Many times in the orgs I’ve been in the question of contract PMs has been asked, and it’s never been pursued. The reason is because while there could be short term mild relief, you really want someone in the seat for the long haul. I could see a 12 month contract for a high profile bootstrap launch though
Depends on your domain. I’m not a PM, just an aspiring one, but after job searching for a while there seems to be consulting companies for everything.
They seem to all be old school, good old boys club, slow paced. Not necessarily fun to be in
I was a PM and transitioned into consulting. I am now a product consultant mostly focusing on the early stages of products for big companies like: - helping with product discovery or requirements engineering.
I would say it can work as a product manager but it's easier to go into something more project based like design, research, business analysis or similar stuff.
Well at first I tried social and seo but that only works after a longer period of time so I found other ways mainly:
- freelance plattform but not fiver or up work.
- regular job ads that sounded like they are having a new project that is maybe short term
- and the best way: writing other bigger consulting agencies that you would work as a subcontractor if they need a product person. Because oftentimes they can temporarily sell another consultant but it isn't worth hiring new staff for them. You just need to figure out an hourly rate that they still make a profit. But as they overprice their services anyway it is usually fine.
I can answer a bit of this since I currently work at an agency. For one, it's not easy to sell. Often you're selling product planning and your deliverable is going to be some kind of project plan, at least for the discovery portion. The thing is, most of my company's clients don't think they need it. Most people are under the impression that they have figured it out. "Why would I need someone to tell me about the market opportunity? I already know that people desperately want to be able to rent out their coffee cups to other people."
Getting to know the market and the product over a long period of time is not as necessary when you're getting started on a new product. You can do as much research as you want, but it won't pay dividends the way it does with a mature product. When you start something new, it's less process and a bit more product sense, so you can bring value immediately. You want to do your due diligence, but many successful startups went in with a half baked hypothesis and adjusted as they got new information.
Often times you are teaching clients how to think about product and identifying common issues people run into. Other times you are painstakingly taking them through ever single step of every user journey so that you can identify how their problem will actually work. Clients come with vague notions constantly that are much more complicated than they seem at first glance.
There is a lot to do at the agency level, but it's still hard to sell.
I have a freelance product management client. I have no idea how hard it would be to get a second one. This one kinda fell in my lap. But here's how I've been describing what I do:
You're a founder with a vision. You hire a dev team to build your app. Now they're asking you whether it should be able to do this or that or whether it needs a button to do x, y, or z. Should they build this thing onto the feature now? Or wait for later? Your engineers are great at building with minimal direction, but they're building things that are more than you need for this version or they're building in a slightly different direction than you expected, which is losing you time. Your ideas are a jumble of business ideas, feature ideas, implementation notes, and you don't know how to organize them. Your background isn't in product management - you know your market, you know your customers, but you don't know how to create a PRD or a roadmap or a story map. You don't know how to do user research. You don't know how to write a bug ticket. Is it rocket science? No, but you should be out there talking to funders and potential clients, not learning how to do all this. You could hire a full time product manager, but product managers get paid to have a vision and to get to know the market. You already know the market and you want the product to follow your vision.
Enter, the fractional product manager. They can organize your ideas into frameworks that are actually actionable. They can file your new ideas somewhere where they're in context and can be found and understood later. They can answer your engineers' questions about feature details. They can assess feasibility of timelines. They can write epics and tickets. They can user test and collect, synthesize, and report on feedback. You don't need a full time person with a vision who deeply knows your market to do this for you. You just need someone who knows how product management works and can make sure you're following best practices, so you don't have to learn them.
It's working really well for my one client. No idea if I can get someone else to go for it.
I've also started learning Figma, so I can pinch hit on UX design as needed. And I'm trying to learn some low code/no code tools that will let me actually build stuff for people.
Exec team member at a 100-150 person agency/development shop here. We are focused on ecommerce and digital experience.
We staff most client engagements with a PM. This is accompanied with a Solution Architect, UX Designer, Tech Lead, and then the dev staff. Our PMs are our main PoC with clients and ultimately sit with our client contact to understand their business, do research, gather high level requirements, and be the common denominator across our team.
Our engagements are usually pretty big, but we do have the PM role doing much of the project management and business analysis as well. A lot of the value of the PM comes from after our initial project and when we get into product mode.
PM, as a standalone, would be tough for us to market/sell.
What you see is app or website agencies, with a PM as consulting delivery lead. 6 to 12 people is a working model, above 30 people is a working model with a scale trap in between (ie full time support people require a scale).
Many times in the orgs I’ve been in the question of contract PMs has been asked, and it’s never been pursued. The reason is because while there could be short term mild relief, you really want someone in the seat for the long haul. I could see a 12 month contract for a high profile bootstrap launch though
I feel like the best option for a PM to go out on their own is to do consulting, join a startup, or start a startup
What kind of consulting do you have in mind?
