A discussion at BarCamp Boston 7, on 7 Apr 2012. The discussion was broad and interesting; these are only my personal notes to guide the discussion. Whether you were there or not, comments are welcome below.

  • What is a product manager?
    • “Build the right product.”
    • Understand what the right product would be.
    • Learn from the market constantly.
    • Focus the team.
    • Concretely:
      • Be the “glue” between Marketing & Development.
      • Talk to users/customers, build the feedback loop.
      • Maintain spec & schedule.
  • Why be a product manager?
    • I got over-loaded on super-technical coding.
    • I like figuring out the problem to solve more than solving a well-specified problem.
    • I wanted to use my communication skills.
    • I wanted to learn to be the awesome PM that I never had.
  • How to make the transition?
    • Most PMs transition from somewhere.
    • Marketing, Engineering, MBAs, …
    • Startup vs. big company?
    • My story: where I looked, how I got in, what I miss about engineering.
  • What brings you here?
    • Who’s a PM now? Which of you came from an eng background
    • Who’s an engineer?
    • Who’s a PM?
    • How can we help?