Influencing design as a Product Manager

Critical part of Product manager role is to identify the right problem to solve and define “what” part of the problem really well so that that engineering team can work on “how” part of the problem. I was told that from the moment I stepped into this role that product manager ideally should let engineering team architect the solution and I should only be cognizant of the constraints of the solution. I tend to not to agree with this argument anymore. If typical system architecture problems such as security, compatibility, reliability, interoperability, maintainability etc. mess up the user experience of my product, I would rather step-in and work with team to define right solution.

I would further say that architecture problems are not just engineering problems but rather a design problem. Product manager instead just defining non-functional requirements but consider them as a design problem and work along with designers and engineering team to arrive at pleasurable experience for the user. 

There may be multiple ways that product manager help teams to take right design decisions

• Customer empathy – Team may not be aware of the context and may not know the pain points of the users. PM should be the advocate of the customer and walkthrough the user pain points. PM would be truly successful if team empathizes with the end customer.
• Provide right data – Team may not be aware of the implications and may be thinking very short term. As a PM if you can arrive at right set of data and metrics, influence the team to take right design choices.
• Focus on simplifying – Software engineers like challenges, and the challenge of building complex system that serves a simple interface is especially alluring. As a PM if you can embrace simplicity in product and drive same thought process with in the team will simply the overall experience.
• Competency of the team - This is tough problem but a fair assessment of situation will help PM analyze on how much risk can one entrust on a team, which is not having a competency in an area. PM should guide team through and influence that team to acquire the required competency.

PM should be cautious that the team should not feel frustrated that solutions are handed over. PM should continue to focus on expected outcome and let team know focusing on above areas is key for success of the product.