Customer Intimacy and Product Management

At today’s Atlanta technology community lunch the featured guest was Promod Haque, one of the most famous VCs in the world. One of the stories that stood out to me was when Promod recounted when it was first emphasized to him that customer intimacy was a major key to success.

10 years ago Promod was chairman of a company where the CEO was actively recruiting a VP of Engineering. The VP of Engineering was almost ready to join the company but stipulated that he had to talk to the chairman in person first. Promod, curious about this request, met with the prospective VP of Engineering, and was posed one single questions: is there money in the budget to hire a VP of Product Management? After saying, yes, of course, that they were actively recruiting a VP of Product Management, Promod inquired as to why this gentleman was concerned. The prospective VP of Engineering said that he can build anything but that he needs a VP of Product Management that is truly connected to the customers and can distill down what needs to be done. The yin to his yang would be critical to the success of the company.

My recommendation is for one of the company co-founders to own product management and make it one of his or her top priorities. Product management is one of the more difficult skills to hire for and is best done by someone who is truly passionate about the product and builds great rapport with customers.