Did you ever have moments growing up where you wanted to be a superhero? I think most of us did. Ironically, when asked in interviews how I would explain Product Management to someone I've always said "I’m superwoman because I get to save the world by solving some of the world's biggest challenges." Although your cape is invisible being a product manager is incredibly rewarding especially if you're motivated to solve some of the world's toughest problems.
The day-to-day task of a product manager can vary from strategy, implementation, release, tactical, talking to customers, listening to sales calls, or even getting coffee for your dev team. Because of the multi-faceted areas of focus of a Product Manager it has become a nuanced role that has different meanings depending on the company or industry. The definition of what is product management continues to come up quite frequently as companies realize the importance the role plays in the success of a product and the business.
It's important to have a baseline definition of what product management is as it becomes increasingly more recognized in the tech industry as a critical function for development teams and customers.
I like to think the below definition is a good starting point...
Job of a Product Manager
Product Management is understanding customers, their problems and needs to make sure that what you build for them is the right solution that can deliver business impact. - Product Girl
Let's break down the different parts so we can come full circle on the above.
Understanding customers, problems, and needs 🤝
This is key and the foundation of Product management because a product manager represents the customer. Your goal as a Product Manager is to help the customer be awesome! Whether your product is mature or is in the process of being brought to life understanding your customers is essential as product innovation and organic growth are not possible without it.
Sometimes, it can be very overwhelming when receiving feedback from different channels, but being able to classify the feedback in bucket themes can help with laser focusing on the real issue and then asking why until you find the core issue.
🚨Important Note: Be careful not to make assumptions when receiving feedback as this can be detrimental.
Building the right solution ⚒
This is your deal breaker. Nothing else matters if you aren't delivering the right solution because people are not buying the problem they are buying the solution.
"The problem to solve is outcome not output. You either solve the problem by delivering the right solution or you don't. The release doesn't matter if you don't solve the problem. It's not about how many features you pump out or a roadmap that has been created it's about results."- Marty Cagan
When building the right solution it needs to be valuable, feasible, usable and business viable. The below are defined as follows:
- Valuable: will customers buy your solution and choose to use it over your competitors. In other words, do they find the value in it.
- Feasible: will engineers be able to build the solution you need with the time, skillset, technologies, and current resources
- Usable: will your solution allow your customers to figure out how to use your product
- Business Viable: does your solution align with the goals, vision, mission and overall business strategy
Business Impact 🥊
Business Impact is essential because although it's important to create products and figure out solutions that customers love it also has to make sense for the business. If you are hitting your goals (kpi's, metrics, etc.), reducing or cutting cost, and making a positive impact by helping the business grow then you are doing your job.
Final Words 📖
As a Product manager it will be essential that you understand your customers. The job requires that you have a solid appreciation for their needs and desires while aligning engineering with design expectations. Remember that in the end, the most successful Product managers create products with solid user adoption that increase revenue exponentially for a company.
Next Steps 🚀
- Buy The Product Book by Product School
- Buy Inspired by Marty Cagan
- Product School: Introduction to Product Management by former Google Product Manager