A survey of standard wording in Product Line Manager (PLM) job postings reveals the following skills and attributes:
Project planning
Organizing
Team motivation and delegation
Budgeting and data analysis skills
Understanding and experience with related business
Goal oriented Customer service
Documentation skills
Team player
Written, verbal, and communication skills
Organizational skills and attention to detail
Time management skill
Ability to work tight deadlines
Fast learner
Ability to work independently or in a group.
All of the above are important, but do they really describe what is ideal for a project manager or do they actually describe what is ideal for every single employee. I suggest the following attributes to be as important as, or rather, more important than the above attributes:
Care deeply about the company and that it’s products are of high quality and technically sound.
Defines the product accurately and ensures that it performs according to its intended use.
Makes sure that during the planning stages and during the lifetime of the product the right people are involved in making decisions.
All decisions gauge the impact the decision will have on the customer.
Understands all aspects of how the product works, how it is manufactured, and how the client uses it.
Understands the company and ensures that all new products fit within the companies business model.
Understands “the law of compensation” and balances company goals with speed and quality constraints.
Takes initiative to solve difficult problems: whether happening with existing projects or if they would require a new project. Does this before executives realize there ever was a problem.
Shares victory with the team, accepts accountability for failures alone.
All vision setting keeps the business in mind.
The business is to manufacture and sell high quality product for a profit.
Steps to Quality Project Management
Make sure that the company does not see project managers as paper pushers and meeting setters. Instead, project managers are seen as a means to enable the best, most productive, and enjoyable work. This is done by enabling full team cooperation in all facets of a project / product by accurately communicating the vision and goals of the product and explaining the value of its existence. Team members consist of all departments and are allowed to input their viewpoints on aspects of the product that effect their departments. Goals are established and team members are given “ownership” of the goal. The time of product to market decreases because all affected parties are developing materials related to the product during its development.
Product design. Questions to be answered: What is the purpose of the widget? Who will use the widget? Why will they want the widget? How will we sell the widget? How is success measured? Do we release by a certain date, or when minimum specs are met? Do we keep to a maximum cost, or do we exceed costs if necessary to meet specs. Does the widget fit with the company goals, and existing products.
Goals are defined in the beginning, during, and at the end of the product life cycle. Goals are defined by actual use by the potential customer Market surveys. Existing and upcoming regulations. Experience of experienced staff. Communication with known experts. Desired final outcome including product life.
Teams. A team is an assimilation of ideas working together for one common goal and that goal is to produce a product that will benefit the buyer and provide both the buyer and the seller with a profit. A team consists of Product Line, Sales, Marcom, Manufacturing, R&D, Service, Tech Support, and Accounting. Including everyone in the team and assigning each member of the team set goals brings product to market faster, trains the sales and service faster, ensures that there is a marketing message established upon release, and guarantees that products are developed to suit the needs of the customer. Success is measured by Success. If the product is a useful quality instrument that performs adequately and allows the client to save time and make a profit then it is a good product. If the product is a good product that can be sold at a profit and is in high demand it is successful. If a product is successful then the company is successful. Hence, success is measured by success.
What makes a good PLM? A good PLM must be observing and able to draw inferences about all possible effects of decisions made. A good PLM must assimilate knowledge and be able to accurately organize, and measure that knowledge objectively into something that is useful. A good PLM translates ideas into tangible objects that increase the value of existing products or turns an idea into something completely new. The good PLM realizes that it is impossible to conceptualize a product without knowing its demand so that learning about the product and its uses never stops.
Since innovation involves risk, the good PLM must be willing to take risks, and must be willing to accept responsibility for the inevitable failures that result from risks taken. The good PLM must have accurate knowledge of all products and processes of the product, and must have an uncanny knowledge of the uses of the product, both past, present, and future. The good PLM must be a team player and readily accept the ideas of others because no one person can know everything. The good PLM recognizes the strength of the mastermind and allows the team to submit ideas and follow these ideas through to their physical form. The good PLM shares all success with the team publicly.