Source
r/ProductManagement•
PowerInMyHand

Proposing PM role at current company

Any advice on proposing a PM role at your current job?

Background - I have worked at my company for the last 7 years as a Business Analyst. The last 3 years I have been working as the primary BA on our new CRM system. I've gone on MAT leave twice during this project and every time I come back management is desperate for me to clean up the mess they've made.

This application is my brain child, management even calls me the "Architect" of it. This last MAT leave when I came back they had made a complete reorg of how the teams for this new application were working. They brought on a bunch of new team members, and gave them a goal, but in doing so the overall vision and mission of the application is being lost.

There are 3 different teams working concurrently. Each team has a PO, but that PO isn't knowledgeable about the CRM application but rather the service they are trying to integrate from the old CRM to this new one. There is no one in a leadership position focused on ensuring the product is a valuable asset to our end users and that their needs are met.

Needless to say, things are not going well. The main culprits are 1. Unrealistic deadlines and 2. Lack of cohesion amongst the teams 3. Mismanaged relationships with our stakeholders. The deadline we have makes it impossible for the BAs to work together, and they've actually be directly told to only worry about their service area. The only leadership roles that have been defined within the team are Tech Leads, and they struggle with articulating the vision. All of this is at the determent of the product.

Because of the reorg and the timing of my MAT leave, I wasn't part of the discussion of how things started to shift, but we are coming up to our deadline and the pressure is on. I'd like to have a sit down with the VP of IT and discuss how implementing a PM would add value to our team.

Anyone with experience in doing this? My company is known for just creating roles to promote people. I have a good relationship with my director and VP, and they both know how critical I have been to design and vision of this product.

Posted May 27, 2022, 2:32 PM UTC

23
papurnix•

Yeah I'd agree with your assessment

Maybe start the conversation on the problem that needs solving? e.g. "we are trying to change/integrate too much at once, and it is high risk". Try and tease out what the time pressure is, and what clever ways can be had to buy more time

Then figure out the most valuable migrations to do first (based on improved user value, business value contribution/cost out, or demonstration of feasibility). Explain that this success can be a blueprint for the other migrations. Build a roadmap which shows how these migrations will reduce risk and accelerate over time thanks to learnings

Then viola! You're doing a PM job in all but name... you can have a conversation about formalising it later by pointing out how awesome all that stuff you did was

2
maltelandwehr•

Anyone with experience in doing this?

I become VP Product by pitching that role - and myself for it. Previously management had assumed it would be enough to have a teamlead for the Product Owners and put Product Marketing, QA, UX Writers, Project Managers, etc. somewhere. For context, this is to deal with the fact that the founder/CTO/CPO just left.

My pitch was 90% on why a VP Product is needed, 1% on why it should be an internal candidate vs external hire, and 9% on why I am the perfect fit. The message should be "there is a problem/opportunity for this company", not "I want/deserve this".

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To pitch a Product Management role in general, I believe the book Escaping The Build Trap by Melissa Perri contains some good arguments. Even if not everything in the book might 100% fit your situation.

2
micahs•

I would say that it is unlikely a PM role would be successful in this company.

If there isn't already someone within leadership that owns the overall product role, the vision, mission, and outcomes then asking to add a junior role to define all of this and gain alignment across the company on it won't work.

There's a mistake from folks who believe if they just drop a product manager into companies that don't have the role it will magically fix the dysfunctional issues at play. I can tell you from experience that it won't. If the company isn't set up from a management perspective to understand and respect the role of product management already then what you are doing is playing the role of internal change agent... and that role will likely not be successful.

I wish you the best of luck on this but I don't see this working out, as it hasn't for me in my career, and hasn't from others I've known.

1