The Product Manager's Desk Reference

Citation

Koranda, D. (2012), "The Product Manager's Desk Reference", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 70-70. https://doi.org/10.1108/10610421211203132

Great product managers most often have great products to manage. Some are not so fortunate. In either case, it helps to have a manual, especially when trying to manage products that may not be the most naturally outstanding. It appears that it is not an entirely American phenomenon to refer to the manual only when a product cannot be assembled or figured out otherwise. Most would admit they would have saved a lot of time if they had read the manual first. This book can be used either way, before getting started or when the product management process is already under way.

Admittedly I had a difficult time writing this review. I am another American who does not read the manuals unless stuck. However, of those I have read, this is the best written.

Haines sets up a “Product Master Plan”, which is a unified story/plan of the past, present, and future. It may seem to some like common sense. From the glossary, the Product Master Plan is “A document repository and master control plan for a product or a product line. It is made up of many different subdocuments that are historic, current and strategically oriented. It serves as the plan of record for both current and future product activities. As a collection of plans and information about the product, it serves as an archive, a learning tool, and communication mechanism across the organization and across generations of product manages and product teams” (p. 591). Again, much of the Product Master Plan may seem like common sense at first glance but it is a great platform for the Product Manager to stay organized and succeed.

A good product manager is often like a mini CEO. This person must be a good communicator and to have good social skills to balance and route information among disparate groups. I am not sure any book can teach social skills, but I did enjoy some of the comments directed at socially controlling the difficult sections of product management such as “stay calm, even if your hair is on fire” (p. 48).

The 24 chapters are broken into six modules, starting with “Foundational Elements for Product Management” in the first module, an obviously quite basic starting, with Chapter 1 entitled “What is Product Management?” This module moves through getting things done, decision making, and finances. Module 2, “Making the Market Your Primary Focus”, addresses analyzing the industry and competition, finding markets and segmenting them, setting mileposts, and strategic planning. Module 3 discusses product development, concepting, assessing feasibility, defining the product, justifying product investments, developing a marketing plan for the product, and the oversight needed during product development and orchestrating the launch of the product. Module 4, “Continuing the Journey: Post‐Launch Product Management”, walks the product manager through auditing results after the launch, looking at product life cycles and, defining and providing methods for life cycle portfolio management and how to deal with discontinuing the product if need be. Module 5, “Professionalizing Product Management”, has chapters on getting organized and transforming the organization and advancing one's career. The final Module 6 is “The Product Manager's Tool box”, containing templates for utilizing all the information in the earlier chapters.

Each module contains an introduction and each chapter opens with an executive summary and ends with PMEQ, raining your product management experience quotient or a list of questions and exercises. In other words, the book is extremely well organized and it is easy to refer back to the parts needed to complete the product management journey.

A few excerpts that struck me:

“So what is product management […] Product Management is business management at the product, product line, or product portfolio level. Products are like small businesses inside of a bigger business” (p. 18).

“Document confusion is one of the key sources of inefficiency in organizations. While the documents mentioned in this book are named generically, each organization should create and maintain a consistent document vocabulary” (p. 35).

“The crux of decision making is that it leads to solving problems. The word problem doesn't mean it's bad, it just means there is a situation to deal with and it requires attention” (p. 87).

“A solid definition of the product from the customer's perspective improves the product's chances of achieving its market goals” (p. 319).

The Product Manager's Desk Reference is filled with lots of common sense but common sense worth reiterating. It is obvious to me that the book is a valuable tool for the new as well as the seasoned product manager and it should be in the desk drawer where the bottle of whiskey might have once been hidden in the era of “Mad Men”.