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Author: Jason Oster

As a Crestron product manager for many years, I wanted to share some of my lessons-learned from Crestron Home™ software and previous projects.

Good product managers are constantly learning by listening to customers and colleagues, and by reading everything they can get their hands on. That is how I found the initial “Good Product Manager/Bad Product Manager” essay, written many years ago by Ben Horowitz. A good product manager always builds on a body of knowledge, instead of always starting from scratch.  This article is in the same vein as that initial essay, but from the perspective of a Crestron Electronics product manager of 22 years.

A good product manager shares what learned and does not hoard information. A good product manager pays attention to every detail because every detail counts. This is especially true when you are making the best products in the world! A good product manager finds the right balance between forest and trees and can zoom in and out quickly, while a bad product manager gets stuck in the weeds and hyper-focuses on low-level things.

A good product manager knows failure is not an option and mitigates the risk of failure along the way. If a feature is not as successful as it should have been, a good product manager will solve the issue before it becomes a real failure. A good product manager considers this to be a “bump in the road” and uses it to learn, adjust, and proceed to victory.

A good product manager lives with their product and loves it as if it were their own child. Passion for a product and loving it has a funny way of making the product better. A bad product manager only starts thinking about their product at 9am and is in a hurry to stop thinking about it at 5pm.

A good product manager trusts their gut. If something doesn’t “feel right,” a good product manager digs in! A bad product manager senses a disaster waiting to happen but doesn’t address it, thinking it is someone else’s problem. A good product manager knows there is no cavalry that is coming to save the product, so they go right to work to solve it themselves.

A good product manager loves data and uses it to make their product better. A bad product manager hyper-focuses only on the data that may help prove their opinion is right. A bad product manager believes they are a hero. 

A good product manager is humble and acknowledges that they do not know everything. Instead, they surround themselves with the best people and know the expert to go to. A good product manager helps guide the team. They support others and never look for glory.

A good product manager ships. A bad product manager will let every little obstacle get in the way. A good product manager finds a way over, around, or kicks over that obstacle using every tool in their arsenal.

A bad product manager ships a product and then takes their foot off the gas pedal. A good product manager congratulates the team on the successful milestone that was reached and motivates everyone to push harder onto the next victory.

A bad product manager spends too much time reading articles on the internet. Now, go ship a great product!