One view of how the product manager role differs from Dir of PM and VP of PM roles. Presented at SV ProdCamp '11 with lots of audience participation.

1. Understanding the Next Job Up andGetting Promoted Rich Mironov

2. About Rich Mironov CEO of a stealth startup Veteran product manager/strategist/executive Business models, pricing, agile Organizing product organizations “The Art of Product Management” and Product Bytes blog Organized first Product Camp

3. Roles and Promotions PM role is different from Director and VP PM The promotion funnel is narrow Not an entitlement Not (just) by being the best at your current job Do you demonstrate skills/scope beyond your current role Do you want that next job?

4. Product Management Executives Development What Does Product Management Do? strategy, forecasts, commitments, roadmaps,competitive intelligence budgets, staff, targets market information, priorities, requirements, roadmaps, MRDs, personas, user stories… Field input, Market feedback Mktg & Sales Markets & Customers software Segmentation, messages, benefits/features, pricing, qualification, demos…

5. Mythical PM Organization VP Products Dir PM Dir PM Pricing Analyst Sr PM PM/PMM Sr PM Sr PM PM Product Owner PM/PO Competitive Analyst Channel/Partner PM

6. Starting Bottoms-Up Product Managers focus on single-productcontent and planning

7. PM as Individual Contributor Knows more about product, market, roadmap, competition, use cases, personas, trade-offs than anyone else Talks benefits with customers; tech with engineers Relentless communicator of the truth Timeline: Next 2-4 quarters Get it done with what you have

8. "You build your product with the development team and cross-functional organization you have --not the team you might want or wish to have at a later time.” 8

9. Director of Product Management Focus on processes, resources and teams Cross-functional cooperation and priorities PLM-level trends and market input Standardization and simplification Mentor your replacement Scope Next 6 quarters Broad product strategy and budget Keep the trains running

10. WWDD? thinking & acting like a director

11. VP Products Focus on aligning strategy, organization and products Is the company succeeding? Is PM succeeding? Company-wide issues and disconnects Market success ($ales) Scope 3 year trends Thoughtful member of exec team How do we build organizational support to do the right things?

12. WWVPD?

13. Example: Agile Adoption VP “Our competitors using Agile are out-developing us by 30-60%. We need a 12-month executive commitment to invest in Development and PM improvements” Director “Here are training and coaches and processes and metrics and tools to move us toward Agile.” PM “Let’s review roadmaps, personas, user stories, backlog, acceptance criteria for my product.”

15. Demonstrate skills one level up