Let’s face it, Product tends to mean a lot of different things to different people.
That shows up in the org design, practices & processes, and the philosophies of each company that has a Product organization (or in some cases a few PMs). Because of this, there is a sea of conflicting or competing information about what to expect as you embark on accepting a role as a Product Manager (or working in a company closely with Product Managers)… even if you’ve already been practicing your flavor of the craft. This isn’t a bad thing, in fact having many flavors allows us all to improve as a community as we learn and grow with each other. There is no one flavor to rule them all – nor should there be.
With that in mind, I thought it would be useful to share our flavor of what Product Management is at Sidebench. As we continue to grow the Product Teams and develop some really incredible products, it’s important for us to share our philosophies so that you will have a sense for what working here or what working with us might be like.
We subscribe to the “Empowered Product Teams” thinking popularized by Marty Cagan and the Silicon Valley Product Group. That essentially means that the Product Team is not just a team of Product Managers – it’s the entire team of Product Managers, Product Designers, Engineers, Strategists, Quality Assurance Engineers and otherwise that come together to create and/or evolve a product. It also means that we don’t just build a bunch of features someone is asking for – we seek to deeply understand the customer, the business, and the technology problems in question and work to find the best possible strategy to solve for the problem we’re attacking.
We pride ourselves on solving impossible problems. We want to take on the big hairy audacious work that others might feel is inconceivable or too far out of reach because that’s where we tend to find the magic and creativity that drives business results. These impossible problems also drive unique and rewarding bonds between the companies we partner with and the teams working with them. Yes of course we also have to do the mundane work at times… but that’s par for the course and generally the known-knowns that have to be true to build the foundation to take on the big scary stuff.
What does all of that fluffy stuff actually boil down to? Outcomes. Plain and simple. We seek to understand what needles need to be moved and then we focus on what it’s going to take to move the needle. We prioritize outcomes first, roadmaps second. Then we obsess over the customer problems that will drive those outcomes.
One of my favorite Product quotes comes from David Cancel (a product leader that I admire from HubSpot & Drift) “When you spend more time talking to internal stakeholders than your customers, you’ve lost the ship.” Most companies tend to solve their own needs first, not the customers needs. They say the right things but find themselves doing them in the wrong order. We structure our teams to be able to make decisions to solve for the customer. We do that by giving teams accountability and authority.
Accountability and authority means that these Product teams are responsible for the entire product experience including supporting them and improving them post release. When a product succeeds, they own that. When a product falls short of solving a customer problem, they carry that weight too. Of course, these decisions should be in pursuit of the outcomes we’ve set out to achieve. The team should have the authority to determine the best way to solve the customer problems and the accountability to make sure their solutions are successful in the wild.
Creating a successful product is an iterative process. We expect our Product Teams to execute early testing to validate their hypothesis until they are >70% confident. Once confident, they should ship quickly and without a lot of executive interference to learn. It’s about the relationship between the customer, her problem, and the product team trying to achieve the desired outcome. We ship quickly to learn, hear from the customer, regroup and ship again, and again, and again. It is this autonomy, fast learning, and eventual mastery that drives us.
So if you’re looking for a team that looks like the above, say hello! We’re currently looking for a seasoned servant leader to join the team as a Director of Product & Operations and growing constantly, so reach out even if you don’t see a role fit open. We love to meet talented, driven, accountable humans that want to work together to leave the world a better place then we found it.
