The Iron Triangle of Projects

Cost, Time and Scope: Pick two.  This is the typical balance that a product manager constantly has to deal with.  The iron triangle of managing projects.  

Time and cost are almost always fixed.  

Most of the time, when you are building software, you have some date that is out there you need to hit.  It may be a conference, sales commitment, training cycles, or corporate goals.  Schedule is almost always fixed. There may be some flexibility on schedule at the beginning of the project, but often, once the first schedule is told to someone outside of the dev team, that pretty much sets it in stone.

With cost, most often this is the amount of dev resources you have.  Most often, your dev resources are fixed.  Larger companies can move resources around teams, but that heavily effects other roadmaps.   Also, it takes too long to hire for a tactical project.  Cost just doesn't change. 

That leaves scope.  Scope is the most important part of the iron triangle.  This is the part of the equation a Product Manager thrives in.  Setting priorities and knowing what needs to get released to best address the market is key.  

Quickly figure out the schedule and the amount of dev throughput you have.  Then spend your time on scope.  

Execution is the key

Being a product manager, or an entrepreneur, it is sometimes hard to come up with an idea, but most often, it isn't a lack of ideas that causes issues with growth and momentum.  You can have a ton of ideas but still have a business not being able to address market needs.  Why is your competitor continuing to beat you?

If you want to crush it, it comes down to execution.  Execution, seeing something from idea to launch, is the hard part.  Wether it is a startup, or a big company, execution is the key.  

Working with the dev team to work through a backlog in a efficient way.  Agile/Scrum development is a great step in that direction.  It also means giving your dev team focus.  Being clear, giving the team the big picture and keeping it simple are key to get your dev team momentum.   Engineers are all about execution.  Your job is to point them in the right direction and keeping the path clear for them.

It is more than working with a dev team.  Often, the biggest blocker to execution are the other people and teams around the organization.  Management, sales, marketing, services, ops and IT could all be blockers.  The biggest win for a product manager can be finding the path through the other parts of the organization.  Product launches can be easily stalled by others not sharing your common vision and having their own agenda.  Your job is to get this buy-in.  You need to be walking around talking with people and making sure they are onboard with your idea.  This is a part of the product management job that should be embraced, not shunned.  Your job is to get product to market and grow the business.  Getting the organization to execute is where you can get big wins. 

Ideas are easy to come by.  To crush it you need to be a master of execution.