SaaS Product Management and Your Engineering Team

Bring in the product vision

A product is not just about features and functions. PM needs to bring in the future direction, expansion of the product and integrations with other products in the ecosystem. While engineering teams are interested to know what they need to build today, they are very much interested in what’s coming in tomorrow. Clearly, this helps them to know that there is a lot to build and also helps them to better architect and design. SaaS Product Managers can earn Engineer’s trust and here we will cover five common ways to help make that happen.

Know the market and users

PM is the champion of the definition and understanding of the market and a specific group of users you are trying to solve the problem for. We may have a broad category of users but there is always a targeted users set. This is a very important piece of information that engineering teams appreciate PM’s input. As much as engineers like to build products, they want to build them for the right users and solve a problem. The last thing engineers want to know is that a particular feature or a product is scrapped because no one uses them.

Share sales and revenue numbers and models

While engineers are heads down in building the product features and looking at great technological advancements, they would love to understand or at least know how the sales are progressing and how the product is generating the revenue. Engineers are proud of the products they build, but the real satisfaction is when the product sells and contributes to the company’s revenue or making waves in a new market place. So, celebrate the releases and sales deals with engineering teams.

Do your homework and reach out

Many technology products these days need PM to be aware of the technology, architecture and user experience. Don’t pretend that you know everything – do your research, read, familiarize and reach out to the experts from engineering teams to understand the concepts. This not only helps the PM to gain more knowledge and talk intelligently with customers, analysts and sales teams but also builds trust with engineers. Reaching out is not a sign of weakness but helps strengthening the relationships.

Do your homework and reach out

Be humble and be yourself with the engineering teams. PM has a very important role in the organization and we got to be humble for the kind of impact we can make in the organization. SaaS Product Managers can earn Engineer’s trust. Instead of thinking engineering teams as resources, coders, followers or competitors, view them as a team with complementing skills to bring in a great product. Learn to trust them on their judgment. If you feel there is a different way, be up front and ask them. When you are genuine and curious, usually no one is hurt. Engineering trust on PM is what makes or breaks the overall success of the product in the market place and differentiates a bad and good PM. Do you see any other trust factors to influence engineering teams? Leave a comment.

About the Author: Suresh Madhuvarsu is a serial entrepreneur and investor. He is the Managing Partner of Product10x Accelerator, a SaaS accelerator that helps founders build and launch successful startups. He is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Salestable, a purpose-built sales readiness platform for SMBs.

Suresh has over 20 years of experience in the technology/SaaS industry. He is a 4x founder with 2 exits. He is also an active angel investor and mentor to early-stage startups. Suresh is passionate about helping entrepreneurs build successful businesses. He believes that technology can be used to solve real-world problems and improve people's lives.

About Product10x: Product10x is a SaaS accelerator that helps founders build and launch successful startups. The accelerator is run by experienced operating partners who have "been there and done that." Product10x provides founders with mentorship, advisory, and access to a network of investors and partners. The accelerator focuses on Product Led Growth (PLG), Sales readiness, and Fundraise readiness, helping founders all the way from product to go-to-market.

Engineer’s trust is critical to product management

SaaS Product Management and Your Engineering Team

Bring in the product vision

Know the market and users

Share sales and revenue numbers and models

Do your homework and reach out

Do your homework and reach out

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