| > That doesn't mean that Product Management is worthless... > the real key was the ability to balance product requirements now against their long term affects The problem is that a lot of companies are structured so that this is impossible for their PMs to accomplish. Good employees (PMs or otherwise) will always find away to be effective in spite of the organization. However, if product management is too much under the thumb of sales, or if they are too much under the thumb of development and disconnected from sales, they don't have the visibility they need into one end or the other. Further, there will be pressure from their bosses to advocate more for their side. To me, the best PMs are good mediators. Not only do they know how to schedule requirements and decide scope, they know how to communicate that effectively, and get buy-in from both sales and development with a minimum of squabbling. Because of this, if they're capable of doing their job effectively they don't need sales or development to report directly to them, and likewise they shouldn't be reporting to either sales or development. If leadership feels the need to put product management under sales or under development, chances are they need to hire new PMs. I completely agree though that good PMs are rare, exceedingly difficult to hire for, and worth double their weight in gold. |