Thoughts about "Building Products for the Enterprise: Product Management in Enterprise Software" by B. Reeves and B. Gaines
After a long break, I return to book reviews in the form of an internal dialog. That time it is one of the most valuable books I have read about Product management: "Building Products for the Enterprise: Product Management in Enterprise Software" by Blair Reeves and Benjamin Gaines.
OK. I am glad you are finally talking about this book. It is an obvious question, but I must ask it. What this book is about?
The title is self-explanatory enough: the book is about being a Product Manager (PM) in a B2B Enterprise organization.
Sounds fair. What is so unique about working in the Enterprise compared to other PMs?
First, let's agree that Product management is a vast discipline. Every organization looks at it from a different angle. So, a PM's responsibilities and role definition might vary for similar products but from other businesses in the same market.
Enterprise PM differs from a startup PM in that the first needs to survive in a complex hierarchy, build relationships, and comply with an Enterprise's restrictions. Also, it depends on whether it is B2B, B2C, B2G, B2B2B, etc. That impacts a lot on how products are developed and sold.
I will paraphrase the book to not expand on this topic further. What makes PM in the Enterprise different:
- business model: usually direct sales or subscription
- specialization: very specialized products
- the split between customers and users