What a product manager does in three films and a box set 

‘So what is it you do again?’ This is the third time my father-in-law and I have gone down this rabbit hole 

‘A product manager.’ My answer, again, causes more confusion, so I elaborate, ‘So I look after a product,’ 

‘A product, like a chair -’ He’s looking around the room for other random objects ‘No, no sorry, I mean a soft-’ 

‘Or a t-shirt.’ He’s holding his t-shirt to demonstrate.

‘I mean some products sell t-shirts or chairs-’ Its at this point my mother-in-law enters the room, tea in hand. 

‘I told you, it's computers, isn’t it - IT.’ She’s onto something here. 

‘Yes, yes kind of. We use computers -’ 

‘You don’t make computers do you?’ My father-in-law seems excited by this one. 

‘No he uses computers.’ My mother-in-law steps in. I need to avoid a domestic over the confusion my job title causes.

‘Well ours has got so slow recently, you see,’ He ignores his wife, hoping I can fix his computer now. 

‘No - nope.’ I try to reign them in, ‘A product manager is a like a, a -’ 

‘I thought you were a project manager?’ She says, looking concerned now her whole understanding is shifting before her feet. 

‘What’s going on?’ My wife calls from the kitchen. Her parents look at me, trying to understand the reality that is my job. 

‘Yeah.’ I nod, ‘Yeah a project manager - on computers.’ 

A sigh of relief from the room, and the world is normal once again. 

Have you ever been confronted by the challenge of explaining what your job is? I’ve been lucky enough to work for brands people recognise, but still explaining what I do on a day to day basis can be a struggle. That is until today. 

Gone are the metaphors of a captain on a ship, the similarities to a conductor, or of drawing diagrams where customer, technology and business overlap like that article you googled when you first started in the role. Because today we clarify exactly what the hell a product manager does with three films and a box set. 

Brad Pitt’s data centric film, Moneyball, tells the story of how gut feel and opinion was overturned in sports, in the true story of when a baseball coach challenged the status quo of sports draft picks. This film is a great example of part of our roles in product: using data to solve problems. 

Rather than using old school assumptions and bias, coach Billy Beane (Pitt) assisted by data analyst Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) put data to work to get the best players for the team at cut price deals. Here’s an inspiring sports story that puts data analytic on the map. As put by Peter, ‘Its about getting things down to one number, using stats the way we read them we’ll find value in players that nobody else can see’ 

Good luck trying to get your family and friends excited by your latest AB test or an Adobe dashboard, so hand over to Brad Pitt for this one.

Before Dune, Denis Villeneuve made Arrival, a film with a different take on an Alien invasion. The film follows an elite team led by linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) who races to try to find answers and decipher the reason for their visit. 

It's a film full of mystery, uncertainty and speculation - nothing like the world of product management then! Sit down to this one, to bring to life how the product manager’s world is full of ominous messages and unclear statements from above, as well as working with a close knit team to figure out and make sense of problems that at the outset can feel very alien indeed. 

When you think product, of course you think space travel right? Stick with me. 

Ron Howard directs Tom Hanks in the story of Apollo 13. When spacecraft Apollo 13 suffers critical damage, the three astronauts on board and NASA have to work together with limited resources in an effort to get back to earth safely. 

Share this film to try to bring to life when you’ve been landed in it? What’s that, you’d like me to build a new App in 6 weeks, with this list of features you’ve already sold to clients? Oh, and it needs to be in 5 languages? Oh, and I’ve only got a part time product designer? At this rate Apollo 13 was a breeze. 

But perhaps it also brings to life the highs collaboration offers in the job. When you fully understand a problem, and along with your team, you are in flow to experiment, brainstorm and iteration, until you find a solution that drives your outcome. And if this film can bring even a hint of that to life, perhaps people will get why we love it so much. 

Have you ever had one of those stakeholder who just gets it? They appreciate your outcomes? They take their own opinions out of the equation, and are really focused on the data and customer testing? Who really value the work of product? 

No, me neither ;) 

But of course we’ve all had those difficult stakeholders, who are opinion led, who you are trying to convince them that the data, your customers, and your team really will drive value, more than this feature request they thought of yesterday. 

Succession brings to life characters high on power and full of ego. Sit down and binge on all this series, then suggest: ‘Imagine convincing Logan Roy his idea might not be the best for customer, for him to bark at you, ‘Go on…Fuck off!’

So, three films, and a box set to try to answer the universal question, ‘What does a product manager do?’ Sorted. 

‘So what happens then?’ My father in law asks after 2 straight days in front of the TV 

Puzzled, I turn to him, ‘What do you mean?’ 

‘Well you’ve done your Moneyball data analytics, you’d figured out the problem space ala Arrival -’ He’s counting these off now like he’s been in product for years My mother in law pitches in holding her tea, ‘Yes. Then you’ve found a solution, iterating and experimenting - and managed to get buy in.’ 

I’m nodding, it’s landed. 

‘Exactly.’ My father in law looks me in the eye, ‘What happens then?’ 

‘Oh,’ I smile, ‘Well, we keep going.’ 

A moment of silent comes over the room 

My father in law thinks deeply, rubbing his chin, ‘Right. Right. So like that Bill Murray film then?’ 

‘Ghostbusters?’ I ask - he’s got it, product managers are modern day heroes - ‘Groundhog Day.’