Product Strategist: What I learned on the tweet stream of #PCamp09

The Productologist offers his lessons learned from #PCamp09, in his blog post What I Learned @ #PCAMP09. Various participants tweeted from the sessions they attended, so last Saturday was a busy day.

I used TweetDeck for the first time, because it enables you to filter out tweets that were general, so you can focus on the discussion.

In this post, I'll rift off of Ivan's list in bold and the follow up comment at the end of each entry. Warning, I'm going to be a bit irrelevant here. Ivan's list included the following:

1.  Even unorganized events need organizing.
     An event is not a thing, it is an intersection of many entities like place and the
     people that make it happen. The same goes for the tweet stream. I was
     listening and participating to the extent that I could. Thanks.

     Organized events need unorganizing.

3.  Topics are just starting points.
      Topics are just the infrastructure. The rest is upside. The rest is the user
      experience even in the absense of an interface. 

      Labels and controls on an interface are just starting points.

4.   Just like in the real world, squeaky wheels get the grease 
       The squeaky wheel gets grease on all of us. Grease is good. The 
       longer it stays on you, the more you think about it. 
      
       Squeaky products get users. Squeaky features get used.

5.    Equal access to participation is not equal participation. 
        Was that a lurker standing next to you? Was there a tweeter vicariously
        standing next to you?

        Access to functionality does not equal use.

6.     Product Managers sometimes have to act like Sales to get their message out.
        Product Managers sell all day, every day.

        Even introverts sell.

7.     Labels, definitions, and functional inconsistencies continue to be the bane of
        Product Managers’ growth as a profession
        If people still fight over the labels, you haven't been commoditized yet. Be
        happy amoung the confusion.

        More than a few times, it seemed that the User Experience practitioners
        sounded like they wanted to be product managers--a label fight in our mist.
        B-schools and D-schools are turning out design minded MBAs, so
        companies compete on Art beyond the reach of brand. Competing on Art is
        something we all do, in the late market at least, as our products become
        commodities.

        Check the label out before you take the job. If it doesn't fit,or doesn't grow you,
        there is little point in arguing or taking the job thinking you can change its job
        description, metrics, and incentives. Know your own label.

8.     Every product has problems; every Product Manager has problems.
        Every Product Manager is a product. What are your features, advantages, 
        and benefits (FAB--the stuff your sales rep sells--oh, you don't have an
        agent, where is the upside in that?)? Are you listening to your customer?

        You are competing against a straw man.

         Do you have a user manual? I know you have stories? But, what are your
         user's stories?

         Given the buzzword aspects of product management, how do you define it?
         How does your customers define it? What is your agility towards your
         customers? How would you prioritize your stakeholders? Will you answer a
         contributor's question, before you answer the CEO's?

9.      User Interface == User Experience
          The impression I got from the tweet stream was that
          User Experience > User Interface. The art guys said that.

          User interfaces, not user interface, as in API user, GUI user, command line
          user, support and admin user, report user, ecomonic buyer outcomes,
          business process modifications, change management, business cases,
          search engines, etc.... Oh, like User Experience=Sum(User Interface_i)

10.    Requirements are not the answer
          Requirements are decisions, not descriptions. Decisions you, the product
          manager makes.
   
          Average requirements led to average functionality devoid of meaning, and
          contribute high costs invisibly to the cost structure of the customer's
          organization.

12.     It’s hard to twitter and pay attention
           Will twitter for money, of course, there are other transactional goods like 
           truckloads of thank yous and goodwill (for the accountants).

           Thoughtful for the thankful.

13.      Product Management is a “renaissance” role. 
           The Product Manager is the only renaissance role beyond the one man 
            shop.

            Yes, you are in training to roll your own. Put some investment capital aside.
            And, keep your coding skills, if only you had the time.

15.       Product Managers are part of the problem
             If it climbed out of bed this morning, it's part of the problem. 

            You did get out of bed this morning, didn't you?

16.       Product Managers fill the voids left by other roles
            Product Managers fill the voids left by others that ran away.

            Don't worry, they don't want your job. Believe me, you'll get forgiveness.

17.      Others fill voids left undone by Product Managers
            Forgive them, it's your fault. 

            If you don't have an answer when they ask, they will immediately commit
            to their answer. 

            Some of those voids are never filled. 
            See item 16.

18.       Product Management is political
             The janitor's job is political.

             No, more political science won't help. Get to know everyone, not just your 
             bosses. What does the CEO's admin know, but that's obvious isn't it. So
             what does the guy moving boxes down in shipping know? Which boxes
             are yours? "Hey, none of your stuff went out this month!"

19.       Product Managers, as a general rule, spend too much time NOT listening
             to the market. Log your listen. Get your numbers up this week.              

             Thus ends another broadcast day here at the product ... channel. Yes, get
              some sleep.

             Do the Tom Peters, business card metric,
             where you have to collect the business cards of five customers or
             users a week. Do you know five more names this week? 
 
             Yes, Mike it's good to be here at the Product Manager of the Week
             Roundup. Who's Rolodex, ah, I mean Blackberry will win this week?

I greatly enjoyed the tweet stream. Thanks to all the attendees that tweeted. Thanks to all the non-attendees as well. #PCamp10

And, thanks to Ivan for the list of lessons learned.

Talk back! Leave a comment. Or, for those of you out on an RSS feed, email comments to locke.david@rocketmail.com. Or, tweet me at @DavidWLocke