Partner - in - Crime…..Product & Engineering

Over the years, as a product manager, having worked with various engineering leaders and teams, one important and consistent learning for me has been that "success of a product depends on the team of product and engineering - not one or the other". 

All the engineers I interacted with have taught me so much and helped me become a better product manager  - both in terms of Dos and Don'ts.

In my experience, here is a what I would define as important factors for a successful product team:

1. Trust - Trust each other.  Product owner must trust that the engineering team is building the solution the right way and at the same time, engineering needs to trust the Product owner in the requirements given to them. The trust builds over time and gets stronger only when everyone involved is passionate in doing the right thing.

2. Communication - Communication must be two way and transparent. As much as the product owner is responsible for sharing the roadmap and get the team's buy in what should be the path forward, engineering must share their progress path periodically vs keeping the product owner in the dark until the last day. A product manager can help reduce the impact of not being able to meet the plan sooner than later. At the same time, buy in from engineering on the roadmap helps build the passion and energy in the team.

3. Consistent messaging - If there is a plan on what is being built, this should be owned by product and engineering. Plan together and communicate the same message to everyone outside the team. Conflicting messages from different fronts does no good to the stakeholders and the team themselves.

4. Roles and responsibilities - Have well defined ownership and process. If product needs to define the "what" and "why" of the plan, then engineering owns the "how" and "by when".  Work as team to get the details in place but the assigned owner is responsible for  taking it to the finish line. 

5. Collaborate - Everyone might have an assigned role but that doesn't mean , don't share your thoughts. An engineer might have great product sense as well as product owner might have strong technical background to provide feedback. Be open to suggestions and keep that channel open and friendly.

7. Lead by example - Every member of the team must lead by example. For example, if the product owner expects engineering to document and update work status periodically on the project board, product owner must do the same with timely delivery of required updates from product side. This makes the team flat instead of hierarchical.

Above all of these, both product and engineering need to look at each other as "one team" and that both are in it to build the stellar product they set out to build. 

I have had the fortune of working with some wonderful engineers over years who have taught me immensely. Here is to many more such successful teams!!!!

After a long hiatus...

Been almost 1.5 years since my last post and looking back, time just flew by - growing up kids, demanding work and trying to find some time to pursue some hobbies. I am sure this is the story of every other person juggling work and family:) So, no more complaining but just say, hoping to write at least once a week.

BTW, looks like Netflix read my previous blog post since I can now create profiles..woo hoo!!! Have one for myself, my elder one and my husband.

Here's to more blogs  post….:)

Love and hate relationship - my Netflix

Netflix - love you, love you not....

As I look back through my childhood in India, from watching a half hour children's program per week on a community television to today when I watch television series and movies on demand not just on my TV but on my mobile phone and above all, not just  on my couch but also at a coffee shop or even when waiting in line at  a grocery shop, all I can say - "thank god for technology". 

A key player in this world for me is Netflix. No more DVDs, no more DVRs - just on demand streaming. But at the same time, I wish Netflix paid more attention to some of the missing features in their app.

To start with - the taxonomy. Movie tagging gives me a good reason to laugh sometimes. At one time, a Bollywood musical was tagged under "children". If there is a way for users to provide feedback on the tagging, it might save many hours for Netflix as well as make my searching experience better.

With the advent of tablets, I have my older son use the iPad to watch his things when my younger one is sleeping. but at the risk of him seeing the list of what me and my husband watch. The other day, he noticed "desperate Housewives" under 'Recently watched' and insisted in knowing what it was all about ! Wish there were parental controls of some sort. May be a way for me to lock the main screen with a passcode and have the Kids home be the default Home. 

The other day, I read an article about how people consume content across multiple screens.

http://googlemobileads.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/navigating-new-multi-screen-world.html

I fall into the bucket of sequential consuming, especially with Netflix. As a mother of 2 boys, I can never find time to watch even a half hour episode at one stretch. When I jump from my phone to the iPad, the video never starts where I left off or a different episode starts when I press "Resume". 

One other interface that frustrates me is the "Manage devices". There is no way to see the list of devices  linked to my Netflix account and disconnect selectively. It is all or none. What were you thinking when designing this interface!

If there is a way to set up alert to send me a list of new additions once a week based on my selection such as genre/year etc., would save me tons of time in searching new movies as they get added.

But yet, Netflix ranks among the top app on any device for the whole family. Hope to see Netflix evolve over time and make the user experience much better. 

The First...

Back to blogging after a long hiatus..

What to blog about is such a challenging question. Life has so much to offer - food, travel, technology, sports, entertainment, business and the list goes on.  I can probably blog about all those except sports:)

At every point in life, we experience more of one aspect and less of the same thing at other times, for example travel and entertainment during holidays and food around festivals. But one thing that is part of our life always in the present day is technology in the form of devices, be it a mobile phone or a tablet or a laptop. This is not the case just for us but our children as well.

The world of Internet and mobile apps is something that I find so challenging to navigate - finding the right sites/apps for myself and the family, keeping the the list updated and above all, figuring out how to navigate through these apps/web sites. Phew!! That is a huge project in itself and a towering one. With this blogging effort, I am hoping to capture my experiences as I navigate this maze - to help me in the future as well as for people like me out there.