Chapter 1 — What is Product Management & What does a Product Manager do?
[Back to content page — Product Management 101 ]
With the growth of tech companies and non tech companies foraying into digital space, (Digital) Product Management has evolved as a separate function.
In a world, where a user has tremendous choices, low switching cost, influence from social network (through rating, reviews and recommendations); making a great product matters more than ever: and that’s the key function of Product Management.
So, what does a Product Manager do?
In simple terms, it is the critical link between Business, Design and Engineering.
The above Venn diagram might not provide an accurate illustration of the scope of Product Management. You can refer to the following illustration where I’ve tried to capture the scope (mind it this is Non-Exhaustive).
Product Manager Focus Areas
At a high level, we can classify the focus areas of product managers into 3 types as shown below.
Although the responsibilities of a Product Manager has wide variations in various companies. However, we can easily summarize the primary roles of a PM :
- Identifying Profitable Opportunities — By understanding the market, overseeing the products already in the market and researching into user’s needs.
- Defining the Product — deciding which features to be present in what releases based on market, target users, and impact of each features on different user groups.
- Guiding the development — by writing requirements, user stories and prioritising features based on effort and impact
- Scaling the product — defining Go to Market Strategies, understanding the user interactions, experimenting and focusing on what’s working and leaving out what’s not, deriving and using market insights.
- Product Strategy — Managing road-map as a function of market, keep product goals aligned with company’s goals.
The following illustrations explains the core skills and roles of a Product Manager and the immediate function that each of the role touches.
With a fair idea of what a PM does, let’s move on to the next chapter where we’ll understand how to develop a thorough market understanding.
[Next Chapter — Developing Market Understanding — Idea Conceptualization, Incubation & Validation]
[Back to content page — Product Management 101 ]
Want to learn more?
Enroll into Product Management:A-Z — The complete product management online course with 25+ chapters, 40+ live assignments and product interview tips . Built with inputs from experienced Product Managers working @ Top Tech firms like Google, Adobe, Amazon; the course has 500+ enrollments from 40+ countries.
Book Mock Interviews with product experts to practice your interview skills & get detailed feedback.
Check out PM Interview Questions — An exhaustive list of unique Product Management interview questions answered by product experts.
Click 👏 if you found this useful. SHARE to help others find this article.
It gives me 🔋 to write knowing people find value in it.
Originally published at zapupp.com