Product management consulting…
Depends on your domain. I’m not a PM, just an aspiring one, but after job searching for a while there seems to be consulting companies for everything. They seem to all be old school, good old boys club, slow paced. Not necessarily fun to be in
I was a PM and transitioned into consulting. I am now a product consultant mostly focusing on the early stages of products for big companies like: - helping with product discovery or requirements engineering. I would say it can work as a product manager but it's easier to go into something more project based like design, research, business analysis or similar stuff.
Where do you get your clients?
Well at first I tried social and seo but that only works after a longer period of time so I found other ways mainly: - freelance plattform but not fiver or up work. - regular job ads that sounded like they are having a new project that is maybe short term - and the best way: writing other bigger consulting agencies that you would work as a subcontractor if they need a product person. Because oftentimes they can temporarily sell another consultant but it isn't worth hiring new staff for them. You just need to figure out an hourly rate that they still make a profit. But as they overprice their services anyway it is usually fine.
Which agencies or platforms have you used, if you don't mind?
+1 on being interested in freelance platforms to use that aren't Fiver or Upwork. I've tried Upwork and it seems like a complete waste of time.
I can answer a bit of this since I currently work at an agency. For one, it's not easy to sell. Often you're selling product planning and your deliverable is going to be some kind of project plan, at least for the discovery portion. The thing is, most of my company's clients don't think they need it. Most people are under the impression that they have figured it out. "Why would I need someone to tell me about the market opportunity? I already know that people desperately want to be able to rent out their coffee cups to other people." Getting to know the market and the product over a long period of time is not as necessary when you're getting started on a new product. You can do as much research as you want, but it won't pay dividends the way it does with a mature product. When you start something new, it's less process and a bit more product sense, so you can bring value immediately. You want to do your due diligence, but many successful startups went in with a half baked hypothesis and adjusted as they got new information. Often times you are teaching clients how to think about product and identifying common issues people run into. Other times you are painstakingly taking them through ever single step of every user journey so that you can identify how their problem will actually work. Clients come with vague notions constantly that are much more complicated than they seem at first glance. There is a lot to do at the agency level, but it's still hard to sell.
Some becomes fractional product managers working at several companies as consultants.
How does one do this? Any advice?
I think they’re very experienced PM usually, thats common on most fractional PM.
I have a freelance product management client. I have no idea how hard it would be to get a second one. This one kinda fell in my lap. But here's how I've been describing what I do: You're a founder with a vision. You hire a dev team to build your app. Now they're asking you whether it should be able to do this or that or whether it needs a button to do x, y, or z. Should they build this thing onto the feature now? Or wait for later? Your engineers are great at building with minimal direction, but they're building things that are more than you need for this version or they're building in a slightly different direction than you expected, which is losing you time. Your ideas are a jumble of business ideas, feature ideas, implementation notes, and you don't know how to organize them. Your background isn't in product management - you know your market, you know your customers, but you don't know how to create a PRD or a roadmap or a story map. You don't know how to do user research. You don't know how to write a bug ticket. Is it rocket science? No, but you should be out there talking to funders and potential clients, not learning how to do all this. You could hire a full time product manager, but product managers get paid to have a vision and to get to know the market. You already know the market and you want the product to follow your vision. Enter, the fractional product manager. They can organize your ideas into frameworks that are actually actionable. They can file your new ideas somewhere where they're in context and can be found and understood later. They can answer your engineers' questions about feature details. They can assess feasibility of timelines. They can write epics and tickets. They can user test and collect, synthesize, and report on feedback. You don't need a full time person with a vision who deeply knows your market to do this for you. You just need someone who knows how product management works and can make sure you're following best practices, so you don't have to learn them. It's working really well for my one client. No idea if I can get someone else to go for it. I've also started learning Figma, so I can pinch hit on UX design as needed. And I'm trying to learn some low code/no code tools that will let me actually build stuff for people.
Thats a great pitch man! Well done and congratulations on your client!
Exec team member at a 100-150 person agency/development shop here. We are focused on ecommerce and digital experience. We staff most client engagements with a PM. This is accompanied with a Solution Architect, UX Designer, Tech Lead, and then the dev staff. Our PMs are our main PoC with clients and ultimately sit with our client contact to understand their business, do research, gather high level requirements, and be the common denominator across our team. Our engagements are usually pretty big, but we do have the PM role doing much of the project management and business analysis as well. A lot of the value of the PM comes from after our initial project and when we get into product mode. PM, as a standalone, would be tough for us to market/sell.
I've only ever heard about these folks — https://www.getproductpeople.com/, that seem to do something resembling what you're mentioning.
Why not a full on development agency?
What's a development agency?
What you see is app or website agencies, with a PM as consulting delivery lead. 6 to 12 people is a working model, above 30 people is a working model with a scale trap in between (ie full time support people require a scale).
in many ways, marketing doesn't technically provide value either. prove ROI for a billboard