You might be a Product Manager if:
- You’ve created a roadmap through 2015
- You can’t remember working less than 70 hours a week
- You’ve lost your hair (if you haven’t consider yourself warned!)
- At your annual customer summit, you stay late to setup and test products for the next day while Sales runs up a historic bar tab
- You used to be a programmer but were too extroverted
- You used to be a salesperson but were too introverted
- You use customer interview techniques with your spouse to discover the root cause of their problems so you can build a “solution” (”That’s interesting…tell me more!”<smack>)
- You wake up at night worried about getting your product’s feature-set right or hitting your ship date
- You find competitive and win-loss analysis fun (ugh, I can’t believe I just realized I find those things fun)
- You walk through the store and look at products thinking “what problem does that solve?”
- You do a SWOT analysis before making any major purchase
- The last thing you do before you go to bed and the first thing you do when you wake up is to check your email
- You’ve ever written “The System Shall…“
- You never have less than five #1 priorities
- You’ve sat behind the one-way mirror at a focus group
- One or more of the following groups is pissed at you: Sales, Development, QA, Tech Support, Marketing, or Operations. Special bonus if you get all at once.
- You enjoy writing requirements that constrain easy way out from the Programmer.
- You’ve actually learned how to herd cats.
- You own an iPhone.
- You wonder how the iPhone product manager prioritized all the possible features.
- You wonder how many engineering hours it took to create a new feature in your favorite web app.
- You try to envision the next 3 design updates for any product you see.
- You think in Use Cases.
- You’re always looking for an alternative flow of events.
- You can’t live without OmniGraffle or Visio.
- You had to reset expectations with management, customers, engineering, and finance.
- You had to produce a WW product forecast for sales since they are too busy to do it.
- You enjoy watching “How It’s Made.“
- You plan “features” for your children and have a “roadmap” for their skill growth
- Your wedding included a powerpoint presentation.
- Major life events require a MS Project file.
- You get “phantom buzzing” in your pocket when you forget your Blackberry.
- You’ve talked to more customers in the last month than all of your executives combined.
- Your marketing person said “you’re technical…explain this to me like I was 10.” then, “…now like I was 3…”
- You know what all of these are: MRD, PRD, BRD, Functional Spec, sprint, scrum, CAB, spiff.
- Your favorite question is “why?”
- Your favorite application is Excel.
- You’ve built your own product P&L template in Excel to save time.
- You’ve used your P&L template across multiple companies.
- You know what the “analyst dance” is, and you’re definitely a PM if you’ve done it.
- You know what your customer is going to say before they say it.
- Your spouse knows who your 3 biggest competitors are by name.
- You’ve flown on every major (and some minor) airline this year.
- You’ve used Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook to connect with a customer.
- You’ve dreamt about competitive kill sheets.
- You’ve been to ProductCamp
- You’re the one your CEO comes to when he/she really wants to know how things are going.
- “They” remembered your revenue commitment but not your product’s funding.
- Everyone thinks they do a part of your job.
- You’ve ever had to explain to a founder or executive why customers don’t want their great new idea.
- You’ve been asked for the revenue impact of deleting a single feature.
- You’ve been held accountable for Development’s schedule slips.
- You’ve been the person that everyone brings the hard questions to at the trade show booth.
- Caffeine is one of your primary food groups.
- You spend more time with your development counterpart than your spouse.
- You write a blog about Product Management…gulp!