Product Management Puzzles

This month my inspiration comes not from the world of sweet soul music, but from watching a documentary about crossword puzzle fans. I used to be good at solving crosswords and cryptograms in Dutch (my native language) but after 20+ years of living in the US I have ended up doing poorly at crosswords in Dutch and English. Nevertheless, what inspired me was the idea that when I try to solve a crossword I search for the clues I can solve, and use the solutions to branch out into areas of the puzzle where I have no clue at all. Bit by bit, I am able to solve the puzzle. Isn't product management a bit like that? You start with what you know, you rely on your experience, you make guesses at times, you are willing to go back and fix your mistakes, and you build on that to complete the picture.

Here are the clues
Across
1. Thus or so
4. Calculate this for a prospect to help them make the business case for buying you product
7. Massachusetts region known for beaches and whale watching
11. Artist and musician Yoko - - -
12. - - - chart
13. Mainframe programming language
14. Programming language developed for department of defense systems
15. Indian lentil dish
16. Spreadsheet software
17. Photograph (abbr.)
18. Lake in Italy
20. Exclamation when great insight is achieved
22. Document outlining two parties’ goal to execute an agreement
23. Robot in 2001 movie - IBM minus 1
26. Big in size (abbr.)
28. Document you send to prospective employers or headhunters
31. Software development method that calls for scrums and sprints
34. Religion that emphasizes spiritual unity of all humankind
35. Succinct and inspiring statement of what a company plans to achieve
37. Graduate business degree
38. Either you go or - - -
39. First woman in Bible
41. Day of worship and rest (abbr)
44. Bring - - - -
45. Government department that mandated programming in 14 across
47. Boca - - - - -, Florida
51. Belonging to it
53. The - - - and only
54. Area of concentration
55. Dot - - - bubble, which was followed by a bust in 2001
56. Lazy person
57. Storyline
58. Before
59. Incentive for employees

Down
1. Protocol for exchanging information between systems
2. Offshore software development leader
3. Someone who provides advice, encouragement, or training
4. Scottish rocker - - - Stewart
5. Redwood Shores database company, now a leader in enterprise apps and hardware
6. Dwelling built out of snow and ice
7. Member of rowing crew who steers the boat
8. Alphabet
9. Horror writer Edgar Allan
10. Old measure of length
13. Company leader
19. Russian space station
21. Weight loss product
23. Expression of confusion, cluelessness
24. Physicians’ organization
25. Hawaiian flower garland
27. Magazine and TV Station Nat - - -
29. Low tide
30. Hosted software
31. File extension for multimedia content
32. Temporary job
33. Standards organization
36. Gross profit minus Cost of Goods Sold
37. Someone who advises and guides your career
40. - - - - - of the Customer
42. Software company that makes Acrobat
43. Financial reward for achieving goals
44. Predecessor of USCIS, responsible for issuing H1B and other visas
46. Part of sales presentation where product is showcased
47. Questionnaire issued by buyers
48. Internet service provider
49. Financial estimate to determine direct and indirect cost of a system
50. Not in
52. Someone well-versed in a subject

The next puzzle is a Produco.
You’re a product manager in a super-matrixed organization, as represented by the chart on the left. The rows are divisions, the columns represent locations, and each 6-block rectangle is a product. You must deploy 36 people so that every division, every location, and every product has one and only one representative from
Engineering (represented by the π)
Sales (represented by the !)
Customer Care (represented by the ?)
Finance (represented by the $)
Product Management (represented by the checkbox)
Marketing (represented by a : ) )

7 team members have already been deployed. Can you deploy the rest??



The good news is that there are solutions to these puzzles. And between the time when you started solving the puzzle and the time you are given a solution.. the clues or constraints have not changed. This is where things are different from product management. But since product managers always welcome a challenge, I have put the solutions upside down.