Marty Cagan has written an excellent post comparing product management vs. product marketing.
Marty points out a troublesome pattern at some companies where there is no single product owner. A “business person” defines the high-level product definition and the product manager writes the requirements.
The problem is that neither person truly owns the product, and more importantly, neither person feels and behaves like they are the one ultimately responsible for the product.
This is true. If the business person is an executive, they may not have the deep, detailed understanding of customers that is essential for defining a product vision.
I do have a quibble to pick with a side point in Marty’s essay. He goes on to say:
Further, this model is based on a flawed view of software that believes that you can define high-level product requirements independent of detailed requirements and especially the user experience.
I respectfully disagree. Not only is it possible to separate the vision (high-level requirements) from the detailed requirements and design, it’s a very good idea.
Most companies obsess about the details too early and too often. They have trouble breaking away and questioning the purpose of the product and its features, and they lose sight of the big picture. When you see products that are perennially mired in incrementalism and features wars, this is what is going on.
The remedy is to treat product vision as a distinct problem to solve. It requires putting aside the product’s details, having faith that they can be worked out later. The first job is to figure out the important needs to solve. Hold those needs sacred. Ignore constraints and precedent, requirements and design. Trust that a great solution will be found. Then, during requirements and design, find it.
Apple seems to demonstrate this mentality over and over. With the iPhone, they figured out that a voice prompts-driven UI for voicemail was terribly inefficient, and that users needed a more streamlined approach. They set about building a UI they call “visual voicemail.” This required changes well outside Apple’s purview, at the mobile phone carrier’s back-end system. By focusing on the “what” and (temporarily) ignoring the “how” they were able to achieve a breakthrough solution.
Inventor Charles Kettering (1876-1958) said, “A problem well-stated is a problem half solved.” Product vision is about stating the problem. Detailed requirements and design come later.
