In his book, Atomic Habits, James Clear laid bare the notable drawbacks of why people tend to have unachievable goals in life. The mainstream etiquette is structured in such a way that you would see another person achieving what you so desire, then you would proclaim that outcome for yourself, too. In most cases, people making these proclamations are soliciting an outcome-based aspiration rather than introspecting on the fundamental processes that will lead to that outcome. The same principle guiding the regression of actionable desire in people applies in the tech world; have you assessed the reason—processes—why your product with brilliant ideas is not yet your treasure chest?
James Clear asserted that you couldn’t change your habits without considering your identity. The identity-based approach is the most effective way to build habits that can earn you the success of people you idolize. Successful products are products that users can’t do without, and this, implicitly, is the ticket to making money. Unbeknownst to many, Product Management is the most crucial subdivision to having products users will use. Product Managers have, in fact, been labeled the ‘mini-CEO’ of products.
It is imperative not to conflate a Product Manager with a Product Marketing Manager. The latter is responsible for articulating all the product features into customer-facing messaging. PMMs, unlike PMs, are tasked with giving product demonstrations, delivering presentations to customers and prospects, as well as creating marketing collateral. They define the product for market understanding. Product Managers, on the other hand, are responsible for the initial stages of the product life cycle.
The primary assignment of a Product Manager is to set the product vision and assemble a working strategy. The key role of a PM mandates them to know how to be thorough and diverse in working with a multi-level team (such as engineers, designers, marketers, software developers, etc.). The PM will conceptualize the product roadmap and declare the required features and requirements by carefully observing what people are looking for. They then articulate the business rationale behind the anticipated model for effective collaboration with the development team to build a successful product.
Engraved in the Product Manager job description is the prerequisite to being very analytical. PMs are good at taking and analyzing feedback. Feedback comes from the users, engineers, software developers, marketers, and virtually every other stakeholder. Product Managers are skilled at collecting feedback, filtering out the noise, and prioritizing what is most important to act on.
If your products are intrinsically good but are not faring out well in the world, the self-assessment question you ought to ask yourself is whether you have a competent Product Manager on your team. The cost of building successful products is by having sophisticated Product Managers with exceptional organizational skills. Their organizational prowess is very handy when dealing with different teams who don’t report directly to them. In addition, product managers need to stay on top of diverse projects at any given time. They’re relevant in product launches, developing new products, conducting customer research, and strengthening relations with key stakeholders.
Every business is in the race to make money. That’s the ultimate driving force behind their innovations. The ultimate goal of product managers is to increase a business’s value through its products. Product Managers are the solid ‘processes’ through which successful products are pioneered or created. A constantly selling business will hardly hit a stumbling block if its resources are well-managed. If your products are not doing well out there, the proper ethic is not to castigate the product’s potential but rather utilize the efficiency of competent product management.
Understanding and analyzing the target audience’s current and future needs to ensure your product solves any need or problem is among the fundamental duties of a product manager. This insight is evidently one of our major coaching focus at Skillup Africa. We heighten the mindset of Product Management students under our tutelage by helping them know how to conduct surveys, establish focus groups, and testing of prototypes.
Several factors are crucial and dicey in understanding your audience in Product Management. A misstep in your approach to understanding your audience is already a catastrophic foundation extending to your product design and development. And several other strategies tied to a business model and mechanisms used in understudying competitors and the market landscape are only a few of the scads of pragmatic insights our students inherit from us at Skillup Africa. Check out our Product Management program by clicking here.
