I’m a product manager of backend/platform/microservices - how do I make myself useful?

May 6, 2020 19 Comments

I’m a product manager on a scrum team of a component in a microservices architecture. I created a poll last night which seems to have proven I may be useless. Link: https://us.teamblind.com/s/ERyJDapF

I want to change that. How can I be useful as a microservice/backend/platform product manager?

I have 2 years experience as a softeware engineer and a degree in computer science. Though other product managers on the platform don’t even have technical backgrounds sometimes. They just run aorund creating stories for the tech lead.

I’ve read Inspired and Lean Product Playbook but not sure if the advice applies here. Marty Cagan did say in a talk though that platform product management is the hardest form of product management and you’re there to help the engineers.

I’m on two scrum teams. One is the legacy system and one is the new modernization platform. On the legacy system I feel more confident. I get to make a lot of decisions on testing strategy, not hard coding values, not making the legacy system more complex, etc. But on the new modernizaition platform, I’m lost. My day to day consistents of scrum ceremonies (refinement sprint planning sprint demos retrospective), going around all day with the tech lead to alignment and unblocking meetings and creating a story if needed.

I’m thinking I create customer surveys for other components on the microservices on how to improve our components APIs, make it easy to use, etc.

What do you all think?

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TOP 19 Comments
  • Adobe
    coolschool

    Go to company page Adobe

    coolschool
    I'm also a platform PM. I think your number one priority is to understand your users -- who are your users? what are their greatest needs? Why do they use your microservice and why don't they use something else? How well does your microservice address those user needs? If they had a magic wand which of their pain points would they like to see addressed? The end result of this is you should be able to put your users into clean categories and be able to determine which user personas or use cases are your highest priority.

    You also should ultimately define what success looks like for your platform -- this will provide clarity to your eng team. Think about two categories of metrics: business success metrics (usually a lagging indicator), and user experience metrics (usually a leading or predictive indicator of business success).

    If I were you I'd start by conducting face-to-face (or Zoom these days) interviews with my users -- in-person interviews might not be scalable but they help you read the non-verbal emotions and frustrations (or joys!) of your users. Prep for the interview with a couple of well-formed questions beforehand. In the next two weeks plan to talk to at least 5-10 different users. Then to augment that, put together surveys to send to a larger group of users periodically.

    You don't want to be a program manager masquerading as a product manager.
    May 6, 2020 2
    • Adobe
      coolschool

      Go to company page Adobe

      coolschool
      Another super important point: understand your business stakeholders. Do stakeholder interviews across your Director of Engineering, VP of Engineering, Director of Product, VP of Product, ...

      What is their vision for where the platform should be? How does the platform fit into your company's overall business goals? How are they defining business success?

      Ultimately you need to make sure your business stakeholders are aligned on vision and expectations -- and if not, you want to be the one to help create that alignment. Building this alignment will also provide a channel for helping to advocate for your engineering team's needs.
      May 6, 2020
    • These are some good points. I feel I’m more of just executing the vision of the VP and not coming up with strategy and vision.
      May 6, 2020
  • Apple
    Leboffski

    Go to company page Apple

    Leboffski
    I think amex has too many managers trying to justify their existence
    May 6, 2020 1
  • Uber
    optica

    Go to company page Uber

    optica
    If you are a product manager, move to a user facing product, period! There is no life for you in infra.
    May 6, 2020 2
    • How do I land a user facing product job with only experience with micro services product?

      I’m thinking of conducting consumer surveys and capturing metrics and using that to pivot to a user facing role
      May 6, 2020
    • Adobe
      coolschool

      Go to company page Adobe

      coolschool
      @optica
      I see your point, but I have a different opinion. I'm an infra PM and I love it.

      I would agree with you that infra PMs face the high risk of having no visibility in addition to facing the risk of being pigeon-holed into a technical PgM role.

      Yet, a good infra PM should be able to clearly tell the story of how his/her infra maps to the external-facing business/product. A strong infra PM can & should have a massive multiplier effect across several products, and as a result should be able to contribute as much (if not much much more) to the business than an app user facing PM.

      For me, I make sure I build strong relationships with the PMs of the external facing GUI products that consume my infra so that I can understand how I am helping their product succeed.

      I am then able to communicate my infra's impact to the business by being clear about what user-facing product & business metrics we have driven across multiple products.
      May 6, 2020
  • Walmart
    callmeJZ

    Go to company page Walmart

    callmeJZ
    Platform pm is hard and not many want to do it. When I was pming platform, I closely followed Brandon Chu and alike - lots of valuable content from him on Twitter/conferences he speaks at.
    Jan 5, 2021 0
  • New
    mnWY86

    New

    mnWY86
    1. Talk to the customers, prioritize pain points, get those into the product stream.

    2. Talk to the engineers, prioritize pain points, find ways to make their lives easier so they will do #1.
    May 6, 2020 0