Full Stack Development: Expectations, Necessary Tools

Brilliant Home Product Director on Building A Full Stack (Part 2)

When I use the term full stack, you probably think about engineering. Specifically, I’m using that term here because I have learned different disciplines. Most importantly, I’m applying them in my role today in leading my product team. To me, you know if you’re a full stack product manager, you’re able to actually work end-to-end through product strategy. From implementation to future development, you’re able to provide value for your company and for your product throughout your work.  

If you’re going to be a full stack product manager, you need to know these expectations.

• Represent the needs of the customer.
• Make unbiased decisions based on the information provided within the company & product.
• Encompass multiple methods of feedback and data and synthesizing to product features and business needs.
• Evangelize structured thinking across the organization to make better decisions. 

Tools Used By Full Stack Product Managers

• Strategic and structured thinking.
• Build toward a validated perspective.
• Drive decisionmaking.
• Collaboration through transparency.
• Identify and empower change champions in your team.
• Know your product manager superpower(s).

Know Where To Bring Your Value

Generally, hardware is different than software with respect to time. In hardware, you cannot make mistakes. You have to limit the amount of iteration that you’re able to do to get the product to market. Before I joined Brilliant Home, I was not familiar with hardware life cycles. As a result, there were moments when I spent a lot of time testing. 

During that period, I constantly wondered – is this product ready? Is this not ready? What happens if I released this product and it suddenly does something wrong? Particularly with our product, it’s connected to your electrical line. It’s a pretty scary thing if you’re leading that product and something bad were to happen.

However, being able to understand where you as a full stack product manager are going to provide value is important. Regardless of working in hardware or not. Ultimately, you need to ask yourself what value am I bringing to this team. 

Click here for Part 1

Click here for Part 3