Many product managers could benefit fom clarity on what matters most while driving to product success. There are many factors that impact it. In a top view, to succeed, the product must have the “right” features and capabilities; must be developed and delivered in the “right” time and with “good” quality; must be promoted, sold, and supported “well” – of course. But, what’s most important for the product manager to get all of that done?

Well, whenever you have a situation where the result depends on a multitude of factors the really deciding ones often depend on specifics and often can be only determined in retrospect. However, in very many cases or perhaps almost always, the key factor is one that’s often overlooked or not even considered. It is a partnership between the product manager and his/her general manager, enhanced by changing alliances with functional executives within the company. Let’s explore this key factor in a problem-solution framework.

Problem

In most companies, product managers operate as a middle manager, somewhere between executives and functional team managers. What makes a product manager different from other middle managers? It’s the breadth of engagement, across many functional areas, coupled with the lack of staff and the lack of narrow but well defined scope of activity and responsibility. A product manager’s job can be a classical “influence without authority” role.

What’s the problem with that? More often than not, the product runs into trouble because the product manager has run into trouble. Why would that be? It could be the product manager is incompetent, or the product manager’s influence in the company is not as strong and effective as it should be. If it’s the former, the solution is to replace the product manager with a competent one, of course. If it’s the latter, the problem lies with the managers of the company, including the product manager, not ensuring that product manager’s power in the company is recognized and accepted by other managers.

Can this problem be solved and the chances of product success improved? Yes, it is possible. Provided it’s recognized and addressed in a timely way. A framework of partnership between the general and product managers and changing alliances with functional executives can help.

Solution

Product partners and allies

In a product oriented enterprise, the general manager and the product manager are the fundamental members of the team. The company’s success critically depends on the two of them. Why? You can’t succeed in the market without a good product. There are exceptions of course, but it’s a 99%+ true statement. Long term, the true value of the product dominates and determines everything.

An enterprise with a general manager (GM) that is not focused on the product will not succeed. The success of the company - and that’s the GM’s main responsibility – depends critically on its product. Hence, the product is GM’s #1 concern. And, a company with a PM that is not the heart of the product will not be likely to succeed. Hence, the product manager is important.

The best way of considering the working relationship between the GM and PM in a company is to view them as product partners while thinking of all other managers involved with the product as allies.

Partners and Allies

Sales, engineering, operations and other functions in the company are all important - even critical in many phases - and require top-notch professionals. But, without a good product these professionals are wasting their time and talent and often other people’s money. In the process, they are also damaging their own careers.

Why consider managers of development, sales and marketing teams as allies and not as product partners? Think about it: Their involvement with this one product is only partial and temporary while the partners are in it for the product’s lifetime.

Even in a very small company, let’s say a start-up, where one would think that all managers are partners, the harsh reality is that for the development, sales, and marketing managers the “product” is always secondary to their main responsibilities. They all want the product to be right and successful of course. But, in their day-to-day work, they have their own primary responsibilities that nobody else has and they know or assume that the “product” is somebody else’s primary responsibility.

Another way of looking at this: When all is well everybody has a “constructive” opinion about the product, but when difficulties occur, many can – and will – hide behind the fact that it’s “not the main part of their job.”

By far, in a well organized company, the product manager is the only one fully and exclusively focused on what the product needs to be and what the product is or is becoming.

Product-focused partnership – making it work and last

A product manager, the PM, is responsible for all aspects of the product – definition, requirements, timing, promotion, evolution, sustaining. This calls for a lot of arguments and decisions. All decisions of the PM can be questioned, of course. Many may be ignored, unless the PM has power in the organization. How does the PM get power, become influential? Clearly, the stakes are: the PM must be an accomplished professional in the relevant field, both in technology and market. That’s a “must have” for credibility with everyone in the company. Then, there’s the access to information that’s not available to everyone in the company – both on the market/customer needs and the company product development capability. Finally, and that’s where the rubber meets the road, is the access to and working relationships with the executives, chief among them, of course, the GM. The power of the PM is completely dependent on the nature of his/her relationship with the GM.

It’s very simple indeed: if you, the PM, don’t have a support of your GM that is obvious to all in the company, the odds are stacked against you, no matter how good you are and no matter how hard you try. The lack of GM’s support obviates all your other strengths that enable you to be influential in the company and thus effective as the PM. On the other hand, if you do have an effective partnership with your GM, and it’s known in the company, your chances of success are greatly improved.

How can you, as a product manager, make your partnership with your GM work?

First things first. It would be nice if your general manager goes out of his/her way to create this partnership and ensure it is working. But, don’t count on it. Be aggressively proactive yourself. Take it upon yourself to approach your general manager and argue, until you succeed, that to be truly effective, you need his/her support.

Look, GM’s support, or lack of, will make a day and night difference in your effectiveness in the company. Without that support, you have no chance to succeed, no matter how good your professional knowledge and personality are, and no matter how smart and hard you work. So, go get it. The way to get it is to persuade the general manager that you deserve that support and  must have it for the product to succeed.

But that’s not enough. It’s not a matter of a one-time discussion and agreement. It’s a matter of forging a lasting partnership and then maintaining it at high level of efficiency.

How to do that?

Of course, the forging of the partnership can’t be accomplished in one discussion. It needs time. But you need to move fast because things move fast and you need to stay ahead.

The first thing to discuss and agree on is the product strategy and it’s relationship to the corporate strategy. You must demonstrate the ability to understand them, but also question them constructively. You must achieve mutual respect within this debate.

A digression: Only rarely if ever, a product manager can overcome a bad strategy or problems created by an incompetent general manager. Equally, a good strategy will not suffice for product success if the product manager is incompetent. So, at this stage, both prospective partners can explore and discover their chances. And decide to forge ahead, together, or part ways.

