The term ‘product management’ refers to an important organisational role. Product managers are usually found at companies which are building products or, alternatively, technology for customers or internal use. The role of product manager evolved from the brand manager position which is often to be found at consumer packaged goods companies.
The product manager is accountable for the strategy, roadmap as well as feature definition for that product or product line. The position may also include marketing, forecasting in addition to profit and loss (P&L) responsibilities.
What is involved in product management?
Activities of a product manager span from strategic to tactical. The role of this individual includes the following objectives:
- Set a product vision as well as strategy which is differentiated. In addition, it must deliver unique value that is based on customer demands. The task includes defining personas and analysing market as well as competitive conditions.
- Define substance of what the product team will deliver in addition to the timeline for implementation. This includes creating a release plan, securing actionable feedback and ideas in addition to prioritising features.
- Provide cross-functional leadership, most especially between engineering teams, sales as well as marketing, and support. A fundamental aspect of this is communicating the product roadmap in addition to keeping everyone informed of updates.
The skills of a great product management professional
Product managers just don’t have any direct authority over most of the things which are needed in order to make their products successful. This goes from user in addition to data research right through to design as well as development,marketing, sales, and support.
Product managers are not the CEO of a particular product. The roles of PMs vary widely depending on a number of factors. Aspiring product managers should consider three primary factors when evaluating a role in addition to whether or not they want to take this up:
- Core competencies,
- Emotional intelligence (EQ), and
- Company fit.
The best product managers we have worked with have mastered the core competencies in terms of what it takes to be a great product manager, have a high EQ, and work for the company which is right for them.
Beyond shipping new features on a regular cadence and keeping the peace between engineering and the design team, the best PMs create products with strong user adoption that have exponential revenue growth and perhaps even disrupt an industry
The phases involved in product management
There are a number of phases which are involved in product management. These are the following:
Idea Management
In this phase of the product management process, innovating suggestions, ideas as well as feature requests are captured as part of the product backlog. These serve as good sources of inspiration for your product’s evolution, and the good ideas should be locked down and developed further.
Specifications
In this phase of the product management process, ideas and feature requests from the product backlog are fleshed out into more detail in order to better understand the impact and effort expected for each.
Roadmapping
In this phase, your entire product strategy and vision are taken into account, and focus is put on the initiatives that line up with the big vision of the product. A roadmap is a communication tool that helps communicate where you are, where you are heading and how you expect to get there.
Prioritisation
In this phase, a more detailed look is taken at your backlog and your roadmap, with the goal of setting priorities based on a variety of inputs. The process involves deciding what should be built when, based on what will bring most value to the user and the product.
Delivery
In this phase of the product management process, the product manager works closely with the engineering, marketing, support, and other teams to make sure features are delivered to a high quality and to spec.
Analytics and Experiments
In this phase, experiments are run and analytics are tracked in order to continually test and improve your product and understand what’s truly of value to your users.
Customer Feedback
Throughout the cycle, customer feedback plays a key role in validating and improving on proposed features and products. It offers direct insight and suggestions that help you to understand how you are doing at solving the problems you’re already trying to address, and discovering new problems you weren’t aware of.
Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing
Want to learn more about marketing and advertising? Follow this link to find out more.
Blog Categories
You might also like
- Your Complete Guide to PPC Marketing Basics. Find out more.
- Would you make a great marketing manager?
- Will digital marketing now replace traditional marketing?
- Will Digital Marketing Kill Traditional Marketing?
- Why Your Online Branding Is Key To Your Business
- Why Your Mobile Marketing Has To Go Global? Learn more.