When I first became a product manager, I was alloted a team that developed software using Agile methodologies. The team was great and, in what I think is a classic product management rookie mistake, I became their spokesman to the outside organization. I drank the kool-aid on Agile and was pretty upset that other groups in the organization weren’t Agile.
While I think Agile is a strong product process, the product manager should be flexible enough to handle development teams with many different methodologies. Becoming religious about these things never helped anyone.
As Rich Mironov says, a product managers are “The honest brokers who balance customer needs with engineering realities, market requirements with financial goals.”
Notice the word “balance” in the above quote. Product management cannot be “captured” by development. But if you are a tech oriented PM or if you used to code in a former life, this is an easy trap to fall into.
More here.
