Think of your favorite product. For me, it’s my robot vacuum, Roomba’s cooler and cheaper cousin, Eufy. For you, it might be your car, your phone, a comfy bed or couch, or even a snuggie. Now think about why you love that product. Does it solve a problem for you? Chances are it brings you joy, and you’re likely to recommend it to everyone you know. To me, Eufy quietly and efficiently vacuums my floors every morning before I get out of bed, a chore I previously did at least 4 times per week. He saves me time, he cleans up the dog fur and crumbs, and he does it well. Behind the products we love are Product people; working in the ambiguous world between the people that use the product and the people that build it. Welcome to my world.

The best way to describe Product is having one foot on the business side and one foot on the development side within an organization. On the business side, they can crunch financials, calculate and quantify risks, communicate plans and timelines, manage expectations, synthesize enormous amounts of data (customer, stakeholder, executive, strategic) and make business decisions quickly and confidently. On the development side, they communicate a vision to a team of designers, engineers, and analysts, and step back to allow teams to get the work done but keep them on track to the overall product vision to eventually deliver a Eufy as a finished product. Product then helps to communicate why Eufy is the greatest robot vacuum of all time in an already crowded robot vacuum market.

To break this down even simpler, Product is always answering the question of ‘why?’.

“Why does this take so long to develop?” Executives will ask. “Why are even developing this at all?” Engineers will ask. “Why can’t I have it now?” The customers will implore. Through various tools and techniques, Product’s job is to remain on the offensive, always prepared to answer these questions from either side of the organization. It’s a delicate balance of hard and soft skills and the job is not for the faint of heart. It’s a difficult role, made all the more difficult by it’s ambiguity.

Throughout my musings on Product Offensive we’ll dive deeper into the world of Product, from practical advice, to tools and techniques to manage the most challenging problems. So why stay tuned? Because great Products take great Product people, and there’s no playbook for how to do this job. But if you want to know how great Product people are developed, this can help you on that way, and maybe together we can develop the next best Eufy.