Working effectively with Engineering

Atul Suklikar

Co-founder, VP Product Management

Softrock Systems

Speaker Background

Education: BS EE, MS CS, MBA

Oracle Corporation: 4 years in Engineering

Siebel Systems: 6 years in Product Marketing

Softrock Systems: 6 weeks

Usability

Sub-second response time

Huge market

Press coverage

Standards support

Features

Bugs

Enhancements

Bells & whistles

SENSE OFURGENCY

FLEXIBILITY

An Engineer’s Demonization of a PM Courtesy Billy Connolly

Agenda

The Goal

The Context

The Keys to Success - Provide value to Engineering

• What constitutes value?

• How do I provide it?

Summary

Questions and Insights

The Goal

Translate Product Strategy into a successful

Product Reality

Build lasting relationships with Engineers

Have fun building products

The context

3 Possible Organizational Relationships between PM and Engineering

PM

GM/CEO

ENG

PM

GM/CEO

ENG PM

GM/CEO

ENG

Typical Rare

Typical Engineering Structure

VP of Engineering

• Overall leadership

Directors & Managers

• Focused on delivery

Architects

• “Big Thinker”

• Typically longest tenured

Staff Engineer

• “Junior” Architect

Engineer

• Shortest tenured

VP

Director Architect

Manager

Engineer Staff Engineer

: Typical Progression

: Individual Contributor

Agenda

The Goal

The Context

The Keys to Success - Provide value to Engineering

• What constitutes value?

• How do I provide it?

Summary

What value can a PM provide to an Engineer?

Be the voice of the customer

• Synthesize market requirements, customer pain-points, and competitive

landscape

Prioritize product development

• Release themes, product features

Guide product wins

• Sales, market perception

Help career progression

• Product success, internal visibility, external exposure

How can the PM provide that value?

Fully understand

• Customer

• Market

• Current Product

Gain the trust by being

• Reasonable

• Flexible

• Personable

Effectively promote

• The Product

• The Engineers

Expert

Partner

Champion

Value provided by the PM - Details

Establish yourself as the Expert

Build a Partnership

Be a Champion

Establish yourself as the expert

Areas of expertise:

• Customer

• Market

• Product

Key parties to target

• Architects, Managers, Directors

Who can help

• Other perceived Experts – PM, Sales, Services

• Architects

Building and Communicating Customer Expertise

Familiarize yourself with customer usage

• High level knowledge about a large number of customers

• Deep knowledge about a small number of customers

Use specific customer/prospect names and usage data in MRD use

cases and in conversations

Have your management reiterate your stature as an expert

• In meetings, conversations, emails…

Reinforce the perception through first-hand contact

• Appropriate Sales or Service people

• Customers

Building and Communicating Market Expertise

Familiarize yourself with the competitive landscape

• High level knowledge about a large number of competitors

• Deep knowledge about a small number of competitors

Share this information periodically with Engineering through white

papers, demos, news clippings

Present a balanced view about their strengths and weaknesses and

how you compete against them

Use Engineering’s help in analyzing underlying technology trends

to augment your reading

Limited first-hand contact with Analysts

Building and Communicating Product Expertise

Familiarize yourself with the existing product

• Technical training

• Install development builds frequently

• Participate in testing of the product

Understand the architecture through conversations with Engineers

• Focus on the what as well as the why

Reinforce the perception that you understand the product

• MRDs contain references to how things currently work

• Explaining current product behavior in joint Engineering & PM meetings

Be balanced in your communications

Value provided by the PM - Details

Establish yourself as the Expert

Build a Partnership

Be a Champion

Build a partnership

Characteristics of a good partner

• Reasonable

• Flexible

• Personable

Key Parties to target

• Engineer, Staff Engineer, Architect, Manager, Director

Who can help

• Your manager

• Architects, Managers

Being Reasonable

Common pitfalls

• Request 10 X the number of features that would fit in a given release

• 80% of features are marked as P1

A better approach

• Articulate a multi-release vision for the product

• Get the Architects and Directors to embrace and own that vision

• Jointly work with them to define the delivery roadmap

Over time, develop a feel for (crude) estimations of level of effort

Involve Architects and Staff Engineers early in the definition process

Being Flexible

Always keep the big picture in mind

• This is a repeated interaction game – many releases, many products, many

features

Prioritize judiciously

Break down features into granular sub-features so that the

essential aspects are not compromised

Entertain alternate implementations to achieve the same end goals

If resources are insufficient, offer to make the case to management

for additional investment or reallocation

Being Personable

Interact with Engineers in non-work settings

• Take your Engineering team to lunch

• Explore common interests – sports, movies, etc.

Make it a point to get to know the (junior) Engineers well

• Drop by their office to chat about what they are working on

• Ask for demos and provide ad-hoc feedback

Always share positive product feedback

• Forward congratulatory emails regarding sales, deployments, etc.

Attend Engineering staff meetings on an as-needed basis

Invite the Engineering Manager to your staff meetings

Value provided by the PM - Details

Establish yourself as the Expert

Build a Partnership

Be a Champion

Be a Champion

Things to champion

• The Product

• The Engineering team

Key Parties to target

• Product – All

• Team – Especially Engineers, Staff Engineers, and Managers

Who can help

• Your management

Champion the Product

This is part of your normal responsibilities

The key is to keep Engineering informed and excited

Present a successful pitch or conference presentation to the

Engineering team

Share favorable Product Press immediately

Debrief the Engineering team on conference feedback

Share clever applications of the product developed for sales deals

or by customers

Champion the Engineering team

Give visibility to key accomplishments

• Especially for Engineers, Staff Engineers, and Managers

• Examples:

— An email to all of PM advertising a brand new feature acknowledging the developers

— An email to PM and Sales Management crediting developers of a particular feature

that was key to winning a deal

Increase name awareness of the Engineers among your management

during meetings, conversations, etc.

Nominate Engineers you work with for awards

Recognize good work by Engineers by conveying your appreciation

to their managers and director

Value provided by the PM - Details

Establish yourself as the Expert

Build a Partnership

Be a Champion

Summary

The Goal – A successful Product Reality

The Context & Structure

The Keys to Success - Provide value to Engineering

Expert

Partner

Champion

Questions and Insights

Thank you

Atul Suklikar

asuklikar@softrocksystems.com