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A deep dive into internal product management

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Siddarth Ramadoss is a product leader with over a decade of experience in cloud data analytics services. He leads Product Management for Snowgrid at Snowflake and previously worked as the Principal PM Manager of Azure Stream Analytics at Microsoft. Ramadoss holds a Master's degree in Information Systems Management from Carnegie Mellon University.

Siddarth Ramadoss

<p>In recent years, we have seen a trend where every company, regardless of its industry, is becoming a software company. This has led to an increased demand for engineers who are skilled in working with cutting-edge cloud technologies. As a result, we have also seen the rise of highly successful companies building enterprise software that aims to solve problems for these engineers. Technical Product Managers help these companies focus on providing compelling software tools, platforms, or services that enable engineers to work more efficiently and effectively.</p>
<p>The role of a Technical Product Manager in the rapidly evolving field of cloud services, encompassing major players such as Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, as well as emerging platforms like Snowflake and Databricks, poses unique challenges. It demands not only a solid understanding of technology but also a deep appreciation of business dynamics, and a constant attention to market and customer trends.</p>
<h2>Enterprise vs Consumer: Differentiated Realms of Product Management</h2>
<p>Managing an enterprise product is vastly different from overseeing consumer-focused applications. Both these realms require different approaches, strategies, and perspectives. While consumer apps aim to delight individuals and are typically measured by their ability to retain and engage users, enterprise products often deal with complex business problems, require integration with existing systems, and must deliver value to an entire organization.</p>
<p>When developing an enterprise product, Product Managers have to take into consideration factors like complex buying processes, long sales cycles, regulatory compliance, and the need for robust support and service level agreements (SLAs). Enterprise products often involve numerous stakeholders—from end users to IT administrators, from procurement managers to C-suite executives. The decision-making process in the enterprise world is complex and involves multiple layers of approval, requiring the Product Manager to effectively communicate the value proposition to various roles within an organization.</p>
<p>On the contrary, consumer apps usually have a shorter sales cycle, driven by impulse buying or quick decision-making based on the immediate perceived value of the app. The decision-maker is often the end-user themselves, making user experience and immediate satisfaction key.</p>
<h2>Understanding the space</h2>
<p>Before diving into the complexities of the role, it&#8217;s crucial to get a grasp of the domain. Cloud services involve a vast spectrum of offerings &#8211; Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and more recently, Data as a Service (DaaS). Understanding the distinctions, benefits, and trade-offs among these services is vital for a Product Manager.</p>
<h2>Aligning with developer workflows</h2>
<p>An effective Product Manager is not just concerned with the end product but also with the context in which it will be used. This principle is especially true when developing data products aimed at developers and data engineers. These professionals have a unique set of tooling workflows, ranging from ETL processes, data pipelines, orchestrators like Apache Airflow, to data warehouses and lakes, and analytics platforms like Tableau or Power BI. As a Product Manager, understanding these workflows and the tools used is crucial. For instance, if you&#8217;re building a data product aimed at streamlining data ETL processes, you must be aware of the current tooling environment your target audience uses, such as Python for scripting, Apache Kafka for data streaming, and Iceberg table formats for data storage and processing. The experience you provide should not just co-exist but seamlessly integrate with these existing workflows, enhancing productivity rather than creating additional work. A successful data product should be designed to easily plug into their existing ecosystem, reducing friction, and ideally, enhancing the overall workflow by making tasks quicker, easier, or more efficient.</p>
<h2>Building technical depth</h2>
<p>As a Product Manager building solutions for developers, a strong technical background is non-negotiable. An intimate understanding of distributed systems, virtualization, networking, security, data management, and analytics is paramount to not only understand your product&#8217;s technical underpinnings but also to engage effectively with your engineering team. The key is not necessarily to be an expert programmer, but to deeply understand the technologies that drive your product such that it allows you to build trust not just with your engineering counterparts but also your customers who are highly technical.</p>
<p>In the world of cloud services, there&#8217;s a constant barrage of technological innovation. For example, the rise of serverless computing, containerization, and Kubernetes is changing the way applications are developed and deployed in the cloud. In data services, the advent of data lakes and the need for real-time analytics are driving shifts in architecture and technology choices. A Product Manager needs to stay on top of these trends and assess their implications on the product roadmap.</p>
<h2>Customer centricity</h2>
<p>An IT team within an enterprise usually comprises various stakeholders — from data scientists to machine learning engineers, from startup founders to enterprise CIOs—a Product Manager must develop a clear understanding of customer personas and their specific needs. Empathy-based design thinking should be the basis of product strategy, where the focus is on problem-solving for the user.</p>
