Calling all PDMs!

[Brianna]

What's the best thing about being a software Product Manager?

[MTalbot]

The fact that when people find out I'm a PdM, women want me, and men want to be me. The dancing people throwing flowers in my path are a nice touch as well...

Actually, what I like best is that as an external consultant, I get to take a peek into the business innards of lots of different companies. I learn something new at every client, and what I get to use what I learn with my future clients.

[jbeatty]

I think of it as creativity in a structured form. :)

You get to help people come up with new product ideas! And you get to apply models and frameworks to make sure you do a good job at it.

I love to organize, but I really like to organize new things.

Oh, the key for me is to not just sit still - last week I did some sessions and it was a lot of fun - we whiteboarded, we diagramed, we wrote, we danced, we sang, we laughed - all while writing use cases!

[RobGrady]

I enjoy the diversity of the role and the teams I work with. Depending on the product/project I am engaged my role can vary. It can include facilitating strategy sessions, user experience design, straight requirements development and leading other PDMs. And given my bend, I enjoy bridging the business/technology divide which can sometimes be a challenge. As jbeatty said, it really is 'structured creativity'.

[Dan]

great points everyone. something that i enjoy is the inevitable paradigm shift that is evident in the people i work with (on t he biz dise and tech side) when i've been successful at my job--that shift being usually in their attitude about the importance of requirements. An attitude that up until that point had been one to which they had paid lip service (you guys know the ones i'm speaking of) but had no real appreciation of the investment required or the real benefit to be derived from proper reqs mgt.

When you see their attitudes change, and they buy in and then become evangelists for proper reqs process--that is sweet.

And this inevitably comes about in conjunction with a successful s/w deployment which is why we do it in the first place, but also not always a guarantee either, so that is an enjoyable bonus as well.

[jbeatty]

...something that i enjoy is the inevitable paradigm shift that is evident in the people i work with...

Honestly, I'm in it because I personally just like the opportunity to use cool phrases like "paradigm shift". :)