Product Management – what is it?
Starting from an essential description, product management is the set of activities that includes development, launch, support, and continuous improvement of the company’s products.
Therefore, this is not a rigid, set-in-stone definition – depending on the type of company, the term product management refers to very different aspects of the organization and the value creation processes.
What is the goal of product management?
No matter how broad the semantic area of reference is, product management always has a steady goal: to articulate the company’s business objectives starting from the customer’s needs.
Different roles in product management: Product Manager and Project Manager
The Product Manager is a key figure, they take care of the research phases – they receive input from the audience of users and are committed to creating a ‘vision’ relating to the product shared with the stakeholders. They are also responsible for developing a strategy and managing the product roadmap.
Together with the Product Manager, there comes the Project Manager, specifically for each project. The PM is the one who makes decisions regarding the resources involved, the creation of the teams, the drafting, and compliance with the time schedule set in the product roadmap.
Who leads the value creation processes in product management?
So who leads the processes of value creation? It is always the Product Manager, through a specific methodology. The product manager manages the product by collecting the dynamics arising from below, from users, and transforming them into specific development requests. This is where the project manager intervenes, they manage the project, resources, and operations.
Growth is inextricably linked to the value implemented in the product. Therefore, we do not speak about the value ideally proposed by the brand (value proposition), but about the value which is actually perceived and experienced by the public.
Value creation and agile organizations
Within companies that adopt Agile development methodologies, the value of the product is not a static parameter. Instead, there is a continuous process of value creation and recreation that affects development teams as well as managers engaged in high-level decision-making procedures.
In this way, every update, every delivery is never a definitive point, but a stage in the ongoing negotiation process of the features offered. Once the product has had go-to-market, has been launched on the market, every design is a redesign. In the continuous process of integration/disintegration of the features, the only direction to follow in the finalization, in the realization of deliveries, is precisely the feedback from the customer.
The frameworks and resources involved in product management
Continuous product management requires a wide range of skills. Consequently, operational frameworks, roles, and personal and collective responsibilities while being well defined, are continually reconfigured.
Again, everything arises from iterations and interactions.
The functions are assigned to the resources by the project manager, but the operation of each resource is linked to a workflow based on the prioritization of requests coming from the product backlog (the list of changes prepared by the product manager). Based on the opinions, suggestions, and requests of customers, the entire organization chooses its operational framework and sets its growth objectives.
The product manager is not alone – there are other people who are required to take care of product management. Sometimes we speak of product management as a widespread function within a workgroup or departments of a company. Depending on the consistency of the workgroup, everyone is required to be able to reason and act following the parameters of product management.
So we’ve come to better define what product management is – an organizational function within a company that is facing some steps.
When does a company need most to invest in product management?
When the company is in the business justification, design, development, launch, test, or redesign stages, it is the right moment to invest the most in product management.
Let’s take the example of the business justification, which is at the beginning of the process. Once an opportunity for a product development project has been identified, product management evaluates whether there is an effective business justification to start it. Such as? Preparing a series of introductory analyzes, including a preliminary business case and a draft organizational structure to dedicate to the project.
The 7 phases of product management
- Idea Generation
- Idea Screening
- Market and User Research
- Strategy Development
- Product Creation
- Test and Feedback Collection
- Constant Product Improvement
Idea Generation
During the brainstorming phase, many interesting ideas and some actual ideas can be filtered out and collected. However, the idea generation phase can take time. Ideas arise when you keep up with the latest trends when you know your competitors, but at the same time, you have the habit of keeping an eye on the news related to different products in emerging markets that are not directly competitive. It’s all about combining and recombining.
You start by bringing together a diverse team, with elements from different professional areas and backgrounds. A cross-functional team will be able to better solve the interdisciplinary challenges related to innovation.
Idea Screening
Now that the list of ideas has been made, it’s time to use the SWOT analysis to check the feasibility of individual ideas.
Start with the first three ideas on the list, the first you’ve decided to develop. Tune in to market demands: what problem are we trying to solve? How can I tell if it will be successful?
By inserting each idea into a simple SWOT grid (Strengths – Weaknesses – Opportunities – Risks), you will be able to better define the specifics and therefore you’ll be aware of its feasibility.
