Orange is my favorite color

pdma_adam_nash_product_manager

This slide by Adam Nash of LinkedIn via Christina that describes the skills of a successful Product Manager for a web company. It graphs what I love about my job as an entrepreneur: the opportunity to participate in many disciplines. This week I coded a major new feature, negotiated a travel booking commission deal and put together a 15-minute video for a convention next week. Oh, and I answered some customer support email too.

Is a product manager just an entrepreneur with a support organization? Or put another way, is an entrepreneur a product manager with a support organization of themselves?

I feel lucky to do what I do. I don’t love my job every day, like being in the office today for the fourth or fifth Saturday in a row, but I’d far rather be passionate and working overtime than be apathetic from 9-5.

2 Comments

  1. Zack Steinkamp said:

    on February 14, 2009 at 6:39 pm

    +1 Brian!

    I read the bullet points in your graphic, and it’s clear that in any company (particularly a small or growing one) *all* employees, regardless of role or title, need to posses those qualities in order for it to be successful.

    Sub out “Product Manager” for “Engineer” or “Head of Marketing” or “Customer Support Rep” or “CEO” — it all works.

  2. PDMA 2008: Building a World Class Web 2.0 Product Organization « Psychohistory said:

    on February 14, 2009 at 7:56 pm

    [...] Management and borrowed a few of my slides.  As a result of that talk, I saw this blog post, about the definition of a product manager, come through my Google Alerts [...]

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