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Chapter 6. Bad product manager archetypes
Agile does indeed promote a better way of collaboration and a faster method of building software, but it largely ignores how to do effective product management. Agile assumed that someone was doing that front-of-funnel part, generating and validating ideas, and instead optimized the production of software. Yet, that piece has been lost along the way, as companies believe that Agile is all you need to do successful software development. So, many product managers in Agile organizations still operate with this Waterfall mindset.
The Mini-CEO
Product managers are not the mini-CEOs of a product, yet 90% of the job postings I have seen for product managers describe them as being the mini-CEO. CEOs have sole authority over many things. They can fire people. They can change up teams. They can change directions. Product managers, on the other hand, can’t change many of the things a CEO can in an organization. They especially don’t have authority over people, because they are not people managers at the team level. Instead, they need to rely on influencing them to actually move in a certain direction. Out of this wonderful CEO myth emerged an archetype of a very
The Waiter
The waiter is a product manager who, at heart, is an order taker. They go to their stakeholders, customers, or managers, ask for what they want, and turn those wants into a list of items to be developed. There is no goal. There is no vision. There is no decision making involved.
More often than not, the most important person gets their features prioritized. This happens frequently in very large companies. The product managers go out, with all the right intentions, to talk to their customers and learn what they want. But, instead of discovering problems, waiters ask, “What do you want?” The customer asks for a specific solution, and these product managers implement them. This is where you end up in the product death cycle
The product death cycle
The former project manager
Little project management is needed to execute on the role correctly. Project managers are responsible for the when. When will a project finish? Is everyone on track? Will we hit our deadline? Product managers are responsible for the why? Why are we building this? How does it deliver value to our customers? How does it help meet the goals of the business? The latter questions are more difficult to answer than the former, and, too often, product managers who don’t understand their roles well resort to doing that type of work.
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