What exactly is the requirement and idea behind creating a product? It all depends on what the end result is going to be followed by the long trail of processes of product creation.
Product Managers have the responsibility to work alongside four main dimensions
Every dimension needs equal attention and should be followed strictlyProduct Managers don't need to be a techie or a desginer but should carry the skillset to coordinate
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Who/What is a Product Manager?
Before we dive deep into the pool of product management, let’s get an idea of who/what a product manager is.
Ideally, it is the product manager’s sole responsibility to cater to the needs of the customer. Furthermore, it is also their job to magnify the business prospects that a product is supposed to fulfill. It doesn’t end here; a product manager must also know the tidbits of what the success of a product will look like.
For me, a product manager is someone who has the vision, design, execution, and strategy of the product in question. Every sector is different and has specific functions to serve aligned with the desired skills. Through my understanding, I’ve got an expanded notion of what it ideally means to be a product manager in all regards.
All of this takes us to the next subject i.e., product management. Let’s have a broader look at it.
What is Product Management?
Product management focuses primarily on either enhancing a new product or bringing a new one onto the market.
The logic behind product management is simple as it intends to offer the customer what they need. Through product management all the entities come under the same umbrella; these entities include marketing, sales, and product development.
As per the stats, approximately 34% of profit is driven through a thorough product management implementation. Creating a product strategy and documenting it is another crucial aspect of product management.
Now that you know the basics, let’s head at the top 9 deliverables of product managers.
The Top 4 Deliverables of Product Managers
I am here to share the top 4 deliverables that according to me, are the most significant deliverables of a product manager. They are all scattered around the four dimensions: vision, strategy, execution, and design.
1. “Vision” is the king!
Defining a vision for the product is one of the primary responsibilities of a product manager. Therefore, it is extremely important to have a vision statement that is valuable, driven, and impactful.
In my personal opinion, those who spend a considerable amount of time drafting their vision are closer to success. The narrative written in the vision statement could go on for a page or two but it will deliver the context.
The next phase is the product walkthrough. Sometimes, a well-written vision narrative fails to transmit the information to the stakeholders. This is where a walkthrough or a visual representation helps in delivering the idea successfully.
Let’s take Elon Musk for example and his explanation of SpaceX’s interplanetary walkthrough made it so much easier to understand.
2. Getting the “Strategy” in place
Again, in my opinion, nothing is possible if the right strategy isn’t pulled off to stick all the pieces together.
A top-notch exemplary strategy has the power to expose your products to unattainable heights. This begins with the hypothesis and understanding the ideas that will accelerate the growth of your product. However, in the initial stage, it is all hypothesis.
Slowly, the idea starts to glide in when the appropriate feedback is received. That helps consumers understand what is working out and what isn’t. Well, the solution to refine this is to create a set of hypotheses that blends well with the market. Here are the top ones that are mandatory to create a product strategy. The first is the target consumer followed by the problems being solved. These factors are then backed by competition, acquisition strategy, KPIs, OKRs, and so on.
3. “Design” is crucial too
I never said otherwise but understanding the nitty-gritty of the contribution of design is equally important. The product manager also has to grasp the knowledge of the product roadmap. The product roadmap contains the details of the products from the scratch.
The roadmap has the backend details of new features, bug fixes, upcoming enhancements, efforts, and monetization.
If you ask me, I have a shared experience of working on various platforms and packages like MS Office and management tools like Azure DevOps and JIRA. Through these applications, the transition becomes very smooth.
Product specs or product requirements help designers to comprehended and nurture critical communication. Through product requirement specification data, the designers can know the in and out of the product they are about to design.
I think it is apt for every company to have their specified product requirement template that will help in displaying the need of the organization and deliver to the primary audiences better.
4. Nailing it with “Execution”
As product managers, it is expected of them to continuously assess, report, and gather the data or analytics from the products. This is best possible through product metrics.
Thus, it is the sole duty of the product manager to have a look at the product metrics to intercept the execution and functioning of the products on a regular basis to track. In addition to this, it is also required to closely work with the respective teams.
Furthermore, product management also inclines me toward becoming the leader of the product team. Focus, alignment, and accountability. All of the aforementioned elements can be achieved easily through OKRs i.e., Objective and Key Results.
The tenure of a product starting from building to designing requires plenty of decision-making.
Conclusion
Going strictly by the statistics, more than 30,000 products are created every year but almost 85% of them fail. Are you aware of the primary reason behind this magnificent failure? I will tell you the most common one which is the lack of preparation of the products before they are launched to the market. This happens when one factor has more attention over others.
To eradicate this and avoid losses, product management needs to be implemented and such consequences can be kept in the backseat.
Photo by João Rabelo from Pexels
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