In a nutshell, that is what a PM's job is all about. Taking responsibility for the product, its launch, its features, its ecosystem; making decisions. Making decisions is a large part of my day. Making decision with half information is almost all of it.
Someone asked me how does Google integrate its various functions like marketing, patenting, partnerships, legal, Ops etc so that they work for the product in synergy. The answer is: Through the PM.
The PM owns the product, all the functions work for the product. There is no direct reporting here, however there is one guy who is the common thread between all these functions and it is the PM. Invariably, there are decisions that need to be made at a macro level that define the work and strategy of these sub-divisions. Those decisions are the domain of the PM. Once the structure is set, then these divisions have a free reign to set their agenda. This is how Google manages a flat hierarchy yet ensures efficiency.
It makes one person's job incredibly tough. Mine. I spend all my day surrounded by folks who know more than me, but who look towards me for structure. So I have to learn how to think very fast, ask the right questions, and make quick decisions. Almost always the plan I put together needs significant tweaking. However, more often that not, a plan is better than none. Hence my value-add to the product.
A lot of people worry that the PM has all the responsibility without any authority. On the contrary, my experience has been that most people are so glad to have you on their side, providing structure to the chaotic product that they are trying to put together, that it has never been difficult to influence people to get stuff done.
The bottom line is - People do not like ambiguity. Anything (anyone) who helps decrease ambiguity is welcome and a strong asset. In Google, a PM provides direction, vision, and creates a framework on which multiple teams put together a product. It is the job of a CEO-in-training.
Its midnight, I am still working but I love every moment of what I am doing. Its been three months for me out here at Google, and thankfully, I can say now that regardless of whether this was a better decision than going to VC (that time will tell), it definitely was not a worse decision. I love my work, and that is more than what most can ask for.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Who is a Google Product Manager?
I have had a lot of people ping me in recent times to ask this question. What does it mean to be a Google Product Manager? What credentials are required? How does it compare to an APM or indeed to other functions?
I will try to put together an intelligent answer to this question based on my initial two months here at Google. (Yeah, it is almost two months! Can you believe it?) I will probably revisit my answer to this question in another 6 months or so.
What exactly is the role?
Product Management at Google is a complicated beast. Your ass is on the line if the product fails, yet there may not be any direct reports. You are the guy pulling together multiple functions - marketing, legal, PR, Sales, Engineering, Operations, Technical Account managers, User support, and many more, to run the product. The product is yours. The various functions used to run the product aren't. The principle tool that you have at your disposal is Influence.
At first, this may not sound too different from other product management roles in similar sized companies, but there are some key differences that I have noticed:
1. Product Management can be pretty hierarchical in many companies, it is not in Google
2. Like the other functions, Product Managers are not tied to a particular product or sector for the duration of their work in Google. They are free to rotate at reasonable intervals to completely different sectors
3. Most Google Product Managers are generalists (especially MBAs). They are recruited for their overall well-rounded skills and not necessarily for a particular sector focus. (There are however, some PMs who are recruited especially for their sector expertise)
What are the key skills that successful Product Managers at Google have?
In my perception, most PMs at Google have to be good at (in no particular order)
1. Managing immense complexity ( a direct result of the mixed structure here at Google)
2. Influencing people, a trait that needs credibility, communication skills, and a people-skills
3. Making decisions. One needs to be able to decide, take responsibility for those decisions and live with it
4. Something that is different from the rest. Have to have something special in terms of achievements in their background. This is especially true for the generalists who can't necessarily distinguish themselves on uber-sector-specific-experience. That special sauce could be starting one's own company at some point, MBA from a top B-school, or some such thing. Something which helps differentiate you from the rest in some way
5. Extremely good understanding of the Internet services landscape and opinions on everything form state of online video market to new mobile business models to future of search
6. A passionate self-starting personality helps. Self-starting especially because no one seems to tell you what to do out here, yet everything seems to be doing the things they need to do
Who is an APM then?
