3 key qualities of a successful product manager: Yuri Golikov, VP of Engineering Wrike
Hi, Habr. We continue our series of key qualities articles for a successful product manager for Wrike. In the previous part, we talked with Anton Danilov, group product manager. Today Yury Golikov answers questions. Yuri has been working in Wrike for 3 years as a VP of Engineering. In the past, he worked for Aelita Software, Quest Software, Dell. Total experience is more than 15 years.
- The work of the product - a thing responsible and associated with a large number of challenges. This was told to me by Anton in the past interview. Share your opinion: what are the key qualities a product manager should have?
- Quality is number one - ownership. It is important to note here that in the modern world there should be a product owner, and not just a “product manager” - this is not the most correct name. The product owner must truly “own” the product, not just its manager. The product “is ill” with the product, is most interested in it, develops and “onite” everything connected with it.
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- “To own” is in English “to have”, “to possess”. What does it mean “to mount” in your understanding? Can you give some examples?
- It is, first of all, to solve problems and take calls on the way. For example, if you have a weak team, you need to do everything to strengthen it. Misunderstanding skoup - need to clarify. Incomprehensible ideas - it is necessary to deceive them with customers. Few communicate with customers - need to communicate more. This shows the ownership mindset. That is, you must own your part so as to develop it in the best possible way within the framework of the company's strategy. If it is, then it is already 50% success.
- Cool! And what other qualities are important for the product?
- The second key quality is communication skills. The product manager should be a communicator and motivator, build relationships with the team, and the team should trust him. And this is despite the fact that the team and product manager in the company are often located on different management verticals. The product submits to the product team, and the team to the development department. Nevertheless, the product manager is the leader for the team, and he, as a communicator, must, on the one hand, build relationships with the team, and on the other hand, with the product chain, with other product managers.
And then there are customers, other divisions, such as customer success managers, who also have an opinion on the development of the product, and it is also desirable to take it into account. Product builds all these relationships. And, as a result, only because of this develops the product in an optimal way.
- Do I understand correctly that the product manager is not directly the head of his team, and his task, including, is to sell his ideas to the team?
- Exactly.
- That is, his task is not just to lower the decision, but also to convince the team to implement this decision?
- The product manager never pulls the solution. Work in situations where the solution “goes down” is much less effective than in those when it is “sold”. Because there are a lot of dissenters right there: some employees may not listen, they start to clash, and the effectiveness is significantly reduced.
- You said that it is very important to have a developed sense of ownership. But at the same time, how do you think ownership combines with the overall strategy set by top management in Wrike? That is, how to stay autonomous inside?
- You always ounish only part of the strategy. In Wrike, the strategy is divided into product development in the enterprise plane (for business), the main UX, vertical sub-products, mobile applications, etc. Every serious leader in grocery organization is one of the directions. For example, in Wrike there is a person responsible for the development of a product for enterprise customers. This direction has more subdirections, each of which has its own product manager. And each of them is already responsible for some smaller scop.
Another example: there is a field related to security for customers, and here in my area of ​​responsibility there are already two areas: security and e-commerce. Inside them, I will connect the communication capabilities of the product, inbox, correspondence, identification and other things. I always have to know what is going on and come to terms with everyone in order to develop this product in the direction we need.
That is, anyway, any product is decomposed into a certain number of scopes, and it is impossible to always embrace everything. This really happens only if the product is small - in this case there is one product of the product that deals with everything at once. A large product is broken into many parts, and success can be achieved only when all parts are clear and understandable. If at least one part of the work is incomprehensible, you can squander much in the processes: today you do one thing, tomorrow another, the next day the third. In fact, in such a situation, you are no longer a product gunner - you just do what they say to you.
- And what to do if your part of the work is at the junction of the responsibility of the teams: that is, you are constantly doing the same thing, but at the same time you overlap with some other areas of responsibility? How difficult is it to maintain your part without clearly defined boundaries?
