Bridging Business & IT

S2 E2: IT Product Management

March 31, 2022 Dave Burrill & Dan Burrill Season 2 Episode 2
Bridging Business & IT
S2 E2: IT Product Management
Show Notes Chapter Markers

Our guest today is Jeffrey Sherow. Jeff has spent a long career at the intersection of  business and technology.  He started out with Andersen Consulting, rose through the ranks to become an Accenture partner, and stayed there for several years. Jeff has become extremely interested in the role of the product manager. The primary reason for this interest is his belief that the product manager needs to be someone who intimately understands the customer and what a business needs to do to delight their customers. In a perfect world the product manager is responsible for delivering value to customers and has P&L responsibility.

Unfortunately, that perfect world rarely exists. Jeff shares our concerns that in many companies those on the business side have abrogated their responsibility to drive customer value through the intelligent deployment of technology. Too often business people view 'IT projects' as the IT department's problem and have lost sight of the fact that these are never IT projects. They are business projects that just happen to be enabled by technology.

Guest LinkedIn Profile: Jeffrey Sherow

These podcasts are dedicated to bridging the gap between business & IT. Each episode looks at different aspects of this relationship as we explore ways to help the two groups better communicate. We're passionate about this topic because it's a failure to communicate that causes 75% of all IT project failures and costs the US $1.8 Trillion every year—8% of US GDP!

If you don't want to become one of these statistics and want to learn about an easy way to avoid it, please visit our website and schedule a free consultation.

Alternatively, if there's some topic you'd like to hear more about, or you have an idea about how we might better serve our listeners, please shoot us an email at dave@bridgingbusinessit.com. We'd love to hear from you.

http://bridgingbusinessit.com

Jeff's Background
the potential of data
the role of Product Management in a business
Product Manager Best Practices
Understanding Customer needs
Solving Problems with Technology and being Tech-led
Failure in IT Project Management versus Failure in Product Management
What does it mean to be in the technology business?
Implementing Self Service Capabilities in conventional businesses
Standing up for IT
Having the room to try and fail and iterate
Where does design fit in the process of Product Management
Healthy conflict in the business to drive better outcomes
Managing Egos in the IT project world
Transforming the IT and company mindset
What is business school teaching?
The role of measuring ROI in creativity
Conclusions