I recently read an article that hit the headlines only for a short period of time  – “After an agreement could not be reached between the Republicans and the Democrats, President Obama was forced to sign a presidential bill, cutting 85 billion dollars off the US budget…” Beyond the effects on the American economy, the story reminded me of the relationship between a product manager and a development manager in a company I worked with.

In that particular company, the development team was entirely focused on coding the next big thing and paid little attention to the product guys. The result was a super-technological product that… no one needed.

And when that happened, the CEO stated: “We think technology too much! We forgot the customer. Starting from today, the customer is the only thing that matters. From this moment, only the product department will tell us e-x-a-c-t-l-y what the market needs, what to do and when to do it.” and immediately….things began to move very very slowly. The discussions between the product and development teams went on and on and nothing happened.

According to the general definition, the product manager should be busy defining innovative products, while the development manager should be working on delivering them efficiently, on time and in high quality. So what makes their relationship so important?

Well, it really matters because if the development manager and the product manager are playing cat and mouse – in the end, you will be forced to cut 85 billion dollars… Sorry, that’s only if you are the president of the United States. If you are the development manager, the product and the customer will suffer.

This story might be very familiar to you, especially if you have observed more than one high tech company. The question is how to avoid it.

The answer is cooperation; More precisely, cooperation between the development manager and the product manager. When these two work well together, there is a better chance of getting the right product at the right time in high quality.

But how can you make it happen? Well, here are the secret ingredients which will make the development manager and the product manager walk hand in hand toward the sunset… (OK, I am exaggerating, but following these steps works for me, every time)

• One example is worth a thousand emails (or a thousand meetings or documents) – If you are a product manager, ask the development manager to join you when meeting customers. Let him/her see what bothers them and what they want. Make him/her think how to solve the customer’s problem and not focus only on the most interesting problems. For example, one meeting with the security team in a large American bank, in which I was shown how the abuse of one small XSS vulnerability affected the lives of thousands of customers, convinced me, more than all the lectures and conventions I attended, to invest in learning, finding and fixing the security holes in the product.
• In the end, it is all about people – Make sure to meet at least twice a week and get updated on what’s going on (If you are located in Europe and he is located in San-Francisco, consider meeting once during your morning time and once during his).
• Trust makes the difference – Share as much info as you can and trust each other that it will be used correctly. Remember, the single most necessary condition for building trust is transparency.
• Set goals together – I know, it is easier said than done. But remember, promising the client a feature and then telling the development team “but we must do it” is a sure way to alienate the development and product teams. Flexibility is the key word here and if you make sure to share with each other the different items you are working on, it will be much easier.

Do this, and you won’t find out the development manager is doing whatever he/she feels like. Do this and you will be surprise to discover that the product manager is actually prepared to invest in closing quality gaps and automation and is even asking for your advice before making a decision.

Good luck!

Ilan