Your product company has some traction (perhaps even some paying customers), but otherwise you feel stuck. Whenever you task someone with figuring out why, it always seems to fall down the list and you wind up in the same spot you were in before. Similar symptoms may include:
- Consistently missing traction goals
- Poor communication between your functional groups
- Engineering is a ‘black-box’ that no one seems to understand
If this is happening to you, then your product company is lacking in accountability in all the right places. So how do you fix it?
Your team needs a product manager
A product manager will act as the glue for your product company. Their main focus will be your traction goals. The rest of your team has goals in mind, but they are more specific. A product manager will focus on coordinating their effort and measuring the results of the company as a whole against those goals.
A good product manager will be able to resolve communication issues between your team. If confusion exists regarding how work gets done and why, your product manager can identify it and resolve it.
Your product manager needs to be held accountable for results
Your previous attempts to rectify these issues failed because they weren’t the primary focus of your team members. They have lots of things to keep them busy, but someone has to captain the ship. That should be your product manager. Task this person will accountability around the goals you set for your product company. Ideally, they should help you create them as well.
Your product manager needs to hold your team accountable
Rallying the troops is one benefit your product company stands to receive from adding a product manager to the team, but it shouldn’t end there. A good product manager will help the rest of your team realize what they should be responsible for to ensure your team is operating as a well organized unit.
Want to know whether or not your product company is ready for a product manager? Let’s talk it through, email me at sean@nxtstep.io or visit us on the web at NxtStep.
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