Once upon a time in a land far far away.
There lived a “weak” product manager.
He didn’t really want the job.
It came to him as part of a re-org.
He was an engineering manager, who had to layoff most of his team.
That made him unhappy. 😌
The product he took over was not doing so well.
The team didn’t believe in him.
It looked like things were going to take a turn for the worse.
Luckily, he had years of training as an engineer.
And a few years as a developer.
He had developed “strong” analytical skills.
He was good at problem solving.
He started off by trying to find out why people did not like the product.
And what they did not like about it.
He talked to support team, sales team, training, consulting, and customers.
Everyone who was willing to share their side of the story.
He promised all the people he had talked to that their concerns would be addressed.
He gathered all the data, analyzed it and presented to his team and manager and their managers.
He convinced everyone to stop all new feature work and fix lot of the problems over 3-4 months.
They called it the “ER release”
To some it meant “enterprise readiness” to others it meant “emergency.”
Finally the release was shipped.
First the support people liked it.
Then customers started writing happy notes.
Soon the pre sales and sales people were on board.
The product impression had changed.
Revenues started looking up.
The team now believed in him.
He was happy.
And then….he worked happily ever after.
No, not forever, but another 6-7 years.
True story…