assume press and analyst people are really smart.
Bad product managers assume that press and analysts are dumb because they don’t understand the difference between “push” and “simulated push.”
Extraordinary product managers befriend the press and create great communities.
Good product managers err on the side of clarity vs. explaining the obvious.
Bad product managers never explain the obvious.
Extraordinary product managers evangelize.
Good product managers define their job and their success.
Bad product managers constantly want to be told what to do.
Extraordinary product managers bring results and have fun.
Extraordinary product managers help others grow with them.
Good product managers send their status reports in on time every week, because they are disciplined.
Bad product managers forget to send in their status reports on time, because they don’t value discipline.
Extraordinary product managers create an excellent product culture of asynchronous and transparent communication to share information constantly.