Why The Product Manager Is A Team’s Best Friend

Product Managers are an indispensable part of any organization, but as with all positions, sometimes they do come under fire when it comes to evaluating the value they bring to the organization. In this entertaining video from the Shift Conference, Marc Abraham, an experienced product management practitioner, who is Chief Product Officer at Settled, tells us why a Product Manager is a developer’s and a team’s best friend. And why the supposed acrimony between devs and Product Managers is overstated…

Key Takeaways:

The What Element:

1. The Product Manager can come up with the seed of an idea –
2. – with potential solutions to explore
3. – they tell the product and customer story
4. – and get people thinking

The Why Element:

1. The Product Manager explores the ‘why’ of a product in a methodical manner.

The How Element:

1. The Product Manager can support engineers when implementing the solution and –
2. – ask stupid (but useful) questions
3. – agree on features (not) to include
4. – act as a shield for the team
5. – make tough trade-off decisions

The Solve Element:

1. The Product Manager continues to champion –
2. – continuous learning
3. – the customer
4. – continuous product improvement (or not, in the case of unnecessary features)

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