Building Products for the Enterprise: Product Management in Enterprise Software

184 Pages·2018·5.051 MB·English

by  Blair Reeves, Benjamin Gaines

Building
Products for
the Enterprise
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT IN ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE
Blair Reeves & Benjamin Gaines

Praise for Building Products for the
Enterprise
It’s the rare company that achieves product-market fit in enterprise software,
and many books have been written about that magical customer discovery
process. But until now, there has been no guidebook for the scaling phase
that follows. In enterprise software, initial product-market fit only means a
growing pile of demands from users, customers, and prospects. In their
book, Blair and Ben lay out the key principles of product management that
allow companies to conquer the software markets they discover, rather than
getting lost in a product maze of their own creation.
—Andrew Montalenti, Cofounder and CTO of Parse.ly
Great product managers are master jugglers and expert tea leaf readers. This
book is a guide in how to perfect both. I recommend it to anyone looking to
learn more about product management for enterprise software.
—Joe Colopy, CEO/Cofounder of PeopleLove
CEO/Cofounder of Bronto Software
Building Products for the Enterprise is one of those rare books that really helps
you understand a particular job—that of product management. Product
management can be the glue that holds the entire organization together
when done well, and it is one of the most exciting and entrepreneurial
career opportunities. Read this book if you are interested in—and want to
master—the field.
—Brett A. Hurt, founder of Bazaarvoice, Coremetrics, data.world,
and Hurt Family Investments
There are a lot of product management books about startups and how to
introduce product management to your company. But where are the books
about product management at large enterprise SaaS companies? I was sold
on this book when I encountered the accurate metaphor for the job: the
Product Manager as a sheepdog. That’s who we are—Product Managers try-
ing to steer the herd to the best of our ability on the path toward growth, dis-
ruption, and SaaS domination. Building Products for the Enterprise is an
excellent “how-to” for Product Managers who have found themselves at
these growing enterprises where product management is encouraged (and
expected) to truly be a business driver.
—Kathryn Murphy, Vice President of Product Management,
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
Ben and Blair are donating a portion of their proceeds from this book to the chari-
ties of their choice below. We encourage all of our readers to learn about and sup-
port these worthy organizations.
The New York City Rescue Mission is New York’s oldest homeless shelter. It exists
to provide help and hope to the hungry, homeless, and hurting men and women of
New York City. Learn more at NYCRescue.org.
The International Rescue Committee is the world’s preeminent refugee aid organi-
zation. The IRC helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict
and disaster to survive, recover, and regain control of their future.
Learn more at Rescue.org.

Building Products for
the Enterprise
Product Management in Enterprise Software
Blair Reeves and Benjamin Gaines
Building Products for the Enterprise
by Blair Reeves and Benjamin Gaines
Copyright © 2018 Blair Reeves, Benjamin Gaines. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472.
O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online
editions are also available for most titles (http://oreilly.com/safari). For more information, con-
tact our corporate/institutional sales department: 800-998-9938 or [email protected].
Editors: Angela Rufino and Meg Foley Indexer: Ellen Troutman-Zaig
Production Editor: Nan Barber Interior Designer: Monica Kamsvaag
Copyeditor: Octal Publishing, Inc. Cover Designer: Karen Montgomery
Proofreader: Sonia Saruba Illustrator: Rebecca Demarest
March 2018: First Edition
Revision History for the First Edition
2018-02-26: First Release
See http://oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=9781492024781 for release details.
The O’Reilly logo is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media, Inc. Building Products for the
Enterprise, the cover image, and related trade dress are trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc.
While the publisher and the authors have used good faith efforts to ensure that the information
and instructions contained in this work are accurate, the publisher and the authors disclaim all
responsibility for errors or omissions, including without limitation responsibility for damages
resulting from the use of or reliance on this work. Use of the information and instructions con-
tained in this work is at your own risk. If any code samples or other technology this work con-
tains or describes is subject to open source licenses or the intellectual property rights of others,
it is your responsibility to ensure that your use thereof complies with such licenses and/or
rights.
978-1-492-02478-1
[LSI]
Contents
| Foreword ix
| Preface xi
1 | Why Product Management in the Enterprise Is Different
1
2 | Who Are We Building For? 9
3 | Three Types of Knowledge for a Product Manager
to Seek 27
4 | Organizational Knowledge 41
5 | Product Knowledge 89
6 | Building Better Products with Data 111
7 | Industry Knowledge 121
8 | The Product Managers 145
9 | Conclusion 155
| Index 157
vii