Market and User Research
The SWOT analysis helped us decide which idea to aim for. Now is the time to do a market analysis and research relating to our specific customers. This is a crucial phase. First of all, it is necessary to understand who the actors involved in the creation and distribution of value are. This way, thanks to the market analysis and the customer user journey, the vision of the product can be developed.
Be dedicated to analyzing the supply chain, market size, competitive analysis of competitors, purchase intentions, and search intentions, to understanding the opportunities for market penetration through organic or paid positioning on search engines. And again, pay attention to user journeys on products, in order to discover the weaknesses of competitors and identify that segment in which it is possible to push, in order to position yourself through the room for improvement of that specific product.
Strategy Development
In this phase, the product manager is called to treasure what they have learned in the research, and to define the strategy through different steps. Now it is time to decline the product vision over time, creating a roadmap that the whole team can use. The roadmap should include:
- Purpose and objectives of the business
- Product areas of interest
- Specific characteristics of the product
- KPI – Key Performance Indicators
- Order of development priorities
Product creation
The creation of value for the end-user is the light that guides the product creation process. This is why, before proceeding further, it is useful to take a close look at those characteristics that solve specific customer requests or allow customers to be more involved, cutting out the rest.
When is the product ready? It is not necessary to wait until it is complete and responds perfectly to all the required characteristics. Development cycles need to be short. The logic to be followed in development and release is that of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) or the Minimum Lovable Product (MLP), the minimum working product. To be released, it is enough for the first customers to use it. In this way, it will be possible to test the real value of the product and receive the first reactions.
Test and feedback collection
Once the first release has hit the market, it’s time to assess the initial impact. Understanding what worked and what didn’t, you can evaluate the ways in which users interacted or not.
Once the feedback has been collected through quantitative-qualitative questionnaires, you will have to share it with the different development teams and understand together what the possible improvements are. At this point, in order to fix the bugs and implement the features, the product management cycle restarts from point 1.
Constant Product Improvement
Once the product has emerged it is time to aim for optimization and efficiency.
Try to think of possible ways to scale, improve operations, maintain the business results achieved by minimizing costs and optimizing efficiency.
In search of Product Excellence
Many of the operational modalities and strategic visions that we have described in this short article have to do with Product Excellence – an approach to product management that puts the person and their choices at the center. An approach based on a clear product strategy, a deep knowledge of the user, a stimulating roadmap, and the ability to quickly deliver what the market requires.
The concept of product excellence is based on intuition, strategy, and execution. Excellence is inscribed in the product and generated within this process. To ensure that a product has excellent characteristics it must make a difference in the daily and professional life of each user.
Design Thinking Product Management
There are many methodologies and frameworks to use to guide product creation. Among these is Design Thinking: an interactive learning process with a human focus, which, as a methodology, focuses on customers as people with defined needs, and proceeds backward to find a technological solution.
Thanks to Design Thinking you have the possibility to proceed by taking creative inputs, metrics and processes into consideration.
In fact, the creative impulse that arises from empathy with the customer’s requests is not enough in the process of creating value for the product. How to understand, how to distinguish between a real need expressed by a customer and desire? In the first case, we will really go to solve a problem and create a value, in the second we will create an additional feature that brings value only to a small group of users.
It is certainly necessary that any action is accompanied by a strong analytical spirit. Only in this way does product management becomes decisive – building data-based structures in order to understand the best way to reach the target audience.
This is all the task of design thinking – which uses data from the market and sales to correctly distinguish between users’ needs and desires. Design thinking lies at the intersection of desirability, the possibility of delivering the product, and economic feasibility. In other words, the Venn diagram places design thinking right in the middle – an innovative product can only be successful if three conditions are met: someone wants it (desirability), you can deliver it, and it makes economic sense (feasibility).
The Design Thinking process is therefore aimed at testing these conditions before launch, using a methodology similar to the Agile of Product Management. If everything is done correctly, the level of empathy in the process increases so that we may soon be able to correctly predict the next move, the next incoming desire from customers.
Conclusions
In the hope that this brief article has been useful to deepen some of the areas and resources involved in the process of creating value for the product, we’re inviting you to broaden your knowledge on Design Thinking by visiting this link.
Resources
https://www.productboard.com/product-excellence/
https://www.productplan.com/learn/what-is-product-management/
https://productschool.com/blog/product-management-2/design-thinking-product-management/
https://www.atlassian.com/agile/product-management/