The Accidental Product Manager
I had no idea what a Product Manager was until someone pointed out that I was one.
In the dawn of the PC age, I discovered a program called AutoCAD. Hardly any other architects (I'm a licensed architect) seemed to realize that PCs were about to change the profession, so I wrote a book called "The Architect's Guide to Computer-aided Design" - the first book about using PCs in architectural practice. Computers were still fairly primitive, and much of the book was about how architecture could be changed by using PCs. Likewise, the columns and articles that I began writing for trade magazines explained how PC applications should support the profession. I had inadvertently taken a role as "the voice of the customer," and I began getting calls from Autodesk, their competitors, and entrepreneurs who saw opportunities in some of the topics I wrote about.
One of these was a venture capitalist who wanted to develop software tools that would revolutionize building design. I suggested that there was an opportunity to transform the process of construction detailing, and we decided to start a company to do it. I designed a system for assembling detail drawings using parametric objects - bricks, studs, windows - rather than drawing with lines. Starting with two employees and a working prototype that I cobbled together, Vertex Design Systems raised $5 million in venture capital and within two years we employed 25 people.
As Vertex ramped up, I managed the development effort. I designed the product, wrote specifications, and hired the programmers and QA staff to build the product. As we brought in new people, it became clear that the key to success was making sure that the whole company understood the Vision - the idea that made Vertex unique. This wasn't so simple. It meant explaining the nuts and bolts of the architectural design process to people who had never been in an architecture office, before anyone thought of "personas." It meant evolving the product design as we invented new techniques, all the while keeping the end goal in sight. It meant building a business strategy and product roadmap that enabled us to get a product done quickly while paving the way for a full product line in the future…and getting both senior management and Engineering to contribute and buy in. It was, in short, Product Management.
Eventually others took over the engineering/QA management, and I focused on what I would soon realize was product management. Eventually, the Vertex Detailer was successfully launched, along with libraries of Dynamic Detail content and links to building material manufacturers' content. The products were far ahead of their time - it was years before anyone else replicated Vertex's approach to parametric construction detailing.
Yet the product did not reach its sales potential. We had hired a CEO to manage the business who believed in a strict division between development and marketing, and his marketing staff had little knowledge of the architectural market. Their pricing model was geared toward very large firms, who enthusiastically bought the product, but the majority of architectural firms are smaller, and were unable to afford the product. In retrospect, it became clear that product management and product marketing needed to share an understanding of the target customer, and develop both the product vision and marketing strategy (including the pricing model) together.
Later on, I also learned that you can't rely on your own experience to understand what products customers will need and pay for. It's great if you have firsthand experience, but even that is not always enough to understand the variety of problems that customers in different corners of the market face. And a good product manager needs to be able learn about customers in a market with little or no experience there. In fact, an outsider's perspective can be really valuable - but that's another story.
Vertex was acquired by another company, which was then acquired by Autodesk. By that time, I was a Product Manager at Autodesk, and was delighted to see the Vertex technology folded into Autodesk's architectural products. Parts of it are still there, and the basic approach of parametric design now underlies the industry standard for architectural software: Building Information Modeling.
In the dawn of the PC age, I discovered a program called AutoCAD. Hardly any other architects (I'm a licensed architect) seemed to realize that PCs were about to change the profession, so I wrote a book called "The Architect's Guide to Computer-aided Design" - the first book about using PCs in architectural practice. Computers were still fairly primitive, and much of the book was about how architecture could be changed by using PCs. Likewise, the columns and articles that I began writing for trade magazines explained how PC applications should support the profession. I had inadvertently taken a role as "the voice of the customer," and I began getting calls from Autodesk, their competitors, and entrepreneurs who saw opportunities in some of the topics I wrote about.
One of these was a venture capitalist who wanted to develop software tools that would revolutionize building design. I suggested that there was an opportunity to transform the process of construction detailing, and we decided to start a company to do it. I designed a system for assembling detail drawings using parametric objects - bricks, studs, windows - rather than drawing with lines. Starting with two employees and a working prototype that I cobbled together, Vertex Design Systems raised $5 million in venture capital and within two years we employed 25 people.
As Vertex ramped up, I managed the development effort. I designed the product, wrote specifications, and hired the programmers and QA staff to build the product. As we brought in new people, it became clear that the key to success was making sure that the whole company understood the Vision - the idea that made Vertex unique. This wasn't so simple. It meant explaining the nuts and bolts of the architectural design process to people who had never been in an architecture office, before anyone thought of "personas." It meant evolving the product design as we invented new techniques, all the while keeping the end goal in sight. It meant building a business strategy and product roadmap that enabled us to get a product done quickly while paving the way for a full product line in the future…and getting both senior management and Engineering to contribute and buy in. It was, in short, Product Management.
Eventually others took over the engineering/QA management, and I focused on what I would soon realize was product management. Eventually, the Vertex Detailer was successfully launched, along with libraries of Dynamic Detail content and links to building material manufacturers' content. The products were far ahead of their time - it was years before anyone else replicated Vertex's approach to parametric construction detailing.
Yet the product did not reach its sales potential. We had hired a CEO to manage the business who believed in a strict division between development and marketing, and his marketing staff had little knowledge of the architectural market. Their pricing model was geared toward very large firms, who enthusiastically bought the product, but the majority of architectural firms are smaller, and were unable to afford the product. In retrospect, it became clear that product management and product marketing needed to share an understanding of the target customer, and develop both the product vision and marketing strategy (including the pricing model) together.
Later on, I also learned that you can't rely on your own experience to understand what products customers will need and pay for. It's great if you have firsthand experience, but even that is not always enough to understand the variety of problems that customers in different corners of the market face. And a good product manager needs to be able learn about customers in a market with little or no experience there. In fact, an outsider's perspective can be really valuable - but that's another story.
Vertex was acquired by another company, which was then acquired by Autodesk. By that time, I was a Product Manager at Autodesk, and was delighted to see the Vertex technology folded into Autodesk's architectural products. Parts of it are still there, and the basic approach of parametric design now underlies the industry standard for architectural software: Building Information Modeling.