Short answer, an APM is usually an undergrad with a little bit of work experience. These guys tend to match the typical profile of that target segment of many of Google's user facing products. They tend to be pretty young, passionate, and incredibly talented folks. Kind of like Wharton undergrads relative to Wharton MBAs (If you went to Wharton, you would know the story here)
Oh come on, there has to be some glitches
I do not know if these are glitches but they are definitely things that one needs to know before deciding to work here at Google. These challenges ensure that certain personality types love it here, and others hate it:
1. You make your own job. I found my product, I am helping define my role, and beyond a minimum bar, have to decide how much I can take a bite off. If you like structure, you are going to be frustrated
2. If you like hierarchical companies, with organization definitions, Google will hurt you. It is hard to work just by influencing especially if you are used to a more hands-on approach to delegation of work
3. You hate good food :). (That's a little bit of humor, an ode to the obsession with food that Google inculcates in us Googlers)
I am sure I am missing something. And I am also sure that some of the traits I pointed out are not Google specific. Keep in mind, its only a couple of months. It will be fun to revisit this in a few months to see what I would like to change in this post. I will compare it to the other functions in Google (OSO, PSO, Biz-dev) etc at a later date. I am in the thick of an exciting new product out here, there are loads of challenges, the team is around the globe, the product has an exciting mix of legal, sales, technical challenges, and my life is awesome.
I will try to put together an intelligent answer to this question based on my initial two months here at Google. (Yeah, it is almost two months! Can you believe it?) I will probably revisit my answer to this question in another 6 months or so.
What exactly is the role?
Product Management at Google is a complicated beast. Your ass is on the line if the product fails, yet there may not be any direct reports. You are the guy pulling together multiple functions - marketing, legal, PR, Sales, Engineering, Operations, Technical Account managers, User support, and many more, to run the product. The product is yours. The various functions used to run the product aren't. The principle tool that you have at your disposal is Influence.
At first, this may not sound too different from other product management roles in similar sized companies, but there are some key differences that I have noticed:
1. Product Management can be pretty hierarchical in many companies, it is not in Google
2. Like the other functions, Product Managers are not tied to a particular product or sector for the duration of their work in Google. They are free to rotate at reasonable intervals to completely different sectors
3. Most Google Product Managers are generalists (especially MBAs). They are recruited for their overall well-rounded skills and not necessarily for a particular sector focus. (There are however, some PMs who are recruited especially for their sector expertise)
What are the key skills that successful Product Managers at Google have?
In my perception, most PMs at Google have to be good at (in no particular order)
1. Managing immense complexity ( a direct result of the mixed structure here at Google)
2. Influencing people, a trait that needs credibility, communication skills, and a people-skills
3. Making decisions. One needs to be able to decide, take responsibility for those decisions and live with it
4. Something that is different from the rest. Have to have something special in terms of achievements in their background. This is especially true for the generalists who can't necessarily distinguish themselves on uber-sector-specific-experience. That special sauce could be starting one's own company at some point, MBA from a top B-school, or some such thing. Something which helps differentiate you from the rest in some way
5. Extremely good understanding of the Internet services landscape and opinions on everything form state of online video market to new mobile business models to future of search
6. A passionate self-starting personality helps. Self-starting especially because no one seems to tell you what to do out here, yet everything seems to be doing the things they need to do
Who is an APM then?