- Perhaps the main thing is that there should be some fundamental part in which the general outline is clear. If it is all non-systemic and is located at the junction, it is unclear what, most likely, there will be no success. Some left-right movements are permissible, there is nothing wrong with that, but the key part must always be clear. Any ouner understands that today he went to the grocery store, and tomorrow he ordered the furniture. The main thing is that he does all this for arranging his apartment, and not for the neighbour's dacha.
- Good. Ownership is understandable. And the third quality product, in your opinion, what?
- The third is the expertise. A good product is an expert in its field of expertise. The field of knowledge is more simple, it is more complex. For example, the more difficult we have security. If the product is an expert, and everyone can see that he is really well versed in his scopes, this is very important. He can make decisions faster and more correctly than others. And she can convince others that these decisions are correct.
- The product team, as a rule, includes people with completely different expertise, completely different areas. How important is it to become an expert in every field of work of your team?
- On the one hand, if you are a part of the OUN, you have to become an expert there. But you can get expertise in the process, if there is no suitable background. Without the desire to become an expert will be difficult.
- In your opinion, can a product manager not have a developer background? I mean, let's say, from marketing come.
- Of course, it can. If the developer suddenly decides to become a product, this background will help him, but this is an absolutely optional requirement. He can even come from the printing.
- And if you take some specific topics, say, security?
- Let's share. Expertise in the field of programming is one thing; expertise in the domain is another. A product can do something for printing, something for fishing, or something else. Fisherman with experience, obviously, in the product for fishing will be much more useful than a developer with experience that does not catch fish.
- Clear.
- I would single out the fourth quality - this is leadership. It can be said that if a person is a hunter, a good communicator and an expert, with a probability of 95% he will be a leader anyway, taking into account the combination of these qualities. He should be able to ignite the team and lead the product in the right direction, not to deflate. He will have a lot of obstacles on his way. The bosses are pulling in one direction, some departments in the other, clients in the third, the team in the fourth. Here we must be able to make decisions, balance, defend their positions. This is exactly the leadership skill. But, again, in a sense, it is derived from the first three. I can not imagine a person who is an expert in his field, an excellent communicator and a good boss, but not a leader. It is very strange.
- 3 key qualities of a successful product manager: Anton Danilov
- The work of the product - a thing responsible and associated with a large number of challenges. This was told to me by Anton in the past interview. Share your opinion: what are the key qualities a product manager should have?
- Quality is number one - ownership. It is important to note here that in the modern world there should be a product owner, and not just a “product manager” - this is not the most correct name. The product owner must truly “own” the product, not just its manager. The product “is ill” with the product, is most interested in it, develops and “onite” everything connected with it.
')
- “To own” is in English “to have”, “to possess”. What does it mean “to mount” in your understanding? Can you give some examples?
- It is, first of all, to solve problems and take calls on the way. For example, if you have a weak team, you need to do everything to strengthen it. Misunderstanding skoup - need to clarify. Incomprehensible ideas - it is necessary to deceive them with customers. Few communicate with customers - need to communicate more. This shows the ownership mindset. That is, you must own your part so as to develop it in the best possible way within the framework of the company's strategy. If it is, then it is already 50% success.
- Cool! And what other qualities are important for the product?
- The second key quality is communication skills. The product manager should be a communicator and motivator, build relationships with the team, and the team should trust him. And this is despite the fact that the team and product manager in the company are often located on different management verticals. The product submits to the product team, and the team to the development department. Nevertheless, the product manager is the leader for the team, and he, as a communicator, must, on the one hand, build relationships with the team, and on the other hand, with the product chain, with other product managers.
And then there are customers, other divisions, such as customer success managers, who also have an opinion on the development of the product, and it is also desirable to take it into account. Product builds all these relationships. And, as a result, only because of this develops the product in an optimal way.
- Do I understand correctly that the product manager is not directly the head of his team, and his task, including, is to sell his ideas to the team?
- Exactly.
- That is, his task is not just to lower the decision, but also to convince the team to implement this decision?
