5 Essentials for Product Managers

In our recent Unbox webinar, Product Management in Practice, we met?three product managers from the conglomerate - from Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. 's GoCart, from Data Analytics Ventures, Inc. , and from Cebu Pacific Air - to learn about delivering great customer experiences through digital products.

Behind every digital product is a product manager. A product manager is someone who continuously drives the development, improvement, and support of the product, while being the conduit that connects tech, marketing, and business needs together. He or she is involved from the visioning stage up to the growth and distribution phase of a product.

One common theme during the conversation was that product skills were not something learned in school. So, what are these product management essentials that they learned through experience??

1 - A heart for the customer?

A product manager with genuine customer empathy is someone who does not merely push features and functionalities for customers to use. Instead, he or she learns how customers naturally behave in specific situations, in order to translate the same into their digital journey.?

A product manager asks, “How can I create a product that would help customers achieve their goals?”. He or she is deliberate about the product serving its purpose, and is open to gaining insights into how customers think or feel when using the product.?

2 - Deep product and technical knowledge?

A very clear proposition guides a product manager with turning ideas into reality. At the same time, he or she is expected to be flexible in adapting new approach or technology to be able to serve customers.? ?

Clarity of the goal is a must, and a product manager is conscious of the metrics that would lead to achieving the goal.?

3 - A curious mind?

A fixed mindset does not have a place in the product management discipline. For Data Analytics Ventures, Inc. 's product team for the GoRewards app, this includes the humility to receive feedback about the product, and the curiosity to hear about how the product can be better: “We have to be hungry, humble, and smart. We must be hungry to always look for more”.

4 - People management?

The product team works with development teams, researchers, and business stakeholders to ship out a product. A product manager?knows how to motivate diverse functions to achieve specific goals.???? ??

In Cebu Pacific, team satisfaction is one of the aspects a product manager should not neglect: “So we have this?roadmap that we have to finish by the end of the year, we really have to push the work to be done. But the people that we are working with are not machines. We have to also ensure that the development team works in a comfortable pace.”?

5 - Leadership and prioritization?

Balancing stakeholders’ requests can be tough. A product manager addresses conflicting requirements by being the voice of the customer.?

In such situations, a product manager removes biases and negotiates despite the team’s limited resources, all to deliver what is truly important for the customer and the product.?

The rewarding part of the role comes when a product manager sees how customers' lives change because of the product he or she built. For Robinsons Retail's GoCart team, seeing the value of conveniently shopping via the GoCart app and the time saved by customers is fulfilling.??

The balancing act and the negotiation conversations can be challenging, but for product managers, these are worth it when they see their finished products.?

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