Hi there, welcome.
Before we get into it, I just want to let you know that
Having said that, let's move.
The title of this article is one question many people want to be answered, you can tell that from Google trends. It's a cool question that opens a whole new world, so today, I'll be answering this question in texts, quotes, and memes.
Grab your snack and let's dive in.
What is product management?
Product Management can be defined as the general business structure within a company/organization that oversees and manages all the activities related to a product throughout its life cycle. Those activities include planning, development, launch, marketing, and many more.
Product management is about creating value for the customer and putting in place the necessary activities to ensure that. Since customers won't make use of products that are not solving their problems, the goal should be to develop solutions to customers' pain points.
A person who does product management is called a product manager.
If you're looking to become a product manager, the quotes below should give an insight.
“At the heart of every product person, there’s a desire to make someone’s life easier or simpler. If we listen to the customer and give them what they need, they’ll reciprocate with love and loyalty to your brand.”
– Francis Brown, Product Development Manager at Alaska Airlines“A great product manager has the brain of an engineer, the heart of a designer, and the speech of a diplomat.”
– Deep Nishar, Vice President of Product at LinkedIn
As a product manager, you'll find people asking what you do exactly. Chances are there that your family and friends don't actually understand anything you're doing. Here's something you'll love, and it describes what happens.
And at times, you'll hear people calling you something you're not, "project manager", no you're not, I wrote on the differences between both roles, click here to read it.
Like I mentioned earlier, you are involved in everything that relates to a product. Typically, in a company, this is where you stand.
You stand at the middle of everything; you stand at the intersection of business and tech. You represent the customer in the company. You lead the teams to come up with outstanding products that solve problems.
Product management should always start with the question of WHY. Janna Bastow, Co-founder & CEO, Prodpad Software. puts it a question, she asks, what problem are you trying to solve?.
Qualities of a product manager
As a product person, here are some things that should define you;
1.Vision; a product manager must be a visionary, you should be able to see beyond what the others are seeing, your vision should be rigid and you must continually shout it for everyone to hear it.
Be stubborn on vision but flexible on details.
– Jeff Bezos
2.Execution; execution is a very important trait of a product person, remember, products are timely and they mustn't get to the market late, so how do you get everyone to work in line with that vision for the product to be out at the right time, execution is key.
At the end of the day, your job isn’t to get the requirements right — your job is to change the world.
– Jeff Patton
3.Leadership; this is not just about being the head of a team or the product, but it's the ability to get everyone to buy into your vision, the art of inspiring people to run with your vision is leadership, and for you to be great product manager, leadership must be learned and mastered.
The role of leadership is to transform the complex situation into small pieces and prioritize them.
– Carlos Ghosn
4.Good Communication & Storytelling: this is the superpower of any product manager, you need to come up with the best method and style to communicate the thoughts, ideas, and feedback to your team.
Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language.
– Walt Disney
Some things that sum up product management are;
- Representing the customer needs and wants
- Evaluating many ideas to see the one that solves the customers' need
- Defining the product vision
- Aligning stakeholders to the vision
- Setting strategy
- Prioritizing features
- Defining releases
- Studying and analyzing metrics to be data-informed
- Understanding tech trends and how they affect the market
And now, you're thinking,
Great choice, getting into product management is great, you'll stand at the fore-front of solving problems and helping people live better lives while solving their problems.
However, I should let you know,
You'll have a lot to do from coming up with roadmaps, to meeting with the different other teams(marketing, sales, etc.), to convincing your CEO that the product at hand is best, meeting stakeholders, you have quite a lot to do, but once it's all properly planned out, you're good to go.
Product management is not exactly easy, since it's about products made for people, it's going to be tough, but there's a way through it. Watch Janna Bastow's advice on how we can get through it.
This is very important. You should never forget to talk to people, know their pain points, and then come up with the solution to that problem. NEVER build a solution without understanding what the customer needs, and the way to know it is by talking to customers.
Conclusion
Getting into product management is cool, and the need is rising, hop on the train, solve problems and help people live better lives.
if you have questions or you will continue the conversation, you can send a DM to me on Twitter: @ayfolut.
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