New to Product Management?
Several products constantly surround us. Our day starts with an alarm clock and ends with a comfortable mattress, and in between are involved lots of products that make our livelihood comfortable. But how does a company decide which product will be helpful for the customers? How to push the product into the market? What should be the price of the product?
Questions like these and many more can be answered by just two words: Product Management. Product management is an organizational role that deals with new product creation, planning, verification, forecasting, pricing, product launch, and marketing of a product at all product life cycle stages.
According to Mr. Shubham Goyal, Product Manager at Microsoft, "Product Management is all about doing what is best for your users & hence, product while influencing key stakeholders over whom you do not have any direct authority."
Product management is responsible for developing the business case and reasons for starting new product development and playing an active role in all the activities and stages involved in developing, testing, and launching a new product. Product management is also involved in decision-making and planning for product changes across product lifecycle.
What does a Product Manager do?
The product manager is often in charge of researching market circumstances, defining product features and functions, and managing product development. Product management encompasses a wide range of operations, from strategic to tactical, and is dependent on the organizational structure.
Product managers are in charge of the day-to-day operations of a company's product line. As a product manager, staying with time and in control is extremely important. A product manager oversees product conception, planning, creation, preparing a pricing strategy, marketing the product, advertising, delivery to their target market, and alternating and modifying the product with changing customer demand (can be due to a new product launch or replacement; a lack of sales of a product or a phase-out plan; or obsolescence in technology and therefore an immediate removal from purchase). As a result, Product Managers play a crucial role in boosting the company's performance and generating profits.
At times, the product manager may have effective control over shipment decisions to customers in huge firms. Product management frequently plays an inter-disciplinary function inside the organization, bridging gaps between teams with varying levels of competence, most notably between engineering and commercial teams. Product managers, for example, frequently translate marketing or sales objectives for a product into engineering needs (Technical Specification). On the other hand, they may attempt to explain the finished product's capabilities and limitations to Marketing and Sales (Commercial Specification).
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Most product managers in technology organizations are knowledgeable in computer science, business, and user experience. A key difference between a project manager and a product manager is that a project manager concentrates on constructing a solution and tracking its development, whereas a product manager focuses on giving a vision and then solving a client's problem.
Responsibilities of a Product Manager
The job of a product manager comes with certain responsibilities. Some main responsibilities include:
Roles in Product Manager
As with any other management role, product management too can be divided into sub-categories. The Open Product Management Workflow model depicts product management as being separated into three parts:
Depending on the organization structure, one may find the opportunity to get into any specific role as mentioned above or might start directly as a product manager at the organization.
Want to know which qualities will make you a top-notch Product Manager? Head on to our next blog Top 10 most important skills a Product Manager should have.