<p>Close interaction with customers and users, constant market research, and tight collaboration with user experience (UX) teams can provide insights that can define product direction. This close-to-the-ground approach can lead to better, more intuitive product features, and can keep you ahead in the competitive landscape. Users in the enterprises often are vocal about their expectations and ask for fine grained controls of various capabilities in the product you are building. While it is important to factor in customer feedback, the best Product Managers clearly distinguish the most common pain points from the nice-to-have functionality. Adding knobs for every single feature request that comes your way tends to complicate the experience you deliver. Therefore, it is important to have a strong opinionated view of how your product should function to solve the most critical problems in a way that truly delights them.</p>
<h2>Business acumen</h2>
<p>Being technically adept and customer-oriented is just half the battle. To truly succeed, Product Managers need to wear the hat of a business strategist. You should have a solid grasp of market dynamics, understand the competition, and be aware of regulatory and compliance issues that might impact your product.</p>
<p>Moreover, the ability to align the product vision with the company&#8217;s broader business objectives is vital. Balancing investments in new features, enhancements, and technical debt requires not only a good understanding of return on investment (ROI) but also an ability to articulate and advocate for these trade-offs to stakeholders. In the world of consumer software, it is easier to iterate through various bets quickly to see which one drives impact for your business. Making bets as a Product Manager to improve a cloud platform or service requires diligent thinking and strong conviction as it usually entails larger scope and complex infrastructure.</p>
<h2>Communication and leadership</h2>
<p>The role of a Product Managers demands exceptional communication and leadership skills. You are the nexus point among various stakeholders—engineering, UX, sales, marketing, and executives. Being able to articulate your product&#8217;s value proposition, roadmap, and trade-offs among these diverse groups is key to your success. Product Managers in such settings often work very closely with customers who drive a significant piece of the overall consumption. The tight loop with your top customers allows you to get them onboarded to previews, collect feedback, iterate and fine tune the experience before releasing it to the broader customer base.</p>
<p>Strong leadership skills enable TPMs to influence cross-functional teams and drive consensus on product direction. It&#8217;s about building trust, fostering collaboration, and nurturing a shared vision of the product&#8217;s success.</p>
<h2>Navigating the go-to-market and sales strategy</h2>
<p>Crafting a go-to-market and sales strategy in the enterprise and consumer sectors also varies significantly. For enterprise products, the strategy often starts by identifying the right organizations to target—those with a problem your product solves and those with the ability to pay for your solution. The sales strategy is relationship-driven, often involving in-depth demos, proofs of concept, and negotiation of contracts. The decision-maker in enterprise sales is usually a group of stakeholders including but not limited to IT leaders, business leaders, and procurement departments.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in the consumer market, the sales strategy is largely volume-driven, targeting individual users who find value in the product or service. Marketing efforts are critical in reaching potential users, using tactics like social media advertising, influencer marketing, and app store optimization. The decision-maker is the individual consumer who perceives value in the application, and purchasing decisions are often based on personal needs and preferences.</p>
<h2>Finding technical product management opportunities</h2>
<p>If you are interested in finding Product Management opportunities to build developer experiences, it&#8217;s critical to first establish a strong foundation in technical knowledge. This often involves studying computer science principles, familiarizing yourself with programming languages and cloud technologies, and developing a strong understanding of the development process and developer tooling workflows. You don&#8217;t need to be an expert programmer, but a solid understanding of how developers work and the tools they use is crucial. This can be achieved through a mix of formal education, online courses, or even Youtube videos! Networking is another powerful strategy. Connect with other Product Managers in the field, attend industry events, or participate in online forums and discussions. This will not only increase your industry knowledge but also expose you to potential job opportunities.</p>
<p>Understanding these differences helps to shape a product manager&#8217;s perspective and informs their decision-making. It&#8217;s crucial to align the development, marketing, and sales strategies with the nuances of your target market, be it enterprise or consumer. By doing so, you&#8217;ll increase your chances of delivering a product that resonates with your intended users and meets their unique needs.</p>
<p>With a deep understanding of the technological landscape, a keen eye on customer needs, sound business judgment, and strong communication and leadership skills, Product Managers can navigate this complex environment successfully. By leveraging these insights, Product Managers can not only shape innovative and competitive developer experiences but also chart a course towards personal growth and career success.</p>
<h2>Discover more content on technical product management</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/innovating-in-government-rick-klau-on-the-product-experience/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Innovating in Government – Rick Klau on The Product Experience</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/technical-product-manager-anyway/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">What is a Technical Product Manager, Anyway</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/are-you-thinking-about-your-internal-product-as-a-commercial-product/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Are you thinking about your internal product as a commercial product?</a></li>
</ul>

How to succeed as a product manager building developer experiences

Siddarth Ramadoss

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