Sprint 15 :: A good product manager.. through the eyes of a developer

by Pedro Martins

Working as a software developer (game developer to be precise) for 6 years I’ve had to deal with a number of product managers. I think by now I have a pretty good idea what a good one should be like in theory: he/she should understand the user's needs, define a vision for the product and its roadmap, prioritize features with the end user in mind and all this while keeping track of what other competitors are doing.

Well, we software developers are strange selfish creatures. Some of us spend so much time trying to develop the best feature, writing the best code, using the latest additions to whatever framework we’re using that sometimes we think we’re developing for ourselves and forget that there’s some end user who just wants a working application. 

So what makes a good product manager for us, I hear you ask. Well, I would say these are our main priorities:

Clear requirements ✍️

We love to write code and we hate wasting time. It’s frustrating to start developing something only to find out that a requirement was left out of the requirements list and we’ll have to start all over again since our implementation makes no sense anymore. And don’t get me started on developing with no requirements at all…

Knowing our struggles 💪

Every now and then, the product manager comes to us with this simple little request that looks like the easiest of developments. We love to get our understanding when we say that it’s not and we need time to do it properly. Most of the time there’s some dodgy shortcut we can take that will come back and bite us in the ass and that’s why we seem reluctant in taking it. Being able to sacrifice some requirements is also a big plus!

Transparency 🪟

It’s easy to let our coworkers believe that we don’t care at all about the product and we just want to keep our code clean. While that might be the case for a very small number of developers it’s not for most of us. We find it important to know why we’re doing what we’re doing and how it’s affecting our end user.

Innovation 💡

Finally, we don’t want to keep doing the same thing over and over again. Working with a product manager that is able to think out of the box is truly rewarding for us. Developing new features forces us to find new solutions to new problems and ultimately develop ourselves.

For all of you too lazy to read through the all thing, I would put it like this: what a developer looks for in a product manager is someone who clearly tells us what he/she expects, recognizes that we want to help achieve the request but sometimes it’s not as easy as it looks, clearly communicates why we’re trying to achieve something and throwing a challenge at us is the cherry on top of the cake.

Pedro Martins & The Product Land ⛰️

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