Beginners Intro Part 1: Digging Deep
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Where did the Product Management role originate? Who was the first PM? How has the role evolved?
Asking questions like this has helped me gain an understanding of the world I am getting into.
Let’s dive into an intro to the Product Management Role written by a beginner herself 😉
“Hard to get the job without experience. Hard to get experience without the job” - How to Product by Sefunmi Osinaike
Wednesday 27th of May, 2020 marked World Product Day and I learnt new, interesting and motivating issues about the product role.
I was elated, mostly because I had something to celebrate since I have apparently out grown the Children’s Day celebration(who makes these rules😢)
Starting out in Product Management, October 2019 was definitely one of the most confusing times of my life. I had just decided to take the role more seriously and struggled to get a strong general grasp on the role.
Everyone had a different experience, came from different backgrounds, and largely did different things every day.
It made me love the role more and it meant I could create my own experience and someday tell my story the way I wanted to.
At the same time, I suffered from an overload of information (this really is a thing; the constant headaches, struggle to understand, differing opinions) from blogs, books, conferences, etc.
I got tired and decided to just find one thing common amongst all PMs that I could focus on, which I finally did. Read further to find out.
I have gotten a number of messages asking what the PM role really is and how to get started in it.
While I am still growing in this role and trying to gain daily, I write this armed with thoughts from experienced and growing Product Managers.
The most popular explanation for product management is the role intersecting between these three areas: technology, design, and business.
Pretty sure you have seen this while checking on the definition of product management.
While this has elements of truth in it, I think it’s a largely ambiguous explanation and really does not give the real deal about the role.
It also gives off the vibe of a ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ role and prompts questions like ‘Must I code or engineer? While at it, do I also need to design amazing interfaces and experiences and oh yes, come up with how to sell and make money from the product?’.
Only one person?? 😅
These were questions I asked starting out and I’m grateful to have gotten answers through seeing the high number of PMs who come from varying backgrounds with little or no knowledge in one or more of these areas and possibly having strengths in only one area.
One thing they are really good at is UNDERSTANDING THE CUSTOMER.
Think about it…
How do Product Managers with no technical, design or business background land and grow in these roles?
I did a little digging deep.
“The definition or purpose of anything is in the source of the thing.” — Myles Munroe
The history of Product Management.
What was the original intent for the role? How did it come about? What has improved? What aspects have we lost or misunderstood along the way?
While I won’t write a detailed history of Product Management, please read articles here and here. I found them quite helpful.
For ye lazy ones who have continued without checking the articles, here’s a brief summary. Proof of my love for you ❤️
Product Management started off with a “Brand Men” description by Neil McElroy, who gave them the responsibility of managing products, monitoring sales and advertising majorly through customer interaction. This was later interpreted by the founders of HP (Bill Hewlett and David Packard) to mean being the voice of the customer within a company.
In the begining was the ‘Brand Man’, the ‘Brand Man’ worked with customers and the ‘Brand Man’ became a Product Manager.
While the role has definitely evolved over the years, the PM role was not designed to just code or engineer, design or market but to determine and ensure the needs of the customers are met, the right product is being built and the right problem is being solved.
From knowing customer needs, to writing product requirements, prioritizing those requirements, collaborating with the team to build and launch, ultimately meeting the business goals while keeping the customer happy.
The most important role as a PM is to be fully customer focused while also meeting the goals of the business.
What are the roles of a PM?
· Define and understand the problem
· Understand users, business, and industry
· Build a strategy to solve problem
· Identify or understand the opportunity or solution i.e. your product
· Communicate with stakeholders
· Collaborate with engineering, design, support, marketing to turn idea to product
· Test product with users
· Launch and monitor products
While these are general roles performed, they vary based on industry.
Do not get me wrong, to achieve building the right product, knowledge on how to code or engineer, design and selling the product is VERY important.
Is it needed to start? Maybe not, depending on industry.
Can you learn along the way? Definitely.
This knowledge would help you communicate better with your team and customer and understand their needs and challenges.
The PM role is highly collaborative and empathetic (to users and team) and you wear multiple hats (performing multiple tasks or roles). One day you are working with engineers, on another you are talking to your customers, other days you are speaking to your bosses or stakeholders. No day is really the same!
It is a highly soft skill-based role coupled with a few technical skills which are a lot easier to learn than the soft skills.
You definitely need to love learning, unlearning and relearning.
“A commonality I found in Product Managers was the strong presence of an active imagination, the understanding of the foundational building blocks needed to construct it and the perseverance to bring it to life.” -How to Product by Sefunmi Osinaike
There you have it. An introduction to the Product Management role and it’s origin. What do you think? Is this a role for you? Learnt something new?
Feel free to text me on here with your questions and I will reply personally or in a subsequent post.
The Part 2 of this post for next week is ‘Common Misconceptions about Product Management’ to dispel some assumptions about Product Management with help from my PM friends and mentors.
Also a big announcement coming up! Can you guess it? First correct guess gets a special gift from me 😉
Happy New Month in advance!
Ajoke
