Table of contents
Product Management For Dummies a Review
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“Product Management for Dummies” introduces the role and responsibilities of a project manager, offering insights for those new to the field. The book discusses challenges faced when coordinating with various roles, including developers, stakeholders, and executives. It categorizes developers into three types: the coder, the prima donna, and the team player, highlighting the importance of collaboration and shared ownership.The book suggests that seniority often correlates with being a team player, though this is not always the case.
Introduction
This book as expected introduces the nuances of a project manager from different perspectives, its role and even its responsibilities. For anyone who is looking to understand what it is about on the surface, this book will fit well. The book also covers the difficulties that a project manager might face when dealing with different roles and trying to get the product to move forward, the development team, stack holders and executives. Under the product team, the book goes a bit further to segregate the developer’s profiles into three categories:
- The coder - just cares about coding, and acts like a typer
- Prima Dona - doesn’t care about product manager and does not act as a team player
- The team player - works with the product manager to build features that customers will love
Despite seeing those roles on teams I have worked with, I relate those categories with the seniority level that each of them have on the team. It is expected that as one progresses in the career the more team player style appears rather than the coder - besides being expected, this is often not the reality and teams still suffer from the lack of team players. Interestingly enough, the team player has characteristics that are known to make a great engineer.
Nevertheless, some of the things that I would highlight from the book content are:
- It is clear and to the point on aspects of the role, no buzzwords are used.
- there is an emphasis on what a successful product manager is and even tips to go beyond what is expected
Another perspective
In the book, it is stated that the product manager owns the development teams (then the reason for classifying developers into the three types), I would personally shift that thinking to the following:
A product manager is in the development team.
This idea is not new and the basis comes from eXtreme Programming. Following this approach I would argue that it is one more extra point towards “Getting to the next level” in chapter 19 of the book. Thinking of being part of the development team would bring some benefits, some of those being:
- Earning trust from the team (persuasion by default not needed to do some “magic trick”)
- Building your network inside and outside the project
- Getting things done collaboratively and shared ownership makes all of the team accountable
- Identify potential conflicts early on and address them before they become critical to the success of the product
- Prevent gatekeeping of information
Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the role and responsibilities of a product manager. It’s a well-written and informative book that provides valuable insights and tips.
Goodreads review
Product Management For Dummies by Brian Lawley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book as expected introduces the nuances of a project manager from different perspectives, its role and even its responsibilities. For anyone who is looking to understand what it is about on the surface, this book will fit well.
The book also covers the difficulties that a project manager might face when dealing with different roles and trying to get the product to move forward, the development team, stack holders and executives.
Under the product team, the book goes a bit further to segregate the developer’s profiles in three categories:
- The coder - just cares about coding, act like typers
- Primma Dona - don’t care about product manager and does not act as a team player
- The team player - works with the product manager to build features that customers will love
Despite of seeing those roles on teams I have worked with, I would also relate those categories with the seniority level that each of them have on the team. It is expected that as one progress in the career to assume the more team player style rather than the coder - besides being expected, this is often not the reality and teams still suffers from the lack of team players.
Some of the things that I would highlight from the content are:
- It is clear and to the point on aspects of the role, no buzz words are used.
- there is an emphasis on what a successful product manager and even tips to go beyond what is expected
In the book, it is stated that the product manager owns the development teams (then the reason for classifying developers in the three types), I would personally shift that thinking to: a product manager is in the development team. This idea is not new and the basis comes from XP.
Following this approach I would argue that it is one more extra point towards “Getting to the next level” in chapter 19 of the book. Thinking as being part of the development team would bring some benefits, some of those being:
- Earning trust from the team (persuasion by default not needed to do some “magic trick”)
- Building your network inside and outside the project
- Getting things done in a collaborative way and shared ownership making all of the team accountable
- Identify potential conflicts early on and address them before they become critical to the success of the product
Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the role and responsibilities of a product manager. It’s a well-written and informative book that provides valuable insights and tips.
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