Developer to Product Manager: Put the Kettle On
August 12, 2014
There’s nothing quite like a promotion to both stroke the ego and demolish one’s comfortable sense of security.
I had been a Python developer for a few years, but never felt as able as my team mates. I was always learning, but never felt as though I was playing towards my strengths. My manager pulls me in to a conference room. “Felix, we need a Technical Product Manager. Are you interested?” “… Sure!”
But the champagne celebration quickly turns into dry-mouthed realization: I have no idea what I am supposed to be doing.
I try remembering what the product managers I had worked for did. I told them what I was doing, but somehow I never understood what they did.
The mystery deepens as I plow into the popular management books and theories. Most of these texts provide only the most general suggestions. The authors call on readers to “align vision” or promote “cross functional synergistic development.” I can feel myself developing hives.
As far as I can tell, modern product management strategies such as Scrum, ExtremeProgramming, Kanban and others are all about communication. They’re ways for developers to provide feedback to their managers and the company. Scrum? That’s little more than a formalized way for developers to tell managers that they don’t know how they’re going to solve a problem. ExtremeProgramming? That’s a way for developers to smaller pieces faster. Kanban? It’s all about doing one thing at a time and doing the most important things first.
But none of these things tell me what I am supposed to be doing in my new role.
Maybe I am supposed to manage the backlog. That’s what Scrum strategy dictates: “The Product Owner’s focus is to manage the backlog.” Finally, marching orders I can follow!
But it’s so easy. I’m not bragging about my abilities, it’s just that making an ordered list of tasks doesn’t take that much brain power. Especially when compared to the intricacies and multiple dependencies of coding. Can you make a list? Can you see that some things are more important than others? Can you put the important things at the top of the list? Great — you can manage backlog. I found it took less than 10% of my time.
I am starting to wonder, is that all there is?
After about a month of being a product manager, my manager and I had a one on one. My frustration is building right from the beginning and I do what I can to hold it back during our conversation. Finally, I just blurt out: “I don’t feel like I’m doing any work!”
This brings the conversation up short and my manager is giving me a strange look. I am clearly flooring him with my admission and my career is flashing before my eyes. I imagine him going straight to HR and revoking my promotion.
Finally my manager regains his composure. He leaned forward in his chair, locked eyes with me and said: “You’re not here to do work. Your job is a facilitator. While everyone else’s head is down, you should be looking around.“
I immediately feel the confusion clear. With one sentence, he clears a month’s worth of worry. I start to relax.
Unfortunately, they’re often painful, forced, time-boxed, stressful and aggravating. What’s the point of all these methodologies, if nobody wants to talk to with you? If nobody’s talking, how can you listen? I struggled getting the “best practice” management theories to work in real life.But I also start paying a lot closer attention to things like meetings. Meetings are, after all, the best opportunity to facilitate and to observe. For product managers, the daily “Standup” meeting is an opportunity to shine. The goal of the Standup is to understand how everything is going with each individual contributor, to anticipate delays and brainstorm workarounds. It defines the day-to-day pace of product development.
My team is frustrated too. They view the Standup as something that is endured rather than an opportunity to get help or share productive information. They start coming to me outside of our appointed time to gripe.
One afternoon, after a morning full of handling the team’s issues, one of my engineers came to me with yet another request. Admittedly, my brain is fried. I needed a reset.
I’m English, so when 3 pm rolls around it’s tea time for me. Good tea is both calming and invigorating. It helps clear my mind and set me on a productive path for the rest of the afternoon. I invite my engineer to join me for a pot of tea and we start discussing the issue he’d brought to my attention.
We move from our company kitchen to a set of comfortable couches and talk candidly about the issues. Others wander over, listen in, air their own opinions and start solving problems themselves. I pour more tea and put on another pot. As my team is talking, I find myself hearing them in a new light and finding opportunities where I can make their work easier for them. Sometimes it is as simple as clarifying priorities and helping them understand deadlines. Other times it means working with others in our organization to better use APIs or integrate code. When my team feels comfortable sharing, I find my purpose is clear.
For us, the key to a good Standup meeting is to sit down. When we create a comfortable environment where people feel as though they are taking a break rather than being pulled away from their work or forced to report. We are doing regular 3 PM “Tea Time” Standups since then. My co-worker, enamored with it, wrote a blog post.
I gain confidence from breaking the mold of prescribed software development methodologies and embracing a more relaxed environment. It’s a different kind of “doing” than what I did as a developer. I listen to my team, make things easier for them and they comfortably make our products better each day.