(2018-09-01) Tantiprasut Full Stack Product Manager

Patima Tantiprasut: The full stack product manager. There are probably two types of devs. Those who’ve worked with excellent Product Managers, and everyone else.

You could almost feel the collective shudders when there’d be mentions of the PM dictating directions to the team on what they needed to do and when, without much consultation or collaboration.

coming into this current role that I’m in, the lack of shared understanding for the definition of Product Management across the org was the biggest point of concern. Management had one idea, the tech leads had a different idea, the PMs had another idea, and it was an all round cluster bomb. I had a team of hard working, highly skilled folks in my team, but the misalignment of expectations, upwards, inwards and sideways, meant that the role was unfortunately never set up to succeed.

I honestly wonder… have we created a full stack product role?

should the Product Management role be split up into specialist areas as well?

I enjoyed this read by Kit Ulrich outlining 6 types of Product Managers and the strengths and possible weaknesses of each of the verticals 2017-12-19-Ulrich6TypesOfProductManagersWhichOneDoYouNeed

I’ve come to the conclusion that the role is unavoidably going to be defined differently depending on the product, the company, the goals, the needs of team and the specialisations and experience of the PM in the role. That’s a certainty. My concern is when there are expectations of the role that aren’t clearly communicated and agreed upon, leading to unresolved tension and resentment bubbling into the team’s culture.

I believe it’s most important that there is an abundance of support for the PM role, because it’s in turn, a key support role for the team.