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?