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> So why do you feel the need to over-ride your product managers on > product direction, feature set, user acquisition plans, retention > strategy, etc? As
by biot 11y ago
> So why do you feel the need to over-ride your product managers on
> product direction, feature set, user acquisition plans, retention
> strategy, etc?
As long as the CEO isn't micro-managing, why wouldn't they intervene on these topics if the product managers are going in a direction the CEO doesn't want to take the company just yet? The CEO's job is to set the strategy and vision; the manager's job is to execute. If you've hired competent managers, how they execute is up to them. What and why they execute is the responsibility of the CEO and, if the managers are off-course, the CEO must sometimes override them to line things back up with the vision and strategy.
- ryandrake 11y agoOverall strategy: fine. Vision: fine. Feature-by-feature product definition? Not so much. If you, as CEO, want to do that, great--just don't go out and hire product management professionals. They'll have nothing to do, with you doing their job for them. They'll eventually leave out of boredom and/or frustration.
- biot 11y agoI suspect we're mostly in agreement. Going through and defining every single feature is micromanagement. However, product direction, feature set, and covering user acquisition plans and retention strategy are places where the CEO (a primary stakeholder) must have input and override where necessary; I see that as non-negotiable. There's certainly a balance that must be struck somewhere between the CEO micromanaging all the decisions and the product managers operating in a vacuum.