Published: 2017.08.25
Revised: 2024.02.20
<update 2024.02.20> During both planned and unplanned sabbaticals, I like to spend time thinking about what I like to do, what I’m good at, and where I best fit. I’ve found that using the roles & responsibilities map I create in every role can help with this. Below I’m referring to the map I mention in my previous post.</update>
<2017.08.25 post follows>
Leveraging the Map Individually
While the first several iterations of this exercise were focused on better understanding and organizing a particular business, I’ve found this approach can also help people understand their strengths, desires, and opportunities. Indeed, in times of personal transition, I find it an effective way of talking about my particular strengths and interests. I think the easiest way to illustrate this is with an example.
As so often happens in the valley, I recently found myself in job search mode, and have been sorting through hundreds of opportunities. Many times I can quickly tell from a job description or chat with the hiring manager if I may be a good fit for an opportunity, but this isn’t always the case. It would be easy to blame the hiring manager for not knowing exactly what they want – but I know from experience this is often unfair. In many cases the real ambiguity is not knowing what a potential candidate excels at, making it difficult to compare them to other options.
Consider how to compare two candidates who have both been Product Managers at a (different) single company for five years. Without understanding how Company A views Product Management vs how Company B views Product Management it may not be easy to see who is a better hire. As a candidate, I rely on my resume, interviews, and references to convey my strengths, but I can also use the responsibilities in the above map scenario to convey my interest and (self-perceived) strength in certain areas. For example, I could write the following (which is generally true of me, but certainly not every PM professional in the valley):
- Items I excel at and typically lead efforts in:
- Identifying real world business problems we can build products to mitigate
- Gathering feedback from customers, engineering, marketing, and the larger org
- Building core value proposition user stories
- Creating partner and development ecosystems
- Supporting sales and channels with g2m strategy and collateral
- Coaching and supporting peers and coworkers
- Market research and analysis
- Setting product strategy and pricing and g2m
- Items I prefer to collaborate with other experts:
- others on the following:
- User stories for advanced features
- Testing strategy
- Advanced sales support and technical questions
- UX & Wireframing
- Field and channel training
- Technical collateral
- Incremental launches
- Some items I can do independently but I typically leverage other people to drive:
- Detailed technical comparisons
- Event marketing plans
- Media buys & direct marketing
- Lead generation
Imagine how different a Technical Marketing Engineer summary might look:
- I excel and often focus on the following:
- Technical comparisons with competitive products
- Technical collateral for engineers and SEs
- Performance testing
- Working with customers on new feature requests
- Working with customers on escalations and bug fixes
- Customer Proof of Concept deployments
- I’m capable and tend to collaborate with others on the following:
- Industry whitepapers
- Product specification sheets
- System architecture and design
- Competitive pricing
- Systems testing
- I can do but I typically leverage other people on the following:
- Event marketing planning
- Product launches
- User Experience requirements
When evaluating a product, process, or person, a typical strategy is to look for areas the evaluated is average or below average, and focus on ways to improve those aspects. This works well in some, but not all, situations. Sometimes uncommon or unique strengths are far better investments, as they further the product competitive differentiator or a person’s total impact. Crossing the Chasm and Blue Ocean Strategy have a lot of great material on this (and much more). In the latter, the blue ocean of Cirque du Soleil (between circus and theater) is a great example.