“To me, Steve Jobs is a true epitome of product management. If you think about his role, it draws a lot of inspiration. Not only was he the brains behind Apple, but he helped design it. He helped develop and sell it. And that's why I refer to product managers as the CEO of their product.”
If there’s anyone that knows how to build products, it’s Frederick John, who is a 20-year veteran of the product industry and a go-to thought leader in both product development and product management with a diverse domain background —including working with giants like Deloitte, GE Digital, ADP and NCR Corporation.
He currently brings that expertise to Diebold Nixdorf as the Vice President of Global Product Management, Banking.
TOP TAKEAWAYS
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Why are Product Managers CEO of their Products?
Frederick currently leads a team of 50 product managers and product developers. According to him, they act as mini CEOs of their products; they go out and help others. The indirect or dotted line influence of the product team is actually throughout the entire software organization.
The concept of keeping product management is relatively new. The agile transformation led to the need for product managers. The iterative approach of agile requires product managers to build everything in two weeks.
How to Vet Different Aspiring Product Managers Coming from Diverse Backgrounds?
The background doesn’t matter, but it is their approach to products in general that matters. A product leader must check if someone from a technical background understands pain areas and good points developed for their clients since empathy isn’t a scoring criterion in interviews.
Impact of the Pandemic on Product Manager Workflow
Pandemic has affected product development, which is visible in the details of product design, stories, understanding of development, and quality team. There is absolutely nothing in a virtual environment that can replace the power of 8 people stuck in a room looking at a whiteboard.
Difference Between Product Managers: Early-Stage Versus Enterprise-Stage
The good thing about large companies is that the reach is much wider If you want to know about what is happening in the world. Offshore or nearshore development capabilities let you create products quickly and economically. You can also tap the diverse talent pool available across the globe.
Smaller companies have agility, skill, and flexibility; they can soon move in the direction of technology or in which clients are moving. Hence, innovation happens faster, the concepts and deployment of new technology occur rapidly. Product managers can’t have that agility at the enterprise level.
The Biggest Mistake that Product Managers Make
Most product managers treat the products as babies, and it is hard to call the babies ugly. Hence, they end up making the biggest mistake by not stepping back and doing a course correction. They should have the humility to view with the lens of pure facts versus emotions.
Follow Frederick John on LinkedIn
Produced by: Priya Bhatt
Podcast host: Abhash Kumar