Product Management has been rated as the 4th most important role in Corporate America, but that only is true if the Product Manager is making a valuable strategic contribution. The problem is that too many Product Managers are acting like Product Janitors, doing many low value activities, putting our fires and cleaning up messes. In this session, we'll discuss what Bad Product Managers do and define what you must do to transform into an Excellent Product Manager.

1. Good Product Manager/
Bad Product Manager
Tom Evans
CompellingPM
@compellingpm
Copyright 2014. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 1

3. “Being a good product manager is so hard that
most product managers at most companies fail
to be good -- and instead are bad.”
--Ben Horowitz and David Weiden
Copyright 2014. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 3

4. Good PM v. Bad PM
Good Bad
Based on knowledge & confidence They think that….
Owns success of product
Too many factors outside their
control
CEO of Product
Marketing resource for
engineering
Drives the what & why Defines the how
Grows the business Builds bells & whistles
Tells the story Presents features
Defines their role Others define role
Copyright 2014. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 4
Reference: Ben Horowitz, 1996

5. Bad PM = Product Janitor
• Instead of working on the critical things that
will make a big difference for your product and
thinking strategically, the product manager [&
product marketer] end up doing thankless low-
level work that is not appreciated (and many
times not necessary.)
Brian Lawley, 280 Group
Copyright 2014. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 5

6. What Makes a Bad PM?
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7. Bad PM Session Notes
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8. What Makes a Good PM?
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9. Good PM Session Notes
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10. How Do We Transform?
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Discover
Value
Create
Value
Communicate
Value
Deliver Value
Capture
Value

11. Transform Session Notes
Copyright 2014. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 11

12. What Are You Going to Be?
What Will You Do Different?
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13. Thank You!
Tom Evans
CompellingPM
tevans@compellingpm.com
@compellingpm
www.compellingpm.com
Copyright 2014. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 13