About Andrew K. Pace


So you want to be a product manager, part 3: Play to your strengths

Posted On Oct 11 2016 by

This post is a personal reflection on the excellent post written Rohini Vibha and introduced earlier on Hectic Pace. See part 1 and part 2. 3. Product Managers are neither designers nor engineers.  Do what you do best. Focus on strategy and the desire of end-users. Not all of us will have the luxury of product development divisions waiting to contribute their best lines of code to a problem, but a product manager must emphasize strategy and vision. You will be inclined to pick colors and layouts and sand the rough edges of workflows and user interfaces. Unless you’re also the lead …


So you want to be a product manager, part 2: The user is in charge

Posted On Oct 6 2016 by

This post is a personal reflection on the excellent post written Rohini Vibha and introduced earlier on Hectic Pace. See part 1 of this series here. 2. Your product is only as good as a user’s perception of it. In today’s personalized web word, the user is always in charge. That’s not the same thing as “the customer is always right,” but regardless, you need to check your ego at the door. My favorite writing professor in college once gave me advice that I follow to this day. He told me to find my favorite sentence in what I’ve written and …


So you want to be a product manager, part 1: Love the Problem

Posted On Oct 4 2016 by

This post is a personal reflection on the excellent post written Rohini Vibha and introduced earlier on Hectic Pace. 1. You’re not managing a product. You’re managing the problem it solves. If you’re not solving a problem, you’re not a product manager. I’ve said it before and I will say it again. The most dangerous four words from a systems librarian or a developer are “Wanna see something cool?” Nope. I wanna see something that solves a problem for me or for my customer. I’ve had many, many meetings with librarians and library staff about features. It’s easy to fall into the …