Short answer, an APM is usually an undergrad with a little bit of work experience. These guys tend to match the typical profile of that target segment of many of Google's user facing products. They tend to be pretty young, passionate, and incredibly talented folks. Kind of like Wharton undergrads relative to Wharton MBAs (If you went to Wharton, you would know the story here)
Oh come on, there has to be some glitches
I do not know if these are glitches but they are definitely things that one needs to know before deciding to work here at Google. These challenges ensure that certain personality types love it here, and others hate it:
1. You make your own job. I found my product, I am helping define my role, and beyond a minimum bar, have to decide how much I can take a bite off. If you like structure, you are going to be frustrated
2. If you like hierarchical companies, with organization definitions, Google will hurt you. It is hard to work just by influencing especially if you are used to a more hands-on approach to delegation of work
3. You hate good food :). (That's a little bit of humor, an ode to the obsession with food that Google inculcates in us Googlers)
I am sure I am missing something. And I am also sure that some of the traits I pointed out are not Google specific. Keep in mind, its only a couple of months. It will be fun to revisit this in a few months to see what I would like to change in this post. I will compare it to the other functions in Google (OSO, PSO, Biz-dev) etc at a later date. I am in the thick of an exciting new product out here, there are loads of challenges, the team is around the globe, the product has an exciting mix of legal, sales, technical challenges, and my life is awesome.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Lesson II: Propagate those Whys
Now this is something that is difficult to do. To build strong companies, you need strong personalities but so often strong personalities overwhelm the company, and create auras of their own. I see this in many large companies, and even in Google. People in positions with strong personalities become gatekeepers of important processes in the firm. This, in turn undermines the same entrepreneurial nature that brought the company to where it is today.
Be a visionary, but don't become a cult-head. There is a fine difference between the two and the trick is to know where to exercise your power. This does not mean cult-heads do not work. Apple's CEO is probably the nearest one gets to being one. However, using the power to initiate significant shifts in the industry is one thing. I have seen many instances of amazing ideas not going anywhere because the gatekeeper did not like it. This can be exacerbated if the gatekeeper is not in tune with the trends especially if this is a fast moving Internet services industry.
One thing a startup needs to do if it has to survive in today's age, is to avoid the culture of fear. People should be able to question everything and feel like they have a say in things. This obviously should be balanced with not getting muddled in chaos. But there is a way to do things that makes it more transparent and empowers people and yet does not sacrifice efficiency.
In a previous company that I worked for, our projects would get shut down seemingly arbitrarily by the VP. As an engineer, this was incredibly frustrating and demoralizing. I am sure there was a sane reason to shut down the project, but it is as important to convey why the project was shut down as to shut it down. The action of shutting down ensured that the company did well fiscally (or whatever the business reason was). The why (and the true why not the business gobbledegook) is what ensures that the creativity and morale stays high.
Google is sliding from the startup scale towards the large company scale. As time goes by, the whys will becoming harder to discern, and things will look increasingly arbitrary. However, this place is still way more transparent than most places of its scale. And this brings us to the most important tasks of a Product Manager: ensuring that the why of any action that impacts the team is known, and conveyed truthfully and sincerely.
In a startup, the CEO is the Product Manager. And s(he) needs to ensure that the whys are propagated.
Be a visionary, but don't become a cult-head. There is a fine difference between the two and the trick is to know where to exercise your power. This does not mean cult-heads do not work. Apple's CEO is probably the nearest one gets to being one. However, using the power to initiate significant shifts in the industry is one thing. I have seen many instances of amazing ideas not going anywhere because the gatekeeper did not like it. This can be exacerbated if the gatekeeper is not in tune with the trends especially if this is a fast moving Internet services industry.
One thing a startup needs to do if it has to survive in today's age, is to avoid the culture of fear. People should be able to question everything and feel like they have a say in things. This obviously should be balanced with not getting muddled in chaos. But there is a way to do things that makes it more transparent and empowers people and yet does not sacrifice efficiency.
In a previous company that I worked for, our projects would get shut down seemingly arbitrarily by the VP. As an engineer, this was incredibly frustrating and demoralizing. I am sure there was a sane reason to shut down the project, but it is as important to convey why the project was shut down as to shut it down. The action of shutting down ensured that the company did well fiscally (or whatever the business reason was). The why (and the true why not the business gobbledegook) is what ensures that the creativity and morale stays high.
Google is sliding from the startup scale towards the large company scale. As time goes by, the whys will becoming harder to discern, and things will look increasingly arbitrary. However, this place is still way more transparent than most places of its scale. And this brings us to the most important tasks of a Product Manager: ensuring that the why of any action that impacts the team is known, and conveyed truthfully and sincerely.
In a startup, the CEO is the Product Manager. And s(he) needs to ensure that the whys are propagated.
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