Product Management 101 — Product Mindset and Product manager role
IT project management practices have been instrumental in business success and has helped organizations steer many of their largest and most critical initiatives over the years. However, tracking activities and budgets provides a false sense of security that may become apparent only when the software product hits the market, says Mik Kersten, author of “Project to Product: How to Survive and Thrive in the Age of Digital Disruption with the Flow Framework”.
Project to Product Mindset
Many organizations are increasingly adapting to a product mindset that fundamentally takes a different approach. Instead of focusing on timelines, the focus is on the goal that they want to achieve.Outcome rather than output. With a product mindset, we can learn and adapt as we go. It involves a lot of iterations and continuous feedback from the user. If the user doesn’t respond well to a feature, we can quickly learn, adapt, re-prioritize and work towards the outcome instead of focusing on delivering a specified output on schedule. The focus is on the value derived by the customers rather than the items produced.
Who is a Product Manager?
“Product managers are mini-CEOs who are responsible for the success of a product.” This is a very broad statement often used to describe product managers. On the contrary, Product managers are also characterized to lead without authority. Confusing, isn’t it?
No wonder I often get this question — “ So, what do product managers actually do?” I’ve been a Tech Product manager for close to 2.5 years now and below listed is my take on Product management.
1.Product managers represent the customer. They lead teams combining technology and design to solve real customer problems.
2. They empathize with customers by putting themselves in customer’s shoes and try to understand their pain points.
3. They understand the business case, market opportunity, value created and cost associated to a product.
4. They discover products as valuable, usable and feasible.
5. Product Managers bridge the gap between many functions associated to the product — engineering, design, marketing, sales, finances, legal, customer service, accounts and more.
6. They think of the team as their customer. They determine their needs, goals and motivations and find ways to serve and incentivize them.
7. They lead products, not people. While they have to lead without authority, they are still accountable. PMs are responsible for ensuring the team ships great products.
8. They make product decisions heavily based on data using a set of metrics such as engagement, retention, conversion and so on.
In a 2019 survey, LinkedIn ranked Product Management as one of the most promising jobs of the year, with a 29% year on year growth in job openings. As uncertainty becomes the new norm, organizations will increasingly look out for experts who can handle changes and adapt to new technologies at ease. Product Managers have never been in greater demand. Having said this, a product manager role is not what you fit into but what you can aspire to be.
