Being a Product Manager

Marta Farensbach  March 27 2008 09:55:32 AM

Here at Sherpa we all wear many hats (as ably described by our Lotus Notes afflicted colleague Denny in I like hats), so I thought I'd give you a glimpse of the  Exchange team  here at Sherpa and our hat collections.  

When queried about what I do for a living, I use the generalization 'I work with computers'.  This has the advantage of veracity and brevity while allowing a quick glide to other conversations (although, like doctors, we  'computer folk' tend to be regaled with tales of trail and tribulations of electronic health)… however what I really want to say is that I am a researcher, software designer, marketing coordinator, sales associate, customer support representative, programmer, writer, analyst, teacher, mediator  and, oh yes, my title is Product Manager.  

What does all that mean… In short, I am an expert in my product, Discovery Attender for Exchange.  I am responsible for coordinating all aspects of the development and deployment of my lovely search program.   Like the other PMs here at Sherpa,  I mix together customer feedback, feature requests, market research, company priorities, partner input, code limitations, developer availability plus a pinch of salt  and a dash of pepper into a bubbling cauldron of progress.  If  everything goes well, we'll produce new releases buoyed by QA, beta testers and that bane of all developers, documentation.   Sales & Marketing joins the party with an insatiable appetite for brochures, website updates, training sessions, product demos, webinars, tutorials and the kitchen sink.  

Sounds a bit chaotic, and, to be honest, sometimes (especially near release time) it can be overwhelming.  However, I work with amazing people who put in the extra effort to make sure we put out a stellar product and back it up with solid support,  The support not just for the product itself but for any crazy ideas I come up with (although I am still waiting to hear about that letter opener swag tschosky - letter opener, opens mail…. what's not to love) .  Most importantly, my job is interesting, I am never bored, I have a great product, great customers, great co-workers  and literally learn something new everyday about Exchange, the e-Discovery world and life in general.   I may have more hats than I can usefully wear,  but I wouldn't have it any other way.

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