The Life of a Product Manager - Part 2

Technical team member 1: "I don't really understand why we are doing this product, what are we trying to achieve"

Technical Team member 2: "Me Niether, but it is what the product team requested, possibly they know better, I am not sure who actually would buy this product"

The above conversation happens among technical developement team in different projects, organizations and industries where it shows that there is a mssive disconnect within the organization. How would you feel as a product manager if your team developing the actual product has no idea why they are doing this and what you are trying to achieve. I would say that would be one of the worst case scenarios for any product manager. You always have to make it very clear from the beginning of the product development projects to EVERYONE What you are trying to achieve, Why, How, When & for Whom. If the people actually building the product don't really understand these key fundamental questions and not just understand but believe in and promote it as well across their colleagues and organizations, they I would say there is a high chance your product will either fail or not come with the best outcome possible.

"Every Team member must believe in the product and have clear understanding the need for it, only this way you as a product manager will have not just team members but product ambassadors as well"

You have to understand that in any organization there is always lots of different projects and lots of different priorities and as much as you want to prioritize your project/product, you have to understand the Silos, Poloitical landscape within an organization and your only asset in this case is your team and how much they believe in the product they are developing that they are willing to go the extra mile not just to develop the product but to make perfect.

Setting Expectations from the Start

How many times have you seen a product fail and not pass a checkpoint/gate and put on hold because there were several expectations at the checkpoint/gate that was just raised that was a bit hidden and assumed that it is already there. Set your expectations from the start of the Innovation activity and as you go you refine them until you reach the project start and at this point, You have to be Crystal Clear on What,Why,How,When & For Whom you are trying to achieve this. It is not just about putting the data on the paper or ppt and do a nice presentation where everyone clap their hands in applause and they exit without actually knowing (No,..Believing) in these 5 main questions. You have to understand that as a Product manager or a product lead, you always have to keep to remind your team why you are doing this and keep them engaged on how what you are all trying to achieve is going to make your targetted consumer life better.

Ideally you build that expectations document or I would say in this case becomes a project charter document where you really outline what you are trying to achieve and that document have to be circulated and recirculated across the organization and different team members acting as a reminder and focus point on these 5 key questions.

So Now we know what,why,How,when & For Whom, what's next?

Now the real fun begins, at this stage the product development really starts and it becomes a sort of iterative loops where Technical team, Product Innovatio team are constantly relooping on refining how the solution will be achieved, you will face points where your design team espeically on physical products wants to create something outstanding but your technical team cannot really achieve it and if they can, it is more than you can afford either in CAPEX or even as cost that the consumer has to pay for. In this stage it is Super Critical that a product manager STAY FOCUSED, you have to understand as well that you will have to take some tough decisions as you go for the product and in some cases you may actually not like the decision, Big Chunk of Your real job actually start when the development activity kicks in.

The Balance between What Should be Done & What can be Done!!

You would think that it is ironic that after all this mentioning of what we need to do and the consumer experience and the need to really achieve 10x experience that this title is strange, right ?! No, not really. You have to understand that as much perfection that you want to reach and as much as you want to deliver 10x experience, there will alwasy be limitations that you will have to accept and compromises that you have to make.

• A famous example here would be that you are constraint by a certain launch window that you have to meet where you cannot really manage to have every bit of the product within that time frame so then it becomes a choice whether you have to launch without that last bit and compromise on that and have a newer version with the missed features/technology at a later stage.

• Your Capex can be a limitation as well where you are not able to squeeze all these investements in this project and you will have to choose what is really your priority, thats why what the software teams do with Agile methadology of backlog of features and prioritization is quite critical to have also in physical goods. A solid understanding of the consumer and the sweetspots vs your competitors is key. That's One of the reasons several organization have insights function that work closely with the innovation to guide and support.

• Your cost base can be a limitation. At the end of the day you cannot forget that you are in the business of making money as well for your organization and you can NEVER forget this reality. There is a certain expectations of every product that's launched in an organization in terms of contribution margin (Net Selling price - Variable cost), and payback. But please you have to be very cautious in this area, the finance team will always only look at numbers. BUT, you are the bridge that connect these numbers to reality you cannot start from the expectations of this project based on investements & resources only, you have to start from the market and the landscape and what actually make sense that this product delivers based on where it will be positioned. Then you evaluate if it make sense financially with the investements & resources allcoation.

• Your technological advancement & competency can also be a limitation. That's a bit harsh for some organziations to acknowledge especially when it comes to competency, thats why it is down to you to set that reality and make sure it kicks in. It is not shameful to admist that we really don't have what it takes to pull this off with the current comptencies,....etc. And there are several solutions for this from partnership to acquisition to licensing,....etc. BUT this part is a bit tricky as in some cases you really don't need a technology to deliver a certain benefit, there is usually another way. The best example is what NASA did as overcomplication on how to write in space and they went and developed 1 million USD pen while the russians used a pencil.....

.....to be continued