Transcript No Slide Title

Working effectively with Engineering
Atul Suklikar
Co-founder, VP Product Management
Softrock Systems
Speaker Background
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Education: BS EE, MS CS, MBA
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Oracle Corporation: 4 years in Engineering
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Siebel Systems: 6 years in Product Marketing
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Softrock Systems: 6 weeks
An Engineer’s Demonization of a PM
Sub-second response time
Courtesy Billy Connolly
FLEXIBILITY
Usability
Huge market
Press coverage
Standards support
Features
SENSE OF
URGENCY
Bugs
Enhancements
Bells & whistles
Agenda
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The Goal
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The Context
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The Keys to Success - Provide value to Engineering
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What constitutes value?
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How do I provide it?
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Summary
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Questions and Insights
The Goal
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Translate Product Strategy into a successful
Product Reality
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Build lasting relationships with Engineers
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Have fun building products
The context
3 Possible Organizational Relationships between PM and Engineering
GM/CEO
PM
ENG
Typical
GM/CEO
GM/CEO
ENG
PM
PM
ENG
Rare
Typical Engineering Structure
VP
Director
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Architect
Manager
Engineer
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: Typical Progression
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Focused on delivery
Architects
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“Big Thinker”
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Typically longest tenured
Staff Engineer
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Overall leadership
Directors & Managers
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Staff Engineer
: Individual Contributor
VP of Engineering
“Junior” Architect
Engineer
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Shortest tenured
Agenda
 The Goal
 The Context
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The Keys to Success - Provide value to Engineering
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What constitutes value?
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How do I provide it?
Summary
What value can a PM provide to an Engineer?
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Be the voice of the customer
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Prioritize product development
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Release themes, product features
Guide product wins
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Synthesize market requirements, customer pain-points, and competitive
landscape
Sales, market perception
Help career progression
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Product success, internal visibility, external exposure
How can the PM provide that value?
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Fully understand
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Customer
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Market
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Current Product
Expert
Gain the trust by being
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Reasonable
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Flexible
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Personable
Partner
Effectively promote
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The Product
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The Engineers
Champion
Value provided by the PM - Details
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Establish yourself as the Expert
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Build a Partnership
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Be a Champion
Establish yourself as the expert
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Areas of expertise:
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Customer
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Market
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Product
Key parties to target
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Architects, Managers, Directors
Who can help
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Other perceived Experts – PM, Sales, Services
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Architects
Building and Communicating Customer Expertise
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Familiarize yourself with customer usage
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High level knowledge about a large number of customers
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Deep knowledge about a small number of customers
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Use specific customer/prospect names and usage data in MRD use
cases and in conversations
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Have your management reiterate your stature as an expert
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In meetings, conversations, emails…
Reinforce the perception through first-hand contact
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Appropriate Sales or Service people
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Customers
Building and Communicating Market Expertise
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Familiarize yourself with the competitive landscape
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High level knowledge about a large number of competitors
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Deep knowledge about a small number of competitors
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Share this information periodically with Engineering through white
papers, demos, news clippings
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Present a balanced view about their strengths and weaknesses and
how you compete against them
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Use Engineering’s help in analyzing underlying technology trends
to augment your reading
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Limited first-hand contact with Analysts
Building and Communicating Product Expertise
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Familiarize yourself with the existing product
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Technical training
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Install development builds frequently
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Participate in testing of the product
Understand the architecture through conversations with Engineers
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Focus on the what as well as the why
Reinforce the perception that you understand the product
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MRDs contain references to how things currently work
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Explaining current product behavior in joint Engineering & PM meetings
Be balanced in your communications
Value provided by the PM - Details
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Establish yourself as the Expert
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Build a Partnership
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Be a Champion
Build a partnership
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Characteristics of a good partner
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Reasonable
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Flexible
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Personable
Key Parties to target
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Engineer, Staff Engineer, Architect, Manager, Director
Who can help
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Your manager
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Architects, Managers
Being Reasonable
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Common pitfalls
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Request 10 X the number of features that would fit in a given release
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80% of features are marked as P1
A better approach
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Articulate a multi-release vision for the product
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Get the Architects and Directors to embrace and own that vision
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Jointly work with them to define the delivery roadmap
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Over time, develop a feel for (crude) estimations of level of effort
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Involve Architects and Staff Engineers early in the definition
process
Being Flexible
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Always keep the big picture in mind
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This is a repeated interaction game – many releases, many products, many
features
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Prioritize judiciously
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Break down features into granular sub-features so that the
essential aspects are not compromised
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Entertain alternate implementations to achieve the same end goals
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If resources are insufficient, offer to make the case to management
for additional investment or reallocation
Being Personable
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Interact with Engineers in non-work settings
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Take your Engineering team to lunch
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Explore common interests – sports, movies, etc.
Make it a point to get to know the (junior) Engineers well
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Drop by their office to chat about what they are working on
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Ask for demos and provide ad-hoc feedback
Always share positive product feedback
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Forward congratulatory emails regarding sales, deployments, etc.
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Attend Engineering staff meetings on an as-needed basis
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Invite the Engineering Manager to your staff meetings
Value provided by the PM - Details
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Establish yourself as the Expert
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Build a Partnership
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Be a Champion
Be a Champion
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Things to champion
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The Product
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The Engineering team
Key Parties to target
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Product – All
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Team – Especially Engineers, Staff Engineers, and Managers
Who can help
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Your management
Champion the Product
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This is part of your normal responsibilities
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The key is to keep Engineering informed and excited
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Present a successful pitch or conference presentation to the
Engineering team
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Share favorable Product Press immediately
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Debrief the Engineering team on conference feedback
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Share clever applications of the product developed for sales deals
or by customers
Champion the Engineering team
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Give visibility to key accomplishments
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Especially for Engineers, Staff Engineers, and Managers
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Examples:
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An email to all of PM advertising a brand new feature acknowledging the developers
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An email to PM and Sales Management crediting developers of a particular feature
that was key to winning a deal
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Increase name awareness of the Engineers among your management
during meetings, conversations, etc.
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Nominate Engineers you work with for awards
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Recognize good work by Engineers by conveying your appreciation
to their managers and director
Value provided by the PM - Details
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Establish yourself as the Expert
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Build a Partnership
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Be a Champion
Summary
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The Goal – A successful Product Reality
The Context & Structure
The Keys to Success - Provide value to Engineering
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Expert
Partner
Champion
Questions and Insights
Thank you
Atul Suklikar
[email protected]