People often ask me “What does a product manager do?”. And, someone recently confessed that when I told her I was a Product Manager, she wondered “What does that mean?”.
So, let me break it down. A Product Manager (PM) is responsible for coming up with the product concept (Ideation), selling the concept (Communication) and ensuring timely launch (Execution) of the product.
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Ideation At a minimum, a PM is responsible for the product concept – coming up with the vision or refining an existing idea. He will take a vague idea and turn it into detailed, specific requirements & features. Not only that, he will prioritize these requirements and associate them with real world situations (Use Cases) for when someone or something may interact with the product. These Use Cases have to carry sufficient detail so that they clearly convey the scope and product features. This way smart Engineers can build it into something in real-life. And, the Quality Assurance (QA) folks need to refer to these Use Cases to figure out how to test the product and ensure that it does what its supposed to do.
Communication Its extremely important that a PM gets buy-in from the stakeholders on the product. Nobody wants to do the work unless they are convinced its worth their while. So, it falls to the PM to identify market opportunity, benefits and ROI (return on investment) if this product were to be created. Then, he will turn all this data into a convincing rationale to create this product.
Equally important, the PM will define KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for product success and indicate why these are the relevant KPIs. Upon launch (or during an AB test or bucket test), the PM will measure these KPIs to gauge performance. He will report this information to relevant interested parties and define any tweaks necessary to improve the product.
A good PM will not only define the business case but also outline how an end-user will interact with the product – what we call User Experience (UX). To this end, PMs create Wireframes or Storyboards that define the major visual elements of the product and detail the user interaction. If an organization has the luxury of recruiting Product Designers (PD) then, PMs work with PDs to create realistic mock-ups (often called Comps) of the look-n-feel of the finished product.
If a product requires training the end-users, then the PM defines training scope, gauges/foresees customer needs and stays actively involved in development, delivery and fine-tuning of relevant documentation and related user experience.
Execution Since, the PM identifies the business opportunity & market window, he has effectively defined the product launch time-frame. Someone has to keep the trains running on time, right?A good PM will often play train-conductor along-with a Project Manager (PjM). So, it falls to him to ensure product kick-off happens as planned, offering clarification on product requirements to Engineers and making trade-off decisions on scope vs timeline vs ROI with Engineers and QAs.
During execution, a PM plays the role of roadblock-remover for Engineering and QA , which is similar to the role of Scrum Master in the Scrum Project Management methodology. To this extent, there is an overlap in PM and PjM skills. If a team is pressed for resources, a PM will perform dual PM-PjM roles. This is why it important for a good PM to have solid project management skills. And strong PMs, often have at least a good understanding of PjM skills or possibly prior experience as PjM.
If AB Test/bucket test is being performed before full launch, a PM will define test scope. Subsequently, the PM works hand-in-hand with a Release Manager (RM) & PjM to define launch timelines and KPI measurement frequency.
In conclusion, Product Management is a complex role that is very invested in the entire product life-cycle from concept to delivery and maintenance. PMs wear multiple hats, shoulder various responsibilities, must have a facility for observation and speak several ‘languages’ to identify and communicate what matters most to each group of internal & external stakeholders including customers.
My buddy, Uday S, says “A Product Manager is the CEO of his product”. He nailed it.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
