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Product Manager
Product Management is a strategic and businessoriented role, focused on delivering solutions to market needs. Product Managers... Identify profitable opportunities that meet market needs Launch products into the market Oversee products already in the market Wind down products that longer meet market needs
Your relationship to the organization Type of New Tenured product New New product, New product, new organization same organization
Existing
Existing product new organization Existing product same organization
Product managers are involved in three major types of activities: 1) Management Tasks: These are associated with the administrative process beginning with the establishment of objectives and ending with the year end plan employed during the previous year. Tasks are: to set marketing objectives Planning marketing activities Determining budget Scheduling marketing activities Control overview process
Communicate plan to responsible persons Monitoring Specify corrective action Report to the management at the end of the year Measure the plan revaluation 2) Marketing Decision: product managers are not the real decision makers for strategic marketing decisions. It is the job of marketing directors. The greatest participation of the product manager is with respect to the number of timing of promotions.
Cont
Marketing decisions are: Product Packing Pricing Advertising Advertising media selection Marketing research Types of promotions Timing of promotions
Cont..
Instructions to sales force Instructions to agent Size of sales force 3) Budget and Marketing Plans: almost in all types and sizes of organizations, the product manager has a definite say in the annual marketing budget for the product that he manages.
Cont
Product managers have bundle of roles and responsibilities, these are as follows:
Communicates with customers & prospective customers Conducts usability tests Surveys Keeps an ongoing record of compliments/complaints Actually uses the product regularly
Research, research, research Is aware of, and understands, the competition... ... but is not just slavishly copying their feature sets Dont feed The Blob by creating bloatware!
BRD: Business Requirements Document - Identifies business problems, solutions MRD: Market Requirements Document - Functional, non-functional requirements PRD: Product Requirements Document - Feature details, user interface, flow FSD: Functional Specifications Document - Engineers, screen by screen Note: Not every company uses these acronyms--or docs--in the same way!
Your job is to meet market demands and actually make it to market Realize that pioneering doesnt always pay But understand the importance of not falling behind the curve Timing is crucial
The Means...
Manages the brand Generates sales leads Responsible for the profit & loss of the product Brings new products to life... maximizes profits in existing
products... winds down unsuccessful products
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Spend time with customers Ask dumb questions Let go of your past Surround yourself with experts Gather data Focus Concentrate on what, not how Communicate, communicate, communicate Sell your product internally Do whatever it takes
Ten Tips
The single most important thing a product manager can do is to understand the market
The best way to understand the market is to spend time with customers
Dumb questions are really more about when they get asked than about what you are asking New product managers have the luxury of asking nave questions Ask as many questions as possible as soon as possible Who to ask? Customers, colleagues, stakeholders, superiors, partners, competitors
What were you in your past life? Whatever it was, youre a product manager now There is a natural instinct for product managers to gravitate towards the function of the business from which they came resist it
Audit the time you are spending on each area of the product
Have an open conversation with colleagues in your former role
Discuss experiences and establish boundaries
Product managers can not and should not do it all alone Your success depends on others Do not try to be an expert in everything Leverage the expertise of others in certain areas Look for formal and informal advisors Experts do not just have to be within your organization
In a truly consumer-driven company, decisions are based on data so the person with the best data wins. Scott Cook; Founder, Intuit
Lots of different types of data
Internal data External data Market data Product data
Gather data
Gather existing market research and industry data primary and secondary
Identify information gaps and develop plans to fill them Gather existing product performance data
Gather data: To Do
It will be overwhelming
You will not know where to start It is better to do one thing well than to do a lot of things poorly
irony; Uploaded to flickr by mrpattersonsir flickr.com/photos/mrpattersonsir/30325860/
Focus
Focus: To Do
It will be tempting to control how things get done with your product
Resist the temptation Product managers should define what needs to happen
Get regular feedback on whether you and others are keeping with the agreed-upon responsibilities
Communicate, communicate
Calling_all_Flickrs; Uploaded to flickr by carf flickr.com/photos/beija-flor/5011611/
Communication
Engineering
Communication
Executives
Other PMs
Finance Legal
Project Management
Engineering
Communication
Design
Executives
Customers Sales
Other PMs
Finance Legal
Manager
Partners
Investors
Product Manager
Project Management
Industry Analysts
Engineering
Communication
Design
Communicate, communicate: To Do
Make sure your communication plans include all the necessary audiences
Get others to help sell your product
Explicit enlistment Find good supporters and keep them happy
I know of many cases where the product manager needed to help out with deliverables for customer support, sales training, technical writing, QA, engineering, and marketing. You may need to just do it.
Do whatever it takes Source: Thriving in Large Companies; Silicon Valley Product Group
www.svproduct.com/blog/files/thriving_in_large_companies.html
Learn about as many areas of your product as possible Help out at the right time
Do whatever it takes: To Do