Being a product manager at a startup...

I am an avid reader of www.crankypm.com, and figure that I am about as cranky as she is really. Sounds like she's been a product manager for about as long as I have been. I was inspired to make my own cranky post yesterday...

I recently became the sole product manager at a startup. I went from a stable mature product management organization, to one that had never had a product manager before. After the glow of “wow, that is what a product manager does?” wore off, the warts started to show.

You’re it: Gone are the days of having marketing support, a documentation team, training resources, sales engineers, you name it. You’re it. Not only are you working for less money. You have more to do. This math still evades me.

The Entrepreneurial CEO: it’s a startup because one guy had a good idea once. And he still believes that he has all the good ideas. And it’s his baby. And you have to fight tooth and nail to convince him that you know what you’re doing. I am considering tattooing “your opinion, although interesting…” onto my forehead.

The Cashgrab: in this market investment is non-existent, you have to work for every dime and the road to profitability is long. So begins the cashgrab. Taking every deal you can, bastardizing the product to a place that it’s unrecognizable.

Shiny Object Syndrome: I laughed out loud at the latest pragmatic marketing article about CEO’s and focus. I like to call it the “Shiny Object Syndrome”. Oh look, new opportunity. Oh look, new business model, oh look new feature, oh look, new target market. Yeah, I know, that happens everywhere, but at a startup this happens as much as you change your underwear.

It’s a place with no process, and no predictability. Sounds like there is no upside. But that’s not true…if you can stay sane, and roll with the punches there is one really big upside.

You change things. Product Managers are the best breed for never settling for status quo. They want things to be better, they dream (literally, at 3 am) of different ways to do things.

You don’t get tied up in red tape at a startup. As long as you are ready to fight for what you believe in, and listen to the market like Steve tells you to, you can turn the shiny objects into a kick ass product. You can take a place from chaos to something great. Your impact is huge at a startup.

Do I regret moving from the stable to the chaotic? Not for a second, it’s totally worth it.