“The ambiguity of the product management role is near to its essence”
1. What is product management;
Product Management (PM) is a really difficult role to define as it changes across industries, companies, and company sizes.
As a PM, you are not a manager, you are an enabler. This makes it easy for you to get valuable feedback from the people you work with. Acting as their manager just makes you look like their boss and to be fair, nobody tells their bosses the truth.
Communication is really important in your role as a PM. While designers are designing, and developers are developing, you are responsible for speaking with stakeholders, and users, receiving feedback, and making data-driven decisions.
In essence; As a PM, you are responsible for the success of your product.
2. What is a Product
A product could be anything, cars, web browsers, etc. It is worth noting that a single feature on a software is a product that may require its own PM. That implies that a big product can have multiple PMs.
PMs can also be split by platform as against features. Eg A PM can be responsible for the IOS version of an app while a different PM handles the Android version of the app.
3. Three different types of Product Managers
There are three major types of PMs and they are;
- Internal PM
- Business to Business (B2B)PM or Software as a Service (SaaS) PM
- Business to Consumer (B2C)PM
These PMs carry out the same basic functions, however, the difference lies in their stakeholders. Stakeholders are people you are building for and people who have an input on the product.
i. Internal PM: They are responsible for building tools for the internal team to carry out their functions and run the business. Their stakeholders are the internal teams such as the support team, the marketing team, etc.
ii. B2B PM: These PMs build products for companies whose clients are other companies. They interact a lot with the sales team to ensure they are building what the other companies need. Eg, PMs at Intercom, Oracle, Salesforce
iii. B2C PM: They are responsible for building products where the stakeholders are the average consumers. They interact with real-time users a lot and are constantly iterating. eg, PMs at Twitter, Facebook, etc
PS: There are other types of product managers but these are the most common 3.
4. Determining the kind of PM you want to be.
i. Internal PM:
This is a great starting point for anyone trying to get started in PM as you are building for your teammates internally such as sales, marketing, support, etc
It also lets you learn a lot about technology since you will be creating tools that integrate with other tools and 3rd party software.
There is less risk of losing the company money if there are bugs or mistakes.
ii. B2B PM:
It’s also a good introductory role as it has just a few users. It lets you be flexible and creative in how you build but not in WHAT you build because you are building what the other businesses need. It operates on tight deadlines.
iii. B2C PM:
It may be considered the most challenging role and comes with a lot of pressure because you are building for millions of people across multiple platforms. In the case of bugs and mistakes, you can be costing the company a lot of money and resources. But it has a fast learning and building curve as you are constantly interacting with users and learning multiple technologies to improve your system and product offerings.
5. Product vs Project Management
There are a lot of misconceptions about these two roles. Best believe although they may have similarities, they also have major differences.
Also, as a product manager, you definitely require the skills of a project manager.
We know that PMs are responsible for the success of your product, but what does Success mean? Generally, success is determined by metrics and KPIs (key performance indicators)
For PMs, there are no primary laid-out rules as to how this is achieved. The goal is simply to make sure it is achieved.
However, A project manager is responsible for accomplishing a project, not a goal and a project usually has a timeline and budget as a constraint and also requires that you follow laid down principles. There is no room for iteration and testing in the middle of the process. They are required for really rigid tasks like buildings, construction, etc.
However, project managers are also useful in software companies. They can be used in scenarios like; merging or partnerships between two companies, etc
6. A typical day in the life of a Product Manager
Wondering what a day in the life of a PM looks like? Let’s take a walk through the day of Cole Mercer and ex-PM at Soundcloud:
9 am: Check emails and technology/industry news
10 am: Look at metrics dashboard, check customer interaction, reviews, etc
11 am: Standup time
11:15 am: Interact with designers and developers separately on the feedback received and future product plans
12 pm: Write specifications, tickets, and user stories for upcoming features if there are upcoming sprints
1 pm: Test product releases
From this point onward, the schedule changes day to day
2 pm till EOB: Meeting with different stakeholders, retrospective meetings, sprint planning, user testing meetings,
In summary, there is no specific laid down day-to-day for PMs. Just like the role, every day is dynamic, and every day changes.