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Where Product Mgmt Sits

Started by Adam Bullied · 1 year ago

Product management has to report to the CEO. This is really not something that is up for debate.

There is a lot of data suggesting this is not presently the case for many organizations, especially in tech - and that has to change.

In order to be successful, product managers require a lot of input and clout [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: ... Continue reading »

11 comments

  • Saeed Khan

    1 year ago

    Adam,

    Good post. I've blogged about this exact topic and have asked VCs the Product Management question you pose. The answers can be found near the end of this post.

    http://onproductmanagement.wordpress.com/2007/0...

    Saeed
    reply
  • Adam Bullied

    1 year ago

    Oops! I didn't see that post, Saeed - it's a great series, for sure.
    Sorry to have doubled up...
    reply
  • Saeed Khan

    1 year ago

    Adam, no problem. It's an important topic and I'm happy to see others thinking about the same thing.

    Saeed
    reply
  • eagle.eye

    1 year ago

    You've hit the nail when you say
    "Personally, I think a start to this is to get product management to be an actual subject / role / element taught to business students in MBA programs. Finance is. Marketing is. Sales, strategy, “organizational behavior,” etc…. Why not product mgmt?"
    Aye!
    reply
  • Adam Bullied

    1 year ago

    Thanks for the comment, sridharo. Maybe eventually we'll see this
    happen, but unfortunately, I don't think it will be something that
    goes in to these types of programs for the foreseeable future.
    reply
  • Scott Sehlhorst

    1 year ago

    Hey Adam, great! article.

    As we've talked about before, you're spot on. Product Management needs to work in concert with multiple disciplines - sales, engineering, marketing. If it is subordinate to any one of them, the system becomes biased against optimal decisions. Doesn't make them impossible, but why go out of your way to set up something with a baked-in bias?
    reply
  • Adam Bullied

    1 year ago

    Exactly, Scott. There is no sense in having any one of the functional teams
    enforce their own personal bias on the product overall. They are all going
    to want something different based on their own unique interests, and it's
    product management's job to transcend those opinions / take the in to
    account and deliver something that's best for the market.
    reply
  • Sridhar Oruganti

    1 year ago

    Adam,
    Check this link
    http://www.isb.edu/media/UsrSiteNewsMgmt.aspx?t...

    Its not exactly Prod Mgmt,but sounds like a distant relative.Thats why I am targetting this school for my mba ;-)
    reply
  • Adam Bullied

    1 year ago

    Sridhar - I think that's great! I actually have a friend that's headed to Boston for her MBA in the fall...
    reply
  • pjhtaylor

    11 months ago

    In the telecom industry we have product management roles (e.g. Director, Head of, etc.) reporting to CEO equivalents. I believe you'll find similar positions advertised (or referred to) over at ProductManager.com. I too, believe the role should be addressed in MBA coursework and/or electives.
    reply
  • Adam Bullied

    11 months ago

    It's so fantastic to hear from a PM in another industry besides Web /
    tech! Thanks so much for commenting on this.

    One of my thoughts for a while now (hence my "manifesto" post) is that
    product mgmt, regardless of industry, has to have a similar set of
    fundamentals and a singular philosophy. So it's great to hear.

    I wasn't even aware that productmanager.com existed, so thanks so much
    for pointing it out. There are some of us working behind the scenes on
    these blogs a bit to make some standard information more available /
    reference-able (as opposed to the blog format, which is much more post-
    to-post). A couple of us are also working on some different mediums
    for the deliver of the information, which again, will hopefully make
    this stuff a bit more within reach for those that are hunting for the
    knowledge.

    Thanks for the comment!
    reply

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