Overview of the Product Manager role
On the job of the product manager in an organization and in their individual product team, there are many diverse points of view. When contemplating your product management philosophy, it’s crucial to remember that choosing a philosophy that is at odds with your organization’s concept of the position can make your life more difficult in the long run. With that in mind, let’s look at some of the diverse perspectives on the product manager’s function that different businesses have.
For the most part, the project manager’s function has been to provide services to the organization. Product managers operate in this mode similarly to specialized project managers, accepting high-level instructions from the organization’s leadership and converting them into sufficiently detailed work to allow the rest of the product team to participate in it. This is a typical representation of the product owner job seen in more prominent, more conventional firms that have embraced agile concepts. They are like:
1- The day-to-day activities of this sort of product manager include maintaining the product backlog and interacting with customers.
2- Ensure that work has been effectively prioritized and that work at the top of the backlog has been scoped and specified in order for a team to be able to operate efficiently.
However, a weakness in this model is a significant defect. It is possible that the leadership of a business is not in the ideal position to determine where the most significant enhancements to a product may be made. For starters, CEOs are very busy individuals who are subjected to a variety of demands on their time. Even if they were close to customers before, they will likely only spend a fraction of their time engaging with them today, and the time they do spend will be with clients that are strategically vital to the organization. Finally, during the time they do spend with those clients, they are likely to discuss a variety of topics, only a few of which will be directly related to the product in question. As a consequence of this, CEOs often have a distorted or insufficient understanding of what the product requires.
Client vs Need: One may argue that a significant customer has lately expressed dissatisfaction with some product area, that a new account has been lost due to a missing feature, or that the company has fallen short of its revenue projections for the quarter. In this paradigm, the product manager is only a messenger who has little or no control over the quality of the message they deliver.
Lower the heat from the client: Clients prefer to put their most recent interactions at the top of the backlog, where they remain until another piece of feedback or significant problem comes in and takes over the top slot.
Reduce the amount of heat from clients: As a result, the product team is obliged to alter the time consistently. To counter this conventional concept of product management, it is necessary to reinterpret the product manager’s job as one of a customer’s servant. In this approach, the product manager is tasked with developing a thorough understanding of the customer’s requirements as well as the challenges that we can address for them.
A project manager can achieve this knowledge via the use of a variety of strategies.
1- They may conduct interviews with existing and potential customers to get an understanding of their company environment, difficulties, and objectives.
2- They may collaborate with units that have direct contact with customers, such as sales and customer success, to better understand how the product is currently regarded.
3- They may also utilize the information gathered about product use to determine where clients are getting the most value from the product.
Over time, the product manager should understand the consumer and their requirements thoroughly. But more than that, they should be able to discover the common threads across consumers, the difficulties that are continuously felt, and, as a result, the market opportunities that may be created if the product is designed effectively.
Some of the concerns we highlighted with the business-centric model of product management are addressed by this customer-centric style of product management. First and foremost, the product manager may get a more in-depth and sophisticated consumer knowledge, which should allow them to identify better solutions to customer issues than the executives. Second, the product manager may collect data points methodically, which reduces the likelihood of large swings in prioritizing decisions. In summary, the product manager may serve as the client’s advocate and ensure that the product is being built to provide the customer with the possible value. If a product offers considerable value to the client, it is likely to be a success in the marketplace. The customer-centric paradigm of product management outperforms the business-centric one in terms of effectiveness. However, the best-performing organizations don’t stop at that level of achievement.
There is also a third product management model to consider. The most successful businesses recognize that it is not enough for items to generate profits or satisfy consumers. Successful goods must please consumers while also adding value to the company’s financial bottom line. Therefore, product managers must be knowledgeable about both customers and the many aspects of their operations.
Good product managers are incredibly knowledgeable about the market, the product, the product line, and the competitors, and they work from a solid foundation of knowledge and confidence in their abilities. A strong product manager is the product’s chief executive officer.
Bad Product managers that perform poorly have a plethora of justifications. There is insufficient money; the engineering manager is a complete moron. Microsoft has ten times the number of engineers working on it as we do, I am overworked, and I do not get sufficient instruction. A professional doesn’t make these types of justifications, and neither should the CEO of a company that sells a product.
Because this is a rather contentious framing, let’s take a moment to examine it a little bit further. CEOs have the ultimate responsibility for the success or failure of a firm, regardless of its size. Consequently, they must be familiar with all aspects of the business and assume responsibility for ensuring the company’s long-term success. Product managers should consider the same level of responsibility for driving the success of their product, as they should take the same level of accountability if the product fails.
Marty Cagan’s product risks, for example, capture the full scope of this obligation very effectively:
1- The possibility that the product would fail to provide value to the consumer or end-user;
2- The possibility that the end-user may be unable to figure out how to utilize the product
3- The possibility that the product will not be technically possible to manufacture.
4- In addition, there is the risk that the product will not be lucrative for the firm, for example, due to legal, regulatory, or financial constraints. Finally, there is the risk that the product will not be profitable.
5-The possibility that the product, as intended, is unethically exploitative.
Taking all of these considerations into account helps to address various issues that exist between the “serve the company” and “serve the customer” product management philosophies. When success is defined only in terms of the product’s success, the product manager is forced to adopt a long-term, outcome-oriented view. The simple act of responding to client inquiries is insufficient since consumers may not know what they want at all times.
If the firm requires drastic upgrades to accomplish its objectives, incremental enhancements to the product will result in failure. Product bloat may result from adding features without considering the bigger hole. Even if each item adds value in and of itself, if the whole product suffers, as a result, the product manager has responsibility.
It is critical to recognize that the CEO of the product philosophy holds the product manager to a very high standard. Product managers who work in this environment must be polymaths who are also very high achievers. So, if you’re considering working for a company that takes this approach to product management, there are a few things to bear in mind.
1- The first is that no one can be exceptional at everything they try their hand at. In the same way that CEOs have histories and talents in a specific business discipline, product managers will have similar backgrounds and strengths. They might come from a business background, a design background, an engineering background, or any other background at all. To ensure your business’s success, it’s vital to understand which disciplines are most highly regarded inside the organization. Particular products may need hiring a PM who is highly technical, who has a thorough understanding of behavioural research, or who is comfortable bringing an early idea to reality.
2- There is a fundamental difference between the product manager acting as CEO and the actual CEO, which is one of power. As a product manager, your team is unlikely to report to you; as a result, you will not be able to impose conditions to get things done. You must persuade and inspire your colleagues to join you in pursuing the vision and plan you have set out for yourself.
3- Because of the necessity to exert influence without formal authority, trust must be established. You will not be able to be a successful product manager until you have the confidence of your team and the stakeholders in the company. You must communicate in each of their languages and demonstrate to them that you understand their objectives, requirements, and points of view.
