The Product Leader is the glue that binds nearly all our teams together, and thus a central figure in the company. But what skill profile lurks behind these two generic words? We put seven questions to Stormshield Product Leader Adrien Brochot.

Question: What is a Product Leader?

Adrien Brochot: They’re the technical counterpart of the Product Owner – even the smallest team has one. Here at Stormshield, this role is typically split into two distinct parts – between the Product Leader (PL) and the Product Manager (PM).

In brief, a PL is a technical R&D staff member with a cross-functional role. On the one hand, the PL implements the long-term strategy and requirements set out in the PM’s roadmap. And on the other, they also receive customer feedback, which they work with the Technical Support department to prioritise. Next, they refine requirements, parameters and costs incurred, before going back to the PM for any final decisions. They then construct R&D teams around this strategy.

The Product Leader’s daily work is to manage the team’s backlog and distribution of tasks. They control the schedule, acting as a sort of “time guardian”, ensuring that teams are able to deliver according to plan, at the required quality level, and notifying the PM in the event of slippage.

Q.: What was your career path?

A. B.: After training as a computer engineer at INSA Lyon, I joined the company in 2012 as a development engineer. In addition to my work as a developer, I also took on the role of Scrum Master in 2014. And when the team suddenly grew with the signature of a new project, I was appointed Product Leader in 2016.

In this new PL role, a number of factors were on my side: knowledge of the product, an overview of company strategy, and a close relationship with the team… all of which created an atmosphere of mutual confidence, enabling us to work fluidly and efficiently together.

Q.: What skillset is involved?

A. B.: To be a Product Leader, you need to be comfortable with managing projects at a general level. From requirements specification through to project tracking, you’ll have to learn to love overflowing email inboxes and Excel spreadsheets!

Q.: Who are your points of contact?

A. B.: The Product Leader acts as a link between many other teams in the company, as well as co-ordinating with their own teams (Scrum Masters, developers, etc.).
Apart from the Product Manager – with whom I work hand in hand – I’m mainly in contact with the Technical Support department. My role is to explain the new features and strategy to them – and Tech Support inform me of customer feedback, such as bugs to be corrected or feature requests.

Another key department: Stormshield’s Documentation department. Because they’re the ones who write the user guides, I give them the information they need such as new features, version release dates, and lists of fixed bugs. I also work alongside them to specify the terms to be used in the product’s graphical interfaces. At the same time, discussions with the Training team are a good way of finding out whether some features could be clearer – and therefore require modifications.

Lastly, I’m often in contact with the Professional Services teams and Pre-Sales engineers to address technical questions asked by customers.

Q.: Describe your typical day.

A. B.: That’s easy: it doesn’t exist! Every day is different, depending on current projects and their rhythms. It means you have dynamic days, linked to the pace of each project. The only regular items in my diary are weekly or monthly meetings when I touch base with the other teams.

Q.: What’s your tip for success?

A. B.: The key is knowledge – mainly of the product itself. The Product Leader is seen as the fount of all knowledge, and so needs to be familiar with every detail. And that includes the jargon – both technical and commercial – around the product. A knowledge of Agile methods is also useful, as you need to be able to use the right method for each part of the team. For example, some of my team use the Kanban approach, whereas most developers work with Scrum – so you need to adapt your methods to suit team and tracking requirements.

But you also need know the teams like the back of your hand. And when managing the daily interactions with the various departments, it’s equally important to have good relationships.

Lastly, as a Product Leader, you can’ expect to operate to a pre-set schedule. When you’re frequently interrupted by questions in the R&D team, coming in from other departments, you need to be flexible. And most importantly, you have to be able to juggle everyone’s requests, so you can prioritise them and thus manage your own time.