Matt Anderson @ ‘The Three Questions for Product Manager’

Matt broke into product management as a SME in library software, but has branched out into broader software categories. As a product manager, Matt has recent experience with B2B and B2G products, browser-based and mobile applications, and US and Canadian workforce regulations at several small companies in Salt Lake City. While working from Utah, Matt has worked extensively with offshore teams in India and Eastern Europe. Matt’s product management influences include Alicia Dixon, Rich Mironov, Roger Cauvin, Nils Davis, and the PM Dude. In his spare time, Matt tweets about product management best practices and broad technological trends.

We thank Matt for taking out time and be part of ‘Three Questions’ series for product managers.

Product Mantra: How do you see the role of product manager evolving in the world of Mobile Apps?

Matt Anderson: Mobile applications are often a new-ish product offering for companies that have established core products. In this sort of scenario, the mobile applications are often the most exciting area of development for the organization, while the core products are constantly focusing on the same things over the long-term: performance improvements, features, bug fixes, etc. Mobile products often have a shorter development cycle, a shorter testing process, and a smaller training and documentation effort. For someone who has been working as a product manager or engineer for non-mobile applications, it’s often a relief to move onto a mobile app project.

The learning curve, however, can be steep when you begin to work on mobile applications. Product managers working with mobile should look at and use applications regularly. They should look at mobile design patterns across the software industry. I’ve found it beneficial to carry multiple devices, with multiple brands, sizes, carriers, operating systems, etc. I’ve carried devices that were cheap or old when I thought the users may not use the latest and greatest. A product manager will have trouble balancing all of these conflicting concerns, so I’ve found it is good to rely on short release cycles, consistent beta releases, and constant feedback loops with users to release successful mobile products.

If I were to hire a product manager to work on a mobile application, I would look for a high-performer who was actively trying to understand (1) industry standards of UX design, (2) best practices for customer interviews, and (3) best practices for Agile. I’ve found that a solid background in product management and UX is a primary qualification for a mobile product management role, while experience in the mobile application space is a secondary qualification.

Product Mantra: How often do you conduct competitive analysis, and are there any methods that you can share with us?

Matt Anderson: I crawl the web daily for competitive insight in my industry by using Paper.li and Talkwalker Alerts. I think that establishing a constant flow of competitive data by using these tools is a great way to keep a constant dialog with your product management, marketing, and development teams. If I hear that my competitor’s Mobile App X is integrating with an API Y, I want to share that info with my team right away. That’s a daily competitive analysis, which may not be for everyone, but daily crawling is definitely my style. And if you use this strategy, don’t forget to pay attention also to your competitors’ major customers, because they drive your competitors’ strategy.

While I gather far more competitive insight from the web than from other means, the most valuable data is not always available on the web. I received one of the best pieces of competitive data in my career by attending an industry event and hearing that a government agency had worked with my competitors A, B, and C to draft legislation for my industry. Not all information is published to websites, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You need to be where your industry influences are, be where your customer base is, and be where your partners are. Visit your customers regularly, attend industry events, and you’ll work your way to the center of your industry.

I always find that the data that you gather from the competition over time needs to work its way into a higher-level analysis that compares your product offering with the competition. It could be a spreadsheet that shows feature quality for you and four competitors, or a spreadsheet with predictions of what each competitor’s feature offering will be in 2 years, or a pricing analysis in a spreadsheet that recommends dropping your price by 10% to improve your win-loss ratio. Take your competitive analysis and make it consumable by your executive team.

Product Mantra: What would be your suggestion for 3 Do’s and 3 Don’ts for Product Managers?

Matt Anderson:

Don’t just tell people what they want to hear; tell them what is going to happen. Don’t just say “yes” or “that’s a great idea” if you aren’t going to do it now. Tell them the real plan, and you’ll promote openness and trust.

Do work for your organization; not your department. As much as you can, be the best value to your organization. That means breaking down unnecessary interdepartmental silos and establishing a cooperative environment.

Don’t be the primary tester for your product. Sure, there are reasons why it can be a good thing. First and foremost, it is a great way for a product manager to understand the product and how it is used. However, a few of the consequences that arise from having product managers as the primary testers are impacts on the development process, conflicts of interest, and impacts on the performance of the product manager.

Do put your executive hat on. It’s not only the dev team and the user that matters…make sure that your product strategy is in line with your executive team’s expectations. Do it on a monthly basis, if possible.

Don’t gather the stakeholders and let them duke it out over what the priorities for the product are. You are being paid to make decisions about the product, not facilitate others to do so.

Do participate in the #prodmgmt community. I’ve learned so much from my colleagues in the product management community. I’ve met dozens of product management folks through my use of Twitter who have made my career and my life more fulfilling.

Thanks Matt.

Matt Anderson on web: