PM is a Double Agent

I love spy movies.

[Disclaimer - this is mostly for fun, if it gets insightful, consider it a planned coincidence]

But, it was very recently that the word Double-Agent caught my attention. And the more I read about it on the official CIA website (Yes, I did!), the more I felt that the Product guys are freakin Double Agents!

Well, no I don't intend to say that we pretend, or spy, or do clandestine activities or act on behalf of the enemy. Please let go of all those negative connotations associated with the word. What caught my attention was their loyalty to more than one party and their ability to switch loyalties. Just like double agents, product guys do that - all the time.

But then, as I read about them, I felt a lot of the attributes kinda map one-to-one with product management function. So, let's get to it.

What does that mean?

Let's follow the Jobs To Be Done framework and ask, What is a Product Guy hired to do? Well, not many startups really have a unique/clear answer to this. Some just hope to get a few good guys together and let them figure out. But, let's assume there is clarity about what are they supposed to do in startups - Manage products. 

Easy? Not quite.

What is that supposed to mean? It means they are responsible for everything from deciding what to build to shipping a quality product on time and making sure it sells. But they neither create, not sell  - they just ensure it happens. Add to the predicament that, they don't usually have authority over these creators or sellers. They are loyal to both creators and sellers (and management, and everyone in between). But their biggest loyalty is to the users of the product. A product manager is the voice of the customer.

Usually, it is the user who's missing from our meetings and conference calls. So the PMs end up pitching on behalf of them, most of the time. However, they also have to pitch for their tech teams in front of the business teams, and for business teams in front of the tech guys. They're found negotiating a bit clarity from the business, and a bit speed from the development team. They push back sellers on behalf of creators and push creators on behalf of sellers. It's almost funny if they find both the parties together in a room - you find the PMs practicing diplomacy. And they are loyal to the management, in front of everyone else.

So, if PMs are like a double agent, they are likely to be on a critical mission and they need to be at the top of their game to be effective.

So what makes a great double agent?

CIA suggests that being a double agent needs both competence and sophistication. And a few more things...

• Thorough knowledge of the terrain and the language
• Ability to build Rapport at all levels
• High order of ability in complex analytic reasoning
• A detailed understanding of the adversary
• Transparent Communication
• A solid grasp of behavior patterns
• Enough time from other duties to run the Ops and Report it well

If you aren't already able to see how PMs match with Double agents - here's my quick take on the same. 

Ability to build Rapport at all levels

The greatest spies never did those James Bond or Jason Borne type stuff. They just made right friends and treated them with a lot of alcohol.

Building rapport is far beyond knowing their language. It needs a lot of likeability and and an intense effort for relationship building. It comes from listening, understanding, perceiving what's being said and what remains unsaid. Being available, sharing interests, initiating conversations that go far and wide creates rapport when done effectively over time.

Thorough knowledge of the terrain and the language

If you were a complete stranger, you'd feel as if the tech-guys around you speak in code language. No wonder some of it is even called coding. And they don't trust anyone who doesn't understand their code. In fact, its true for both geeks(devs) and artists(designers). If you need any intelligence (intelligent inputs), you need to win their trust over. So as a PM you have to warm up your vocabulary around both "data models" and "visual hierarchies". If you can't speak like them you can never befriend them enough to be able to seek favours. And you can't get shit done if you don't have their blessings.

Knowledge of organizational plugs and levers can help you navigate swiftly through the corporate jungle (or startup mess). A product guy needs to know the handlers, the operatives, the assets and the sleeper cells in the org. That's where not just the geography, but history of how things came to be what they are at present is a useful knowledge. It helps you leverage the right people and pull the right levers, whenever there is a need.

High order of ability in Complex Analytic Reasoning

In a simple world problems can be paired in to pairs of cause and effect. There is a cause to an effect, a reaction to an action. In a real world though, when a lot of simple cause and effect pairs add up, it's hard to find what cause correlates to which effect. Add to the mix, that correlation may not lead to causation. That's what a complexity looks like. What you need is a beautiful mind, to look through the matrix and find patterns.

A detailed understanding of the adversary

Product managers need to know their competition, potential competitors and the third parties that they integrate with. It also needs to know collaborators, potential collaborators and their competitors. This view of market essentially helps them make sense of why market is behaving the way it is - and also predict what's coming next. This can define your next move - or save you from taking a wrong one.

Transparent Communication

Trust is the most important factor in smooth functioning of a product guy. And trust comes from transparency - being transparent both internally and externally. Since you keep switching loyalties, you are always under suspicion. And the only way to build lasting trust is by communication - sincerely, transparently, effectively.

A solid grasp of behavior patterns

Vanity metrics are honey-traps. Enough has been said about how important it is to understand biases of yourself and of your users. Once you have a solid grasp over the behavioral patterns - a lot of instinctive decisions just land right. It takes both skill and experience to avoid your these traps like your own biases and chasing vanity metrics. And it takes effort to identify the right targets, and start taking more data-based decisions.

Enough time from other duties to run the Ops and Report it well

How many PMs have you seen complaining of not being able to do the Product stuff? They're always firefighting. But the good ones find time to take a step back, analyse the scene and report it well - both internally and externally. Remember, nobody really understands what you are doing (and perhaps they shouldn't). So a lot depends on how well you report it.  

And One last thing that the CIA doesn't say! 

They have a right to disown you. You're expendable. When reigns change or when soverignity is in danger or at least some higher authorities think it is, you'd be the first to be asked to take care of yourself (by yourself). It is not an exaggeration to think that you are pretty much on your own, Always!





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