[kareemm]

This list jibes with my experience (been a software PM for 19 years, coach lots of PMs as a service[1]).

But I find it incredibly surprising that the word "customer" appears only once in this post in the "Leader your Team" section:

> The game you’re playing: Your vision for the product, your product’s value to the customer, your competitive advantage, and how you’ll win.

In my experience a PM's job #1 is to know their customer. Specifically things like:

- Their pain points

- Their workflow (and how your product fits into it)

- Why they love your product

- What could be better about your product (and why)

- Who the buyer, user, and champions are

- What types of customers/pains your solution is best for (and who it's NOT best for)

Basically, a great PM can't be great without being the best-informed person in their organization about their customer.

There are two ways to do this:

1. Set up systems to funnel customer insights to the PM[2]

2. Set up systems to schedule customer calls, ideally automatically[3]

It's still surprising to me how many PMs have "talk to customers" buried somewhere on their list instead of it being at the very top.

[1] https://www.reemer.com/consulting/product-management-coach

[2] like https://www.savio.io (disclaimer: I run this)

[3] great example here: https://www.danwolch.com/2019/04/being-the-closest-to-the-cu...

[crandycodes]

I'd also give a suggestion that if you're working on a B2B product (especially one with "Enterprise Sales"), you might be CEO of your product, but you're not gonna be able to boss around the COO/VP of sales and the field. You need to understand how the field works, who the decision makers are, which folks cover which areas, how can you enable them, etc. You should be talking to your field at least as often as you talk to individual customers - it's an easy way to scale feedback/etc. and if something is wrong between your product and the field, you need to fix it ASAP.

[eatonphil]

I haven't heard of this kind of experience and I haven't exactly seen it either. So I'm curious to hear more. To me it seemed like the biggest thing the field needs support in is messaging and positioning. There wasn't really an aspect of bossing around.

[designium]

I agree. Most of the "best PM advices" are usually related to B2C facing products. How about PMs who develop tools for internal use? I think the recommendations also changes - not from the point of "know your customers" but the nuances and what to pay attention and even measuring results are different than B2C consumers in general.

[hitekker]

> PMs who develop tools for internal use.

You're thinking of a TPM, not a PM.

https://blog.tryexponent.com/pm-vs-tpm/

[FindMySocks]

I'm pretty sure the delineation of the PM and TPM roles is not internal vs. external customer facing, but where your main skills lie in terms of what you're handling.

PMs are usually more upfront in understanding the customer and the business needs. Whereas a TPM, is more behind, understanding the customer but moreso managing the tech teams and solution architects to deliver the proposed solution.

However, the PM role is fickle, and seemingly no company does it the same as another.

[crandycodes]

If the field just needs messaging and positioning info, you're good. In my business, customers usually assemble a bunch of our products (and potentially competitors) together into a solution. We usually have 3-4 different options for each flavor because folks want to optimize for different things or have different opinions/skillsets in their org. It's effectively impossible to be clear 100% of the time for all those permutations, so you really have to be accessible to the field to help clarify when it matters. 99% of the time they handle it, but that 1% that they can't are often because it's a complex, demanding customer that also usually means $$$. In my business, the top 10% of customers can easily drive 80% of your revenue, so it can really matter in the end that the field WANTS to work with you, and not pursue a more accessible alternative.