What is a Product Manager?

In his book Inspired Marty Cagan describes the product manager's job as "discovering a product that is valuable, usable and feasible." Similarly, has Martin Eriksson Product management always defined as the interface between business, technology and user experience. A good product manager must have experience in at least one area, be enthusiastic about all three areas, and be familiar with practitioners in all areas.

Business

Product management is primarily a business function focused on maximizing the business value of a product. Product managers should be obsessed with optimizing a product to meet business goals while maximizing return on investment.

Technology

There is no point in defining what you want to build if you don't know how to build it. This doesn’t mean a product manager has to sit down and code. However, in order to make the right decisions, it is important to know the technology stack and the effort involved. This is even more important in an agile world where product manager Spend more time every day with the development team than with any other employee in the company.

User experience

Last but not least, the product manager is the voice of the user within the company and must be passionate about the user experience. Again, that doesn't mean you have to be a pixel pusher, but you have to test the product, talk to users and get the feedback first hand - especially in one Start-up -Company.

What exactly should be managed?

Why do you need this wide range of skills? Because the job itself is incredibly broad and varied and you will need these skills every day.

Vision

It starts with developing a vision for the product. To do this, you need to research, research, and research your market, your customer, and the problem you're trying to solve. You have to process huge amounts of information - feedback from customers, quantitative data from your web analytics, research reports, market trends and The statistics . You need to know everything about your market and your customers, and then you need to mix all that information with a healthy dose of creativity to define a vision for your product.

Once you have a vision, you need to spread it throughout your company. Become dogmatic, even evangelical, when it comes to the utopia of your product. If you can't get excited about it, you're in the wrong job or haven't developed a good vision. Your success and that of your product depends on each team member. From sales reps to developers, it's important to understand this vision and be at least a little enthusiastic about it.

Create a roadmap

And then you shift gears and start creating an actionable plan to achieve that vision. A roadmap of incremental improvements and iterative development that takes you step by step closer to the final vision. Now all the hard work preaching the good word is paying off. Her team goes above and beyond to find better designs, better code, and better solutions to customers' problems.

Quality is the product of attention to detail

Now we're getting really detail-oriented. You will work with the development team day in and day out Product Owner together - you define and iterate the product as you go, solving problems as they arise and closely managing scope so you can complete the product on time.

The product is finally on the market, and suddenly you're spending your days studying data again. They are constantly looking at how customers are using the product, talking to them about the product, and generally living the product to the fullest. Did you solve the right problem? Do your customers understand the product? Will they pay for the product?

And then it starts all over again. And these days it's no longer a waterfall process. You do this not step by step, but for a dozen products or features at the same time, moving from strategy to tactics in the blink of an eye.

Conclusion

Does it sound complicated? Sure, it's a tough job, but it's pretty much the most fun you can have getting dressed up - and certainly the most fun you get paid for. You define the essence of a product, design solutions to your customers' problems, collaborate with everyone in the company and play a huge role in the success of your company.