The role of product management and marketing typically different from one organization to another, which isn’t new per se, but it is a topic that continuously comes up in the in the industry. Every role I’ve had, every new CMO I reported to and every company I worked for required something different, it’s just the reality. The challenge for most of us to how to deal with different definitions of the role and the evolving expectations of product management over time.
Technology Association of Georgia’s Product Management group met this week to tackle this issue. A panel of folks participated that provided some real insight into how to implement a strategic approach to product management and change organizations. The panelist addressed “Selling Product Management to an Organization That Doesn’t Use It or Understand It”, here is the abstract from the event to provide more context:
While many companies have embraced product management as a key strategic role within their organization others are still unsure of the value that a product management team can bring. Many companies are building product management organizations but these groups are facing internal hurdles in establishing their place within the organization and becoming truly effective. This panel discussion will give you perspective on selling product management internally as well as strategies for addressing the challenges you will face building a team.
The panel included:
- Cate Bowman, Director, Product Management, RelayHealth/McKesson
- Eric Christ, Former President of Patient Placement Systems
- Steve Ely, SVP Equifax
The discussion took three very different approaches to the challenge of successfully selling product management as the leaders of the business and sparked a good deal of discussion afterwards as well in halls. I was lucky enough to have a camera with me, so I had some side conversations and interviewed some additional folks and edited in some of the high lights of the talk. The whole panel discussion will be online as well for TAG members, but here are the cliff notes of the TAG PM panel and some additional interviews around the role of product management which might be of interest for folks outside of the southeast as well. Unfortunately the video from Cate was not clear, so I didn’t get any clips from her great drill-down on the importance of deliverables and ownership.
Thanks to everyone that spent some time chatting with me, the panel members and the TAG Product Management Society for putting on another insightful event for the local marketing community.
On another note…
A big thank you goes out to Tom Chmielewski, not for being in the video, but for all of his contributions to the product management and marketing community in Atlanta. Tom helped develop/co-found the first PM group in ATL, the TAG Product Management Society. Tom has also been active in numerous tech groups in Atlanta and most recently helped drive the sponsor efforts for the latest Product Camp ATL. He has been instrumental over the last decade + in Atlanta tech, but he’s leaving to do new stuff elsewhere.
Tom has landed a great gig out of state and will be taking his PM acumen on the road in the coming weeks. I wish Tom the best of luck and the greatest success in his next gig. Tom’s contributions have been big for Atlanta and I’m sure Tampa will soon benefit from having him in the community. Cheers!