Blair Reeves - Building Products for the Enterprise

by Blair Reeves and Benjamin Gaines

Copyright 2018 Blair Reeves, Benjamin Gaines. All rights reserved.

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• March 2018: First Edition

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978-1-492-02478-1

[LSI]

Product management is hot! Why? A lot of reasons, not the least of which is the growing primacy of product, where many of our sources of modern competitive advantage are found in products that utterly delight customers. But I also credit Google and the wildly successful product management organization it has built. Perhaps without equal, Google has hired and trained wicked smart people who built some of the most recognizable and delightful products we all know and use. Many are now CEOs or venture capitaliststhe power brokers in our current technology ecosystem. Much of the content around product management is driven by this hallowed community. Im fortunate to work closely with two individuals with this pedigree and have encountered many more, and Im qualified to say they are the real deal.

Yet, their background is different than mine. Google is a consumer-first companyat least in its early days. Some Google product managers have interacted with sales, but many have not. Much of the idealism that I read about is inspiring to me, yet it doesnt reflect the reality that Ive faced trying to be successful in my past. Not all of us live in a world where we can A/B test something in Google search and get millions of datapoints in an hour.

The reality is that enterprise or B2B product management is its own beast. And its an important one. Enterprise product management is driving our economy. We are designing the future of our human resources departments, our supply chain, advertising technology, data centers, and generally all major infrastructure.

As I read this book, I smiled. I smiled because the stories and ideas resonated so closely with my experience. This is a book written for me. Who am I? Ive had the pleasure of being in enterprise product management since I began my career over 20 years ago. Ive led product teams, and now Im the CEO for a company whose customers (and users) are primarily product teams. These are my people. If youre reading this, theyre likely yours, too.

But theres no degree in enterprise product managementat least no degree that Ive found. Im very familiar with programs like Pragmatic Marketing and others that have some good training. But, until now, I hadnt found content that perfectly captured the job of enterprise product management.

If you are an enterprise product manager, enjoy this. This may well become our bible. If you arent an enterprise product manager, welcome. Im biased, but I feel there is no better role. For me, it has been incredibly rewarding, an amazing stepping stone for any and all ambitions, professionally and otherwise. Other product people understand what I mean.

Enjoy!

Todd Olson, CEO, Pendo.io,
Raleigh, North Carolina