Once the general manager perceives your ability to discuss strategy at his/her level and contribute to it, you’ve made great progress. What’s needed next is getting the general manager to help you establish your product related authority in the company. It’s not a matter of announcements. It’s a matter of two actions: consistently making it clear in the company that you are the product manager and you make the product decisions, and persuading your boss to effectively support that as well.

What is that latter thing all about? Well, that’s the tricky part having to do with a fact of life: in most companies, the product manager reports to VP of marketing or VP of engineering or the CTO. Some companies have a VP of product management among their executives. That solves part of the problem above, but in most companies the fact that there’s no VP of product management creates a delicate situation. Why? Because people tend to try to contact the highest-ranking person related to the matter at hand, and executives tend to resolve issues that affect many of them within the executive team.

As for the former, it’s the usual thing: one always tries to get to the highest-ranking decision maker. The only way to deal with this is for the product manager’s boss to consistently refer any product-related issues and decisions to the product manager. As for the latter, the only way to solve that problem is to involve the product manager directly in all executive-level debates related to the product. And that can be ensured only by your partner, the general manager, and your boss.

How do you, as a product manager, make sure both of those happen?

First, you must recognize that both are absolutely necessary and that both fully depend on your partnership with the general manager. Use the partnership. It’s there for that purpose.

Most likely, your boss will welcome a discussion on your role and place in the workings of the company and accept that you are the focal point and the authority for the product. But, and it’s a big but, in the everyday hustle, things tend to go awry. Under pressure, people tend to forget what they decided to do and resort to shortcuts. So, it’s up to you to maintain – in a constructive way – that understanding and that practice. It’s a tall order, and it can be a very tall one if your boss is not naturally into delegating responsibility, so you’ll likely need to involve your partner the general manager to help maintain that relationship with your boss.

You’ll need your partner’s help even more to ensure you’re involved in executive-level discussions and planning as related to the product. The key here is to never get blindsided. Be very proactive and very fast in discovering and reacting to any product related debates. Even if you don’t participate in an executive offsite, make sure you participate in any product related discussions and decisions that happen there – participate prior or immediately after the offsite. Find out what goes on and contribute!

Your foundation for success is thus composed of your partnership with the general manager, and your product-related power in the company, and the recognition and acceptance of both of these by your direct boss and other executives in the company. Once you have these, you can start building and maintaining your alliances.

Product-focused alliances – changing but strong

How do the alliances with multiple managers work? Let’s look at the main phases of the product cycle. It all starts with the initial product concept proposal, its evaluation and decision to proceed. Once the product concept is approved by the general manager, the development project is kicked off. When the product is almost completely developed, the company launches the product to the market. It’s a marketing launch, preceding the actual general availability of the product to the market. Once the product is in the market, its evolution begins and the cycle repeats delivering new versions of the product until eventually it reaches its end of life.

Product Cycle

During the product proposal stage, the knowledge about market needs/opportunity and technology potential is critical to the correct proposal formulation and evaluation. Understanding of market needs is the responsibility of the product manager. Naturally, the product manager’s allies at this stage are mostly technology managers.

Once the product development project is authorized, the development manager becomes the key ally of the product manager, from the project kickoff until it is completed. Shortly before then, the alliance with marketing and sales managers must be forged to assure effective product launch. When the product is generally available, the product manager must ally with the sales, operations, customer service and professional service managers to help them do their jobs and to ensure obtaining the right intelligence about product use by the customers – necessary to formulate a good concept proposal for the next version of the product.

How to create and maintain these alliances? Well, other than the fact that alliances are more temporary, it takes the same proactive engagement as the partnership. It’s a bit easier, assuming the partnership is strong and you can leverage it for your alliances.

As the alliances change through the product cycle, you should constantly test their strength, as well as the strength of your partnership with the general manager. The alliances will not be strong if the partnership is not. Don’t ever delay addressing any signs of weakness.

As the product evolves, the partners must clearly understand the company strategy and how the next version of the product will help fulfill it. You should constantly check your understanding of exactly what the strategy is and why it is the right one, and test your alignment on strategy with your partner and allies.

Unless you know what your strategy is, you’ll find it difficult to decide what features and capabilities should the next version of your product have and why/when are they needed to succeed in the market. Do you know your strategy? Are you sure? If you are not, better huddle with your general manager to refresh the articulation and understanding of the strategy, right away. When that’s done spend as much time as needed to ensure that your allies are on board with it.

Constantly ask yourself: Are my alliances working? Is the partnership working? Is it real? Is it strong? If the answer is no or maybe, fixing it becomes your immediate top priority. Don’t stop fixing it until you’re confident that first your partnership and then your alliances are working as well as you need them to.

Summary

Effective partnership between a general manager and product manager is the true foundation for product success. It’s a dominating factor in product management, one that’s seldom clearly articulated or even considered. The two managers work hand-in-hand within their company, interacting with varying sets of allies, depending on the phase of product life-cycle. As the product management activities change from product concept through market introduction, the product manager serves as the junior partner in the partnership of two but one acting as the generally recognized product focal point and authority inside the company. Or at least that’s how things should be to increase the chances of product success.

Copyright © 2010 by L. Kurt Reiss, All rights reserved.

L. Kurt Reiss managed products at mutliple startups and companies large and small, such as Interactive Supercomputing, Cascade Communications and Lucent Technologies. Focusing on technology ranging from niche products to a global market-leading product family, Kurt contributed to and led product management and marketing teams through all product cycle phases. He is the author of FOR PRODUCT SUCCESS – A Partnership of Two Managers and the What and Why of It.