The PMM resistance

By Donato The Tenacious PMM

Introducing the WTF scoring: how many WTFs would you score this story with? Once upon a time, I was at this company in Liguria, in the most beautiful location one might dream of. Close to the famous Cinque Terre.

Photo by Daniel J. Schwarz on Unsplash

I was there, as usual, looking for trouble, as the founding PM/PMM, running Product, Marketing, and Strategy.

The product was attracting small players like HSBC, Baker Hughes, and IKEA. For real.

With unsustainable sales cycles for the squeaky organization.

One day, the owner, rightfully tired of the two company leaders constantly fighting, with little revenue coming in, literally gave it away to a friend, an obscure entrepreneur, let’s call him Gino, who knew nothing about software (there were funny legends about his past endeavors, which I will spare you).

Not only that, but the owner also paired the gift with some €1.5M to invest in sales, keeping the company alive. And he added free access to a top Labor and Employment Lawyer.

Gino immediately pocketed the cash, nonchalantly.

Then he laid off ~75% of employees. People were in tears. None was ever laid off in their life. It was brutal.

Gino then hired another friend to run the company. The new guy, let’s call him Ginetto, said “no marketing, no product management”, just “work”.

So he got rid of Marketing (what a surprise), and even QA.

Then, he immediately ordered me to lead what was left of the Engineering team.

And here is the genius move.

He specifically asked me to sit at an “elevated desk” in the room to visually verify that “people were actually coding.”

No kidding.

With no QA, thanks to another genius move by Ginetto, the friend of Gino, I had to build a QA team in disguise, promoting a guy I trusted as the QA leader (he made a career out of it and is still leading QA at a reputable tech company).

Then I had to secretly product-manage a new Online Editor, launching it in disguise, running GTM and sales enablement, and so forth.

It was kind of fun. Your boss does not “believe” in Product Management? Or Product Management? Just do it secretly.

It felt heroic, like leading the “Resistance” movement. I even rebranded the company under a name that is still the company’s real name today.

It was a matter of days until Gino asked Ginetto to take a look at salaries.

I wasn’t going to cook the books. Fun is ok, crime is not.

So Ginetto found out that I was the highest-paid guy in the company. He proposed some unlikely, shady “deal”.

Enough is enough. I fled and started consulting.

I have to say that was an experience where I learned a lot.

To me, the learning part is a major driver for how rewarding my job is, and still is.

neverstoplearng