- The product manager never pulls the solution. Work in situations where the solution “goes down” is much less effective than in those when it is “sold”. Because there are a lot of dissenters right there: some employees may not listen, they start to clash, and the effectiveness is significantly reduced.
- You said that it is very important to have a developed sense of ownership. But at the same time, how do you think ownership combines with the overall strategy set by top management in Wrike? That is, how to stay autonomous inside?
- You always ounish only part of the strategy. In Wrike, the strategy is divided into product development in the enterprise plane (for business), the main UX, vertical sub-products, mobile applications, etc. Every serious leader in grocery organization is one of the directions. For example, in Wrike there is a person responsible for the development of a product for enterprise customers. This direction has more subdirections, each of which has its own product manager. And each of them is already responsible for some smaller scop.
Another example: there is a field related to security for customers, and here in my area of ​​responsibility there are already two areas: security and e-commerce. Inside them, I will connect the communication capabilities of the product, inbox, correspondence, identification and other things. I always have to know what is going on and come to terms with everyone in order to develop this product in the direction we need.
That is, anyway, any product is decomposed into a certain number of scopes, and it is impossible to always embrace everything. This really happens only if the product is small - in this case there is one product of the product that deals with everything at once. A large product is broken into many parts, and success can be achieved only when all parts are clear and understandable. If at least one part of the work is incomprehensible, you can squander much in the processes: today you do one thing, tomorrow another, the next day the third. In fact, in such a situation, you are no longer a product gunner - you just do what they say to you.
- And what to do if your part of the work is at the junction of the responsibility of the teams: that is, you are constantly doing the same thing, but at the same time you overlap with some other areas of responsibility? How difficult is it to maintain your part without clearly defined boundaries?
- Perhaps the main thing is that there should be some fundamental part in which the general outline is clear. If it is all non-systemic and is located at the junction, it is unclear what, most likely, there will be no success. Some left-right movements are permissible, there is nothing wrong with that, but the key part must always be clear. Any ouner understands that today he went to the grocery store, and tomorrow he ordered the furniture. The main thing is that he does all this for arranging his apartment, and not for the neighbour's dacha.
- Good. Ownership is understandable. And the third quality product, in your opinion, what?
- The third is the expertise. A good product is an expert in its field of expertise. The field of knowledge is more simple, it is more complex. For example, the more difficult we have security. If the product is an expert, and everyone can see that he is really well versed in his scopes, this is very important. He can make decisions faster and more correctly than others. And she can convince others that these decisions are correct.
- The product team, as a rule, includes people with completely different expertise, completely different areas. How important is it to become an expert in every field of work of your team?
- On the one hand, if you are a part of the OUN, you have to become an expert there. But you can get expertise in the process, if there is no suitable background. Without the desire to become an expert will be difficult.
- In your opinion, can a product manager not have a developer background? I mean, let's say, from marketing come.
- Of course, it can. If the developer suddenly decides to become a product, this background will help him, but this is an absolutely optional requirement. He can even come from the printing.
- And if you take some specific topics, say, security?
- Let's share. Expertise in the field of programming is one thing; expertise in the domain is another. A product can do something for printing, something for fishing, or something else. Fisherman with experience, obviously, in the product for fishing will be much more useful than a developer with experience that does not catch fish.
- Clear.
- I would single out the fourth quality - this is leadership. It can be said that if a person is a hunter, a good communicator and an expert, with a probability of 95% he will be a leader anyway, taking into account the combination of these qualities. He should be able to ignite the team and lead the product in the right direction, not to deflate. He will have a lot of obstacles on his way. The bosses are pulling in one direction, some departments in the other, clients in the third, the team in the fourth. Here we must be able to make decisions, balance, defend their positions. This is exactly the leadership skill. But, again, in a sense, it is derived from the first three. I can not imagine a person who is an expert in his field, an excellent communicator and a good boss, but not a leader. It is very strange.
- 3 key qualities of a successful product manager: Anton Danilov
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/444748/
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