I was very lucky to be able to sit down with Joe Belfiore a couple of years ago in a one:one chat and I took the occasion to ask him what he thought makes a person a great Program Manager here at Microsoft. Here was his reply...

1) Maniacally focus on building a product your customers will love.

Pound, pound, pound on the features while they are being developed all the way through the process.
Constantly ask 'How do we know this is good?'
Perceive the reaction of others to your features.
Know others will want to have an opinion.
Recognize constraints make it hard to develop products customers will love.
This takes energy, persistence and creativity.

2) Look at the constraints and find creative right angles to solve the problems.

Generate 100 ideas which could be solutions.
Look for low cost + high benefit features.
OK for high costs + high benefit features if the benefit is truly high.
Avoid high cost + low benefit features and low cost + low benefit features.
This takes innovation and creativity.

3) Take a people approach.

How you go about getting work done is as important as getting work done.
The degree you do 'people things' well affects you greatly.
High integrity.
Not rude.
Predictable.
Acknowledging.
Relieve pressure.
Create a positive environment.
'You have to do this' doesn't work.
Valuing the people is more important than the feature.
It's more valuable / desirable if the group decides on its own.
It's like good parenting.
Much more effective in having authority and not using it.

4) Go and talk with customers / partners.

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Of course, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out this sage advice is applicable to a whole host of roles in both professional and personal arenas. And while seemingly simple, it’s extremely difficult to become and expert in those four areas. I’m still working on many of these and have an awful long way to go.

Thanks, Joe…!

Hat tip to Scott Berkun whose post 'The lost cult of Microsoft program managers' prompted me to post.