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

May 6, 2020 3 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 3 Comments
  • Lyft
    tigerking🐅

    Go to company page Lyft

    tigerking🐅
    Those teams do not need a product manager and you are not doing the role of a pm. If this is what it means to be a pm at Amex, I would run away.

    As a pm, you should be talking to customers, mapping out the long term strategy, and becoming a domain expert in business areas.
    May 6, 2020 0
  • Google
    vcIs57

    Go to company page Google

    vcIs57
    People have been super harsh on blind. It's not super common to have PM on a infra team but we had one on a project where we were building something that would have ~50k users inside the company. With diverse and oftern conflicting requirement. With bunch a super strong VPs pulling the project in their desired direction.

    So it is possible to need a PM in such a situation.
    May 6, 2020 1