10 Essential Software Product Management Practices For Software Engineers.

By now, you should already be aware of the fact that, under any circumstances, it’s all BUT easy to start and finish the project on time, under budget and at the same time, have appropriate features in the place.

By now, you should already understand that same requires a lot of devotion and preparation. You see where I am going with it? :))

Note that this is more for the SPM beginners. Those professionals that are about to enter management-level function and in general greater interactions with the rest of the staff. This is for those that up until now had a very little saying about the product, and almost none of the saying about the company/product culture. This article is here to help you, as a software engineer, who just got promoted or started a new business to rise above the coding into something different! Something that you’ll have to understand if you want to be successful in SPM.

1.) The opportunity to make your dreams the reality!

First and the most important practices of all is to not settle for anything less but your OWN dreams. Find who you truly are and love every step of it.

I double dare you m**her fucker (yes you too girls, you too)! I double dare you to stop being a little bitch of your team leader, product management, and your product owners! I double dare you to tell them to go fuck themselves! I double dare you to start thinking yourself! For yourself!

Happiness is the essential piece of life! That’s the point of life! Your life is your dream. Protect it!

People will tell you that you cannot do something. Don’t listen to them! If you want it, go get it! Period!

Don’t expect people to love you if you’re not in love in yourself.

2.) Always believe in yourself!

At many points, you and your project as ideas you have will fail to be executed properly or at all! Accept failure and learn from it and, above all, keep your head high and move forward. Let failure be your mentor. Let it guide you into becoming a better self. Let it teach you my dear friend and don’t be afraid of it! Challenge yourself!

Watch this video! Watch it many times. Watch it that many times that you can speak all he said without looking at it, at all. 

When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then, you’ll be successful! That’s the ultimate rule, my dear friend. The only law of the universe that ALWAYS works and will NEVER EVER let you down! You’ve failed? You didn’t want it bad. You quit. Period. There’s no but.

3.) Self-Discipline!

Self-discipline makes you get things done! You have to start using calendar and planners. You have to, at any point of the day, understand your entire day, today. Day has 24 hours. You have to rest, you have to have a life but you have to get shit done. Planning your day makes you work on things that matter to you, the most.

4.) Greed & Ego

Without any doubt, greed and ego will destroy you, your business and your team/s. I know that the world is harsh and that everyone is looking into his or her own best interests but think on your team as you. They are literally, the reflection of who you truly are. If your team sucks or is depressed or have some type of “illness”, same means that the very thing is in fact, you. It’s not about them to change that. It’s about you to change it.

It’s never them or anyone else in your life so it’s not here. It’s always you and you alone. Suck it up! You’re big boy/girl!

Be kind and gentle to your teammates. Be trustworthy and happy. Be the change you wish them to be and above all, be your product! Love it and live it with all you got!

5.) Patenting and Trademarks

If your product cannot be trademarked and/or portions of your product cannot be patented, the product you’re working on is a piece of the shit.

Don’t even start it until you figure out the solution about these two, very important pieces of your product.

Same means you’re not innovative. Same means that you’re trying to resolve something that has already been resolved. There can be tens of thousands of the same services on the web but you have to have key differentiators. By being able to trademark and patent, you’re on the right way. Essentially, these functionalities do not have to be the first thing you do as sometimes, that won’t be an option but you have to have a clear plan about how to get to them!

6.) MVP?—?Minimum Viable Product

For me, it all starts about 15 years ago. At that time, I was high school geek who just wanted to conquer the world with ideas and boy… I had so many ideas. Before even Facebook began to exist, I had an idea similar to Facebook but the mistake that I’ve done over and over again is to start and never finish ANY projects. You might say, that’s your problem that you’re not consistent and I would, in that case, beg to differ with you, my dear friend.

The problem that I had was about having enormous ideas, ideas that, put simply, takes the time to design and develop and I wanted it all, now! In my case, it was simply greed for perfection that kept me from making final products!

The lesson that I’ve learned from it is MVP. For those that do not know, it’s widely accepted terminology in product management and it stands for Minimum Viable Product. ALWAYS and I really mean it, always, start small! Pick essential features of your product, that same cannot exist without and build only those.

Check out Wikipedia for more about MVP at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_viable_product

7.) 10–20–30 Rule!

One very bright man, Guy Kawasaki once said in order for me to understand your product, you have to bring me 10 slides. You can spend 20 minutes to present your idea and has to be written under 30 points font size.

Check out following TED talk from Guy Kawasaki about this rule and, why it’s essential for you to acknowledge and use it.

Guy Kawasaki the 10:20:30 pitch rule.

If you cannot pitch your idea to yourself and your best friends, co-workers there’s really no need for you to start doing anything else. You have to think and be an entrepreneur. You’re no longer software engineer. These days are over for you. You might build the project yourself but hey, you have to start thinking about executing your business idea!

Having business plan is essential for your business!

8.) Project Planning!

This is where the most of the professionals, whenever they are in the business or product development, FAIL and not just small but big time!

Having drafted idea in your head is not enough. You have to take proper time and plan your project to the tiniest details! That’s the only way to truly understand the SOW (Scope Of Work). Without SOW, execution of your product will suck big time!

If you’re boss or you have the boss telling you to avoid any planning. Introduce your boss about how high his insanity level is. Tell him, I ain’t gonna do ANY project without proper planning!

You know what’s the worst outcome of not planning the project? You might think that same is in fact, project failure but, that’s really not even near to it. Stress is my dear friend. Stress. Always have in the back of your head that stress is the no.1 killer today. Stress WILL kill you. There’s no doubt in it.

9.) Agile to the rescue!

Agile is the only way that I can say that can truly help you operate successfully. If you’re one guy team, don’t avoid it! Learn to live under Scrum and Waterfall principles. Scrum and Waterfall can only help you organize your product execution and can help you meet the targeted delivery date. Even if you’re the team of one, retrospective yourself as it will make you a better manager in for future. Remember, force yourself to accept failures!

If you’re not familiar with Agile methodology, here’s the link that can help you.

What’s the Difference? Agile vs Scrum vs Waterfall vs Kanban

I would suggest using JIRA from Atlassian. It’s by far, the best agile tool today on the market!

JIRA Software?—?Issue & Project Tracking for Software Teams | Atlassian

10.) Have fun!

Because life is and should be happiness, joy, and lots of fun! Don’t think about money and how will you earn it. Enjoy the path you’re set to go through and remember, be open to everything!