Introducing Mastering Software Product Management
Amazon Links:
India: https://amzn.in/d/i0EKXRn
Others: Please refer to the country-specific Amazon sites based on your location.
Google Preview: https://books.google.co.in/books?id=uslUEQAAQBAJ&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Publisher Links:
Global: https://orangeava.com/products/mastering-software-product-management
India: https://orangeava.in/products/mastering-software-product-management
Here is an outline of the book from the preface.
Preface
It all started when I headed the product management function in my last organization. The organization had been in existence for several years but has never had a formal product management function. The CEO was a trained and seasoned manager, worked in several leading MNCs, had started his own IT services startup, and had successfully divested it. This time, he was leading the SaaS-based software product company. He was bemused by the software engineering processes, like agile processes, user stories, etc. He asked me once if there is one book that describes the product management function well enough. During my MBA, I was taught product management from a classic book — Product Management, Lehmann and Winer. The book approached product management as a marketing function and added all the relevant topics from strategy and marketing for a marketing professional. However, software product management, agile process models, etc., are not delved into.
In the early days of software product management, I heard senior leadership complaining about product managers (PMs) not presenting the products in large forums and seminars. He had been looking for a product evangelist in the garb of a product manager. An EdTech founder was remarking that hiring product managers is hard because he only gets to meet feature managers and not real product managers. A product head of an organization complains that all of his product managers have an MBA background but lack understanding of technical product development. Another founding CEO of a company with 200–300 employees stated that the product management did not choose the right technology stack. That was the reason they delayed the product release. None of the claims are misplaced, but all these stories highlight how we can be blindfolded in our little definitions of product management while trying to comprehend an elephant by touch alone; a story often told in the context of understanding the complete picture.
I have faced the imposter syndrome. Every organization I have worked for has put forth a new set of challenges as a product manager. I have been instrumental in reengineering the non-engineering technology functions in some, ensuring high quality product delivery to revenue protection for products, product expansion to newer domains, streamlining knowledge processes of the organization, etc. All these, alongside the regular day-to-day function of the organization’s product definition, customer engagements, better sales, and working with engineering for timely delivery of the product with quality. Some of you must be wondering, where are the user stories or product ownership for agile process management listed? This book is not another one outlining the product management processes or activities. We will ask why product managers do things the way they do. We looked at all the product management functions and stitched them along with Porter’s Five Forces2, a framework for organization strategy for several decades. Thus, our approach is to ensure an organization’s product management function is meant for the sustained competitive advantage of the business units. While we will substantiate many of the claims with relevant research or studies conducted by industry experts, academics, and veterans, sometimes we will resort to storytelling when the stories are easier to understand and stick better in the reader’s memory. Moreover, where the stories give a general direction to the past events and context, they may be preferred over detailed research data. We outline the chapters along ten significant activities product management organizations undertake while correlating the activities with Porter’s Five Forces. Porter’s work is associated with industrial economics and is considered an industry analysis framework. However, we choose that as Product Management takes an outside-in view of an organization. The five forces are a great way to represent externalities that affect a business. A product manager who understands these forces and can effectively navigate them has better control over his products. The following are the outlines of the chapters discussed in the book:
Chapter 1. The Practice of Product Management: What is a software product? How can a PM look at the external market conditions and bring them to the organization? We realized that PM activities can be classified into ten broad processes. Aggregated, we call them The Practice of Product Management. By keeping the processes aligned with Michael Porter’s Five Forces Framework, PMs achieve Sustained Competitive Advantage for their products.
Chapter 2. Strategy: Organizations are perpetual entities; they will remain in existence for generations. While products have a limited life cycle, there is inception, growth, and eventual death. Such misunderstandings lead to discussions on strategy, delving into too much implementation or tactical details. Product managers, at least, should have a qualitative understanding of the organization’s strategy and leverage the product’s strengths to achieve sustained competitive advantages.
Chapter 3. Product Vision: The product vision is the most valuable statement a product management organization owns, probably the only task of the product manager that he cannot delegate. While input from everyone is welcome, if you are a product manager, you should ensure you own the vision and explain it to everyone in the organization or outside. Proper execution of a compelling vision can lead to a successful product in the long run.
Chapter 4. Customer: If you deal with commodities, you face the challenges of an ever-bargaining buyer. You create value drivers with users and influencers to move them away from the buying mindset to a mutual success-oriented customer mindset. For a product manager, there is never one customer. Multiple customers have to be satisfied with the same product. To a Product Manager, a customer is a Trusted Advisor. The idea is to take the input to evaluate against inputs from other customers and come up with a plan to deliver the best solution that gives the maximal value to the overall customer set.
