Notes on the Product Manager

Product Manager

• it's having the insights that lead to new products
• the best of those come from working on hard tech problems

• bulit the use case first and the protocol second

+ customers don't care about the technology, they care about the user experience

+ choose the right tech architecture to solve a particular customer problem

• focus on the users, take moonshots and have ambitious ideas

+ we talk to our users and try to understand why there are gaps.

+ being a new area, we are building things that never existed before

• big & small goals take the same effort, why not go big?

• confident
• "since this sytem is new, we may face some challenges.

Nevertheless, we are confident that the challenges can be overcome."

• builder
• I am a builder at heart

+ it gave me the power to build things and

when you see what you build work in front of your eyes, it can be quite powerful.

• reference
• [Inspired](https://book.douban.com/subject/27161852/) by Marty Cagan

ch4 Empathize with Stakeholders - product manager

• Talk to the Right People - who
• create a stakeholder Map - a network diagram

• Discover the Business Goals - why they care
• who wants it and what they want
• Record Business Goal Statements

+ subject + measurable outcome + Context (the need)

+ "(stakeholder) Mayor wanna (goal) reduce procurement costs by 30%, (context) to avoid making budget cuts to education or other essential services in an election year."

ch5 - Architecturally Significant Requirements (ASR)

• planning
• problem definition from a user's point of view

+ a clear statement of the problem that the sytem is supposed to solve

+ understanding what you want to build

• requirements prerequisite ensure that the user drives the system's functionality

+ how to specify requirements well

+ the requirements checklist

• system Architecture

+ determine the conceptual integrity of the system

+ a architecture first needs an overview that describes the system in broadterm

+ the architecture should define the major buildign blocks in a program

+ the communication rules for each buildign block should be well defined

• Define the what, the requirements from architecture

• Capture Constraints as Simple Statements
• like "Must build a browser-based web application, the context is to descreases concerns about software delivery and maintenance."

• Capture Quality Attributes as Scenarios
• Quality Attributes Scenarios describe how the system is expected to operate within a certain environmental context
• a quality attribute scenario communicates the intent of the requirement so anyone can understand it

+ like "performace

• A user sees research results within 5 seconds when the system is at an average load of 2 searchs per second."

+ "Availability

• A user's searches for open RFPs and receives a list of RFPs 99% of the time on average over the course of the year."

• precise and measurable

• Influential Functional Requirements

Design in Construction

ch6 - choose an Architecture

• architects choose structures to promote quality attributes in the system

• accept the constraints

• explore Patterns to promote desired Quality Attributes

• find the functional requirements and ensure the architecture can achieve them
• assign specific functional responsibilities to each element

ch7 - how to explore design concepts

• collect published patterns catalogs

• design exploration - how
• survey the existing ones
• give a presentation of the available ones
• share a brief demo
• recommend a technology that seemed reasonable

• decision
• "how do the proposed solutions influence our top-quality attributes?"

ch8 - how to create models

• pick an appropriate pattern as meta-model
• meta-model defines the concepts and the rules of how the concepts are applied

• add new concepts to the meta-model
• start the process by asking a question

+ like "which components cost us the most if they are unavailable"

• Name it

+ the name describe the element's responsibility but also its purpose

+ understanding what it does and why it exists

• Organize code to make patterns obvious
• pair with diff teammates
• it would be wise to explore our architecture options in a collaborative workshop

+ not everyone agrees with or understands the current architecture

ch9 - how to make design decisions

• plan and facilitate an architecture design studio

ch10 - how to visualize design ideas

reference

• [500lines](https://github.com/muyun/500lines)
• [code complete]
• [from programmer to architect]
• [44 engineering management lessons](https://www.defmacro.org/2014/10/03/engman.html?continueFlag=ac31708e6f6b0c4f99bffa25b3a945d8)
• [Managing people](https://klinger.io/posts/managing-people-%F0%9F%A4%AF)
• [My Emotions as a CEO](https://ryancaldbeck.co/2021/10/08/my-emotions-as-a-ceo/)
• [A collection of inspiring resources related to engineering management and tech leadership](https://github.com/charlax/engineering-management)
• [Heuristics for effective management](https://github.com/ksindi/managers-playbook)
• [How to mentor software engineers](https://xdg.me/mentor-engineers/)
• [A Day in the Life of an Engineering Manager](https://www.toptal.com/engineering-management/a-day-in-life-engineering-manager#employ-just-quality-engineers-today?continueFlag=4cd860c7bf88c019e991891b8fd439de)
• [engineering-manager-role-explained](https://www.toptal.com/engineering-management/engineering-manager-role-explained)
• [Getting Started with Agility: Essential Reading](https://holub.com/reading/)