If the product management surveys are to be believed, most product managers spend very little time doing the things we know that we should be doing, and instead spend all our time managing logistics, and doing detailed work in marketing, development, or sales. I respect that kind of detailed mindset, and lord knows we rely on people with logistical talents to get the product out the door, produce the brilliant graphics work, copy-edit the website and promotional materials, and so on.
But if you want to be promoted, improve your status, or perhaps just remain relevant, you need to find ways to delegate those detailed items. If you don’t delegate them, they will consume you, and I’m afraid that your pay grade will be limited.
I mostly blame this state of affairs on company management, because most of us respond to our environment and culture. But don’t you notice that there are some people who simply don’t get stuck in that rut? What are they doing differently?
It reminds me of the Seinfeld episode in which George concluded that every decision he had ever made had been wrong. Jerry pointed out that if every instinct George has is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right! I started thinking that it might help some product managers to do the opposite.
What are some of the opposite choices you can make? Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Don’t demonstrate your proficiency with PowerPoint. If you must create PowerPoint (and yes, we all must), create basic diagrams with poor color choices.
- If you need a diagram, book a meeting with the graphics designer and whiteboard what you’re after, and request a PowerPoint version. This will probably save you 3 hours per diagram.
- When you work a trade show, arrange ahead of time with your boss to spend time away from the booth. You must of course work the hours assigned to you, but do your best to minimize them.
- If you attend sales calls, think carefully about your role, and let the SE do most of the technical work. Allow the SE to answer the technical questions, do the demo, and so on. Make it your focus to connect with the customer’s requirements.
- Limit your commitments. Say no. This is the opposite of most of our instincts; we aim to please! Most of you reading this can probably do the job of almost anyone in the company. But don’t do it!
- Before you ask permission to call customers, find some inactive accounts and do some win/loss analysis. Work in the background to find accounts that are closed (both won and lost), but for which no other opportunities or activities are current. Call them up. Get the contacts in whatever way you can and make the calls, then publish your reports.
- At trade shows, collect business cards, and call the people back. Your sales team probably isn’t following up anyway! Tell the people you call that you want to hear about their experience at the trade show and what they learned, without focusing initially on your product. Get the conversation going, then turn to your market area without mentioning your product. Ask them what they’re doing in your “problem domain”; do they have the problems that your product addresses? How are they managing those? How important are they?
- If you are allowed to work from home, do it as much as you can. Be productive on the important things, and publish your results.
- If you are not allowed to work from home, take a sick day, but don’t goof off. Instead, work from home and write an article, or do some of the skunk works above. Do this at least once a month. When you get back, show your work to your boss and tell her that you wrote the article (or whatever) while you were recovering yesterday.
Start small, but pick an opposite. Let me know how it goes!
– Alan