Jeff Lash makes an excellent point:
If you want to be a good product manager, realize that your job is much more than prioritizing features. Sure, a product manager needs to understand what features need to be added to a product to meet customer needs, though just focusing on collecting and prioritizing features is an extremely narrow view of product management.Product managers need to have a much broader view, seeing and understanding everything from the underlying customer needs to the business model to the product roadmap to the go-to-market strategy.
While Jeff says that many PMs fall into this trap, under a different set of circumstances, other PMs find themselves spending far too little time on feature-related work. Sales enablement, marketing support, and project management are the usual distractions from feature work.
Balance is difficult, particularly if the organization doesn't fully understand what PM is, or does, or should be doing. When that happens, whatever becomes urgent elbows aside whatever else might be important.
I'm increasingly convinced, therefore, that PMs should craft an elevator pitch that reflects the need for this balance. Something on the order of, "I'm the person who makes sure that technology contributes to our business, and business allows the development and adoption of that technology."
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