What do Directors and VPS of Product Management Do?

CLICK TO EDIT MASTER TITLE STYLE

What do Directors and

VPS of Product

Management Do?Rich Mironov

• Veteran product manager/exec/strategist• Business models, pricing, agile

• Organizing product organizations

• 6 startups, including as CEO/founder

• “The Art of Product Management”

• Organized first Product Camp

ABOUT RICH


market information, priorities,

requirements, roadmaps, epics,

user stories, backlogs,

personas, MRDs…

product

bits

strategy, forecasts,

commitments, roadmaps,

competitive intelligence

budgets, staff,

targets

Field input,

Market feedback

Segmentation, messages,

benefits/features, pricing,

qualification, demos…

Markets &

CustomersDevelopmentMarketing

& Sales

Executives

Product

Management

WHAT DOES A PRODUCT MANAGER

DO?

W W W . M I R O N O V . C O M

• PM role is different from Director PM and VP PM

• The promotion funnel is narrow• Not an entitlement

• Not (just) by being the

best at your current job

• Do you want that next job?

• Can you demonstrate skills/scope

beyond your current role?

ROLES AND PROMOTIONS

MYTHICAL PM ORGANIZATION

Dir PM Dir PMPricingAnalyst

Sr PM

PM/PO

Sr PM

Competitive Analyst

Sr PM

PM

PM/PMM

Product Owner

Channel/Partner PM

VP Products

• Knows more about product, market, roadmap,

competition, use cases, personas, trade-offs than

anyone else

• Talks benefits with customers; talks tech with

engineers; talks strategy with execs

• Relentless communicator of the truth

• Timeline: Next 2-4 quarters

• Gets great (individual) products

out the door

PM AS INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTOR

• Focus on processes, resources and teams• Cross-functional cooperation and priorities

• PLM-level trends and market input

• Standardization and simplification

• Mentor your replacement

• Scope• Next 6 quarters

• Broad product strategy and budget

• Keeps the trains running

DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT

MANAGEMENT


Name a few ways

that a line Product

Manager can show

off her Director

skills


Director-level roles

in other functions or

organiztions?

• Focus on aligning strategy, organization and

products• Is the company succeeding? Is PM succeeding?

• Company-wide issues and disconnects

• Market success (= revenue!)

• Scope• 3 year trends

• Thoughtful member of exec team

• How do we build organizational

support to do the right things?

VP PRODUCTS

• Organizational levels have different roles

• Decide what you want

• Demonstrate skills one level up

TAKE-AWAYS

11W W W . M I R O N O V . C O M


CONTACTRich Mironov, CEO

Mironov Consulting

233 Franklin St, Suite #308

San Francisco, CA 94102

RichMironov

@RichMironov

[email protected]