Vivek Bedi - You: The Product: The Real Skills You Need to Be an Effective Product Manager

YOU: THE PRODUCT

The real skills you need to be an effective product manager.

Vivek Bedi

Illustrations by Jayden Bedi

Copyright 2020 Vivek Bedi

All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 9798626741483
Written by: Vivek Bedi
Illustrations by: Jayden Bedi
Printed in the United States of America

Contents

You:

The Product

The real skills you need to be an effective product manager.

Written by Vivek Bedi

Illustrations by Jayden Bedi

Dedication

This book couldnt have happened without my support system. For starters, I would like to thank my dear friend for helping me make this book come to life. This friend spent countless nights, phone calls, texts, and so much time and effort which really helped bring the stories and concepts to these pages as well as helped me with my vision of sharing the real and raw side of product management.

I would also like to thank my 10-year-old son, Jayden Bedi, for all the illustrations in this book! I was looking long and hard for the perfect illustrator who would add humor and express my perspective. Little did I know that the person I needed for the job was right in my house! Jayden, thanks for helping on this book. You amaze me every day with all your talents.

Next, I would like to thank my wife, Lina. Without you by my side and pushing me to make this happen, I would have never released this book. You inspire and motivate me to keep pursuing my dreams. Well honey, I am already living the dream because I get to spend every day with you. (I would like to point out that Lina also wrote all the illustration fonts and titles for this book.)

I would also like to thank my little spunky angel, Amaya. She reminds me every day not to take life so seriously and enjoy the ride. Every day when I come home, she reminds me to dance in front of the mirror and not to care about anything else. Just dance. I would like to point out Amaya also helped with the concept for the cover.

Lastly, I would like to thank all my family, friends, and colleagues. I have learned so much about life, product management, and myself through all my experiences alongside you all.

Vivek

Preface

Why am I writing this?

I have been in product management for over 18 years and I have always been on the search for a book that tells it like it really is. Sure, there are tons of online courses and books on the fundamentals and principles of product management. But what about the real shit? The shit that happens in the day to day, like data lying to you. Or dealing with pissed off customers.

Well, I searched long and hard and never found it. So, I decided to write my own book about the real, raw, and ugly (but also awesome and rewarding) aspects of product management and why much of the job requires working on yourself to be able to work on winning products. You will learn all the things I fucked up on throughout my career and I will share those stories with you to spare you from making the same crushing mistakes.

At the end, Id love for you to share your story with me. Just like a product, Id like to continue to improve this book with each release. What are some of the most important lessons youve learned? If I include it, I will be sure to cite you. Or, what else do you wish this book could teach you? There is so much a PM needs to know to succeed, so Im here to help (or can find someone to ask who can help.) And Im sure I have an embarrassing story to go with your question too.

Intro

My story starts where all great stories do New Jersey. To add to the stereotypes of my great state, I grew up in Nutley, where the majority of The Sopranos was filmed. Also happens to be the hometown of Martha Stewart. I have no defense to anything youre about to say to me.

My life was a bit different than those guys and gals, though. I grew up in a household with parents who made sure I stayed far from trouble and as close to textbooks and calculators as possible. I spent my teenage years tinkering with technology.

At 14, I built my first computer (humble brag) and three years later was running a help desk for an IT company while still in high school. As you can imagine this made me quite the ladies man. (It did not.) So, it only made sense that I would go to college and double major in computer engineering and computer science where I would continue to be an uber nerd.

But the truth is I never felt that I was an engineer. That career path didnt define me because like many engineers I was also a technology hustler but I also had entrepreneurial tendencies that kept me up at night. Between frequenting Easton Ave bars at Rutgers University and borrowing notes from friends in the classes I had slept through, I bought my own modems, built a website, and created a part-time tech company on the side. Why Im not on anyones Richest Human list is what keeps me up at night.

What I didnt realize at the time, and why Im writing this book, is that even though I was obsessed with technology, I wasnt meant to be a programmer or developer. I sucked at it. Because what happens when you combine being a super nerd with entrepreneurial tendencies (minus VC funding) is what I later learned is called a Product Manager , a role that didnt exist at the time I had started out in my career.

Yet many of us were already doing it without the title. And when I had the realization that this is what I do, I couldnt find any good book on how to be one and havent found one since that really speaks to what it actually takes to win in product. Which is why Im writing this right now, in Livingston, N.J. a few towns over from Nutley, where my neighbors are not in the mob. Although many of them speak Russian so sometimes Im not so sure.

While my career started at a global financial institution on the tech side, I quickly learned there should not be a separation of church and state between the engineers and the business. I led teams building network management solutions and then another on high-frequency trading and refining application performance for trading.

Most of my time there was spent in what could best be described as cave-like. If youve ever passed a conference room in your office building with no windows and 20 engineers inside heads down feverishly working, then you know what Im talking about. Nearly every company has this room.

It wasnt until I escaped the cave in search for a Red Bull (and an excuse to walk through the trading floor), did I see the excitement around the products were building. People screaming on phones, jumping on chairs, papers flying every which way. While Im building the products, I didnt ever get to see how theyre being used and by whom. Since that day, all I knew is that I wanted to get on the trading room floor more often and observe the technology in the wild.

At that time, the company was going through a digital evolution to improve the way traders communicate with one another in other words, a more effective way to scream and chase. And a lucky break thanks to my managing director got me a role as one of the first product managers at the company. I was Patient Zero.