Chapter 5. Pricing: Pricing is not about offering the best discount to the buyer but creating a value perception and taking your rightful share of the perception. Once you move the customer from a buyer mindset to a trusted advisor mindset, it is easy to claim a part of the value added as price. There are only three principles to pricing; the customer should perceive value, the pricing should be competitive, and you should not make losses. When all these factors match, you provide the customer with the best sustainable price in the long run.
Chapter 6. User Experience: Many product managers focus on finding the best interface for better user engagement with the product. While some insist on using design tools, mock-up tools, and prototyping interactions, some insist these must be left to the UX designers to provide the best possible proposals. We take UX to the aspects of functional elements affecting user experience, the tools and frameworks, components of the user interface, and design thinking to achieve a better user experience.
Chapter 7. Contracts: No business operates in isolation. If you are offering a service to your customers, you also need downstream services fulfilled by your vendors. You will need well-defined contracts and service-level agreements for the proper execution. Even contractual relationships are essential for your customer engagements as well. There are various legal interactions among people and institutions that people build. The Govt cannot decide the interaction possibilities among them. The government only defines general guidelines of how they can interact, but keeps the details within the contract to be worked upon by the interacting parties. Parties engage in establishing a legal relationship ahead of time.
Chapter 8. Intellectual Properties: Most organizations are innovative. They try to do things differently from their competition. They have something in them that is core to their DNA and different from others in the same business. How can they identify these core strengths and systematically create distinguishable property elements such as copyrights, patents, trademarks, and so on? In the long run, these will keep new entrants from entering their markets.
Chapter 9. Compliance: Compliance is adherence to rules, regulations, environments, or laws. We have experienced that compliance needs to be analyzed by product managers ahead of time, before other parts of the organization invest any energy in it. In some businesses, compliance is the prime driver, and non-compliance makes the venture a no-go. So, your fundamental need to be in the market is decided by your ability to meet the compliance requirements.
Chapter 10. Agile Process: The agile process framework is an aspect of the product management process. Hence, every product manager should develop a good understanding of it. Certifications and training available today can make one aware of these processes. All agile process frameworks are not alike. Some are useful for individual knowledge workers, some for teams of a project, and some for independent groups. More than learning the nitty-gritty details of the process, product managers should realize the rationale behind the process frameworks. It is often learning from previous mistakes, understanding, and continually improving to do a better job.
Chapter 11. People: Product managers are capable matrix managers competent in operating through unknowns with ease. Hence, communication across the organization is an important aspect. Mostly KPI-driven and numbers-oriented, a few process frameworks like RACI are good for PMs. A person ready to take ownership of a situation can get into such a role. Fearlessness and the ability to deal with all eventualities are the core building blocks in a PM’s mindset. The buck stops here is the attitude that PMs need to build.
Chapter 12. Epilogue: A summary of what we discussed in the book. Also, a short discussion on how AI tools are aiding product management functions.
About the Author
Sambit Kumar Dash is passionate about turning technology product ideas into reality. He has over 25 years of experience in product and business management, architecture, and research and development. His interests in technology expand to document technologies, computer security, artificial intelligence, and natural language processing. Sambit created a PDF reader library in the Julia programming language, which is available on GitHub (https://github.com/sambitdash/PDFIO.jl). He is passionate about developing new technologies and holds eight patents in document technologies, computer security, virtualization, and human-computer interfaces. He has authored two books: Hand-On Julia Programming and Ultimate Web Authentication Handbook. He also provides product management consultancy to start-ups and early-stage ventures through Lenatics Solutions Private Limited. He can be reached at sambit@lenatics.in.
About the Publisher
AVA® is an Orange Education Label
AVA® is the latest addition to the Orange Education family, created to empower learners with high-quality resources that connect the worlds of technology and business.
In today’s fast-paced world, success requires more than just technical know-how or business insight. It takes a strong understanding of both. At Orange Education Pvt Ltd, we recognize this need and have curated content to help you stay ahead of industry trends, sharpen your skills, and grow professionally.
Whether you’re a student preparing for your future or a professional looking to upskill, AVA® is your trusted partner in learning. We’re committed to providing an exceptional educational experience to help you reach your full potential.
We’re excited to share our resources with a community of passionate learners.
Let AVA®, an Orange Education Label, be your go-to destination for everything technology and business
