What’s a PM?

This is a question I asked shortly after arriving in Silicon Valley in 2013.

I understood from personal experience what it was like to be a developer, and also a designer. But the “PM” thing sort of threw me for a loop. A few years later, and while making the first version of the design.co project (it’s still unfinished) happen, I realized that PM-ing is the kind of work that gets me excited the most.

It’s connecting dots across technology, business, and design. And I ❤️ connecting those dots!

There are tons of reference posts on the subject of PM-ing, but I think three of the best ones are by:

• Ellen Chisa, Learning in Product [link]
• Josh Elman, A Product Manager’s Job [link]
• Bing Gordon, Product Management as CEO Training [link]

While at Kleiner Perkins, I had the unique opportunity to partner with Bing Gordon on developing the ProductWorks practice — Bing was the product person and I was the design person. I was lucky to get to learn a ton from Bing!

So on my continued path to more PM-y-ness, I’ll share my learnings here as they start to surface. —JM