Here’s a great quote, “Take the mavericks in your service,” he tells new officers, “the ones that wear rumpled uniforms and look like a bag of mud but whose ideas are so offsetting that they actually upset the people in the bureaucracy. One of your primary jobs is to take the risk and protect these people, because if they are not nurtured in your service, the enemy will bring their contrary ideas to you.”

From Gen. James Mattis, USMC

As you know, every company does product management differently. But I always enjoys hearing about, asking about, and reading about these different approaches. I highly recommend gathering a big pile of these definitions and learning from all of them.

One interesting thing I’ve found is that people’s definition is often colored by their background, even subconsciously. For example, engineer-type product managers tend to focus on aligning technical requirements with business objectives. Sales and support-type product managers tend to focus on aligning customer feedback with technical and business objectives. Consultant-type product people often tend to focus on strategy, vision, and financial analysis. UX and design-type product manager like to focus on the user experience and the ‘story’ aspect of the product.

While the reality is that these are all important parts of the job, it’s pretty clear that it makes a big difference what background you have in determining what you see product management’s role as in the company. It happens to all of us, so we should just accept it. Knowing this about myself helps me want to develop skills and learn to appreciate other aspects of the job even more.

To get you started, here’s a great post from Phil Montgomery. He has a nice overview of measuring success in product management, and a refreshing twist on the old saying that a product manager is a ‘CEO’ of a product. Phil doesn’t think that description fits and offers some interesting points to consider.

Good luck!

This guy’s story is ridiculous.

Foundation 07 // Chris Sacca from Kevin Rose on Vimeo.

This book shows how creative and innovative people will eventually rule the world. It explains what the creative class is, how it is motivated, and how to ensure you get the most out of your creative workforce. Creatives are the engines of the future, and anyone who wants to drive forward needs to know how to harness their capacities.

Richard Florida is the guru of this type of thinking. His book is a classic.

Some people try to lead with the 48 Laws of Power, others with The Prince, and others with How to Win Friends and Influence People. There are probably good lessons in all those books.

But I prefer to lead with the Tao. It may take longer. It may not work very well for me in today’s hyper-competitive, short-term thinking, CYA-cultured corporate world. It may even mean I miss a few promotions along the way. But in the end I believe it is the most satisfying path for me, the people who work alongside me along the way, and the customers I serve.

Here’s a great book that describes the way I like to think of leadership: Real Power, Business Lessons from the Tao Te Ching.

But you should probably read the other books too, just so you know what you’re up against.

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I’ve always liked to say that in product management, “Half my job in communicating around the company is just repeating myself, and the other half is finding new ways to say the same things over again.” I’m sure Yogi Berra said it before me or something, but it’s still true.

The fact is, people need know the mission. They need to be reminded why their part matters, why deadlines matter, and why they matter to the team. And they need someone to vent to. That is, they need someone they can express concern to who cares about the success of the product more than anything else in the company.

And that’s where repeating oneself comes in. The product manager needs to be the voice of reason, shining light into dark places in the company helping people understand that the company is not crazy or stupid, that there are good intentions behind why we are doing what we’re doing, that there is a light at the end of this tunnel, and that there is help available if we run into problems.

Therefore, repeating oneself in product management is an essential part of being successful, so you might as well get used to it.

I once had a manager who had worked for a politician. He offered some great advice. He said that product management was ultimately a political position, as we have very little raw power to force people to get things done. Therefore, we have to get things done by convincing people to do things. We have to get the organization to see the path we present as a good path. So a product manager should just accept that as a fact and learn to use politics to get things done and be effective in the job.

Now, I don’t necessarily think “politics” is a dirty word. Politics is everywhere. It is just the clash of different consistencies, different agendas, and different needs. The political process is therefore the process that resolves those differences in a way that adds value to everyone.

But I also believe politics should be separated from “partisan” politics. Partisan politics is when people take sides for reasons associated with power and influence more than over differing policy ideas or understandings. Partisans may even compromise their values and beliefs in order to gain advantage over others. Some people think partisan politics is healthy because it creates some checks and balances, and it makes things fun to watch, like its all a big game. But I think it creates artificial adversarial relationships that ultimately undermine our capacity to make the best choices when faced with difficult challenges. But let’s not go there in this little post.

So I got to thinking. How do good politicians get things done? How do they convince people around them such as the voters, other politicians, even adversaries, to work with them to get things done, and even to  align with them at times?

Here are some thoughts.

• Effective politicians stay on message. That is, they repeat themselves to get particular ideas or concepts across to different audiences. Even if they want to be frank with people in their heart, they know that if they fall off of message, they know it is more of a distraction and disservice.
• Effective politicians are 10 minutes deep on any subject. That means they are curious people who can get to the heart of any matter quickly. They know how to ask good questions and make people feel like they are being listened to.
• Effective politicians organize locally, from the grassroots up. They know that having the people behind you is the real base of power. Therefore they go out of their way to take care of the needs of their constituency and ensure that they feel involved in the process.
• Effective politicians stay positive. They know the danger of ‘going negative.’ They know that being a doom and gloom politician represents an unpleasant path that no one wants to follow in the long run. They know that people want a vision, they want to be inspired, and they want to be empowered. So they only go negative as a last resort, and they may employ surrogates to do the dirty work. They keep their official messages hopeful and focused on the future.
• Effective politicians learn to delegate. Not in a way that abandons responsibility, but rather that shares the responsibility, that opens up the sphere of influence, and that brings more people into the process. Effective politicians know how to empower people, to give them a mandate, and then work hard to see their people succeed.
• Effective politicians never treat anyone as expendable. Whether they are talking to people above them or below them in power and privilege, they know that they are always on the record. They don’t treat anyone as unimportant or irrelevant. Their job is to represent and serve the needs of everyone, not just the elites, and not just the common man.
• Effective politicians practice. They never leave things to chance. They don’t rely on hope to get things done. They plan, they rehearse, they strategize, they check and they double check.

Anyway, these are few traits I’ve noticed in effective politicians that I think are transferable to product management.

Any other ideas?