Evaluating yourself as a Product Manager
blog.orangecaffeine.comI'm a developer and I've only worked with 2 people whose job title was "product manager" (both at the same company).
They didn't seem to have the any stake in building and inspiring teams. I don't think the product managers were involved in hiring at all. They were always remote and traveling so they weren't in communication enough to inspire anything.
The team was given vague goals by the CEO, but the product managers prioritized work on their own pet projects. In the end, the message about what we were doing was confused.
Is this typical? What should I expect from product management?
It's not typical.. here's what you should expect from PM: - Align with the CEO / business goals and prioritize accordingly. Every feature should map to a top level business theme you're trying to accomplish. - They may not be involved in hiring, but they should provide clarity on the product side and inspire the team on company vision and how it positively impacts users and customers. - As an engineer you can / should ask questions and hold them accountable.. "what are our filters for selecting features?", "why are we building this feature and how does it map to our business goals?", etc.