A Product Manager is someone who is, broadly, responsible for anything and everything – right from product conceptualization to product promotion.
This includes managing the product through out the lifecycle of the product. Right from ideation, to inception, promotion and so on.
When diving into this topic however it’s important to note that everything that a product manager does can be categorized into the following:
1. Customer focused
Customer centricity and empathy are two of the most important traits that product managers need to have.
Product managers need to be able to place themselves into the shoes of their customers to understand their pain points.
Along with knowing who their customers are (name, age, aspirations, budget, etc.) they can articulate the key problems that they face, why solving these problems are important, and how their customers plan to grow with the product.
Product managers also maintain a close relationship with their customers because they rely on them to succeed in their role.
As product managers work through the product development process customers assist them with:
- Research and discovery: do we understand the problem correctly?
- Validating their work: are we on the right track?
- Gathering feedback: is this actually assisting customers with accomplishing their goals?
2. Making data driven decisions
Product managers rely on qualitative and quantitative data to make decisions that will drive customer and business impact.
Data is heavily relied upon because it provides clarity on what is happening and what the next course of action should be.
While product managers are responsible for defining the “what” and the “why” of the solutions that they build with their teams, they can do this with clarity and confidence when they have access to data.
How does a product manager decide whether they should spend time fixing a set of bugs vs. working on a minor enhancement for a customer? With data.
Product managers also rely on Key Performance Indicators to measure the success of their work. A KPI is used to evaluate whether a product is reaching its goals or not.
One important thing to note is that product managers are often graded by whether they meet their target KPIs.
However accomplishing this is a team effort. This means that if KPIs are missed it may not be 100% the product manager’s fault, other stakeholders are involved in product and business success.
3. Managing stakeholders
Stakeholders are, anyone who has direct or indirect influence on a product.
Internal stakeholders are the individuals inside of a company. Example: members of the senior management team, designers, and developers.
External stakeholders are those who can influence the product however they do not work within the company. These include customers, industry analysts, trade unions, and development agencies.
Stakeholder management is not limited to knowing who your key stakeholders are and their roles, it includes everything that is required to work effectively with them to reach product and business success.
This includes influencing stakeholders and enabling them to perform their jobs to the best of their abilities.
When key stakeholders are happy and enabled to perform their jobs then this increases the likelihood of the product reaching its goals, and in turn the company reaching its goals.
To Conclude
Product manager is someone who can do all of the above and set incredible product visions. It’s the rare breed that’s forward-thinking, highly influential, and can walk people through the rationale behind a decision and convince them—even without data.
Great products aren’t made by a just a single Product Manager. They’re made by teams of good people doing really good work. The job of the product manager is to develop his or her unique way of guiding that work- right from visualization to product promotion stage.
