11 Things Your Dev Team Wants From You
Christin Gorman kick starts Product Tank Oslo’s February event with an animated discussion of what product managers can do to help developers in their day-to-day work. Gorman is a programmer at Kodemaker and voted the most popular lightning talk from Javazone 2011. Here are some key highlights from her talk:
Eye on the prize
Ideas and requests come from all over and the hardest thing a product manager can do is say, “No.” But developers need time to make the great features and constant demands can derail development and waste time. A strong product manager knows how to prioritise and stay focused.
Brush up your Shakespeare
There was once an ode to the non-technical product manager, but that’s no excuse to not take the time to understand the basics of product development. Take the time and effort to understand the development team so you can have a better concept of development time, costs, and technical feasibility.
Have you met Ted?
Perhaps putting your developers in charge of customer service for a week isn’t the best idea, but you can introduce your developers to your product’s customers through feedback or behind the mirror in user research sessions. This will give them a better idea of customer challenges with the product and how to produce better user experiences.
Watch Christin’s talk to learn the other 8 things that will make your development team love you!
About the author
Lorian Leong
Lorian is a product professional and independent researcher immersed in Stockholm’s tech scene, with expertise spanning lifestyle and entertainment technology, internet and consumer tech, B2B/B2C hardware, and internal tools. This diverse experience allows her to bring a nuanced perspective to each project. As the cofounder and former organiser of ProductTank Oslo, she has also played a pivotal role in fostering a community of product professionals and driving conversations about innovation and best practices in product development. Passionate about the intersection of technology and society, she conducts research exploring how technology shapes everyday life, with a special focus on internet and mobile phone studies. Her published work highlights her commitment to understanding the broader impact of our digital interactions.
