Tuesday, 5 March 2013

The 3 propensities of effective product managers

By Ben Goldblum


Some time ago, I switched my profession from engineering to product management. To plan for an interview, I examined our product management team and spotted that successful product managers have some traits in common. To help you in your career, I 'd love to share my findings with you.

Focus on your product's business case: Your executive management has monetary requirements from your product. These requirements are the bases for revenue growth targets or at the very least expenditure management. Make sure you repeatedly update your business case. If the business case does not match the expectations of management, you have three options:. a) re-focus the product, b) adjust the expectations, c) cancel the product.

Demonstrate empathy: Throughout product development there will typically be changes and there will always be troubles. The engineering team often will need to accommodate these changes or solve those problems, which may mean lots of additional work for them. It is very simple for them fault the product manager, which can easily subvert the relationship. Always remember that as a product manager, you are a leader and wise leaders show empathy.

Trust and check: Your colleagues are overloaded, with countless challenging things vying for their focus. Projects that are not urgent will be moved to the back burner. To guarantee that the projects supporting your product always keep progressing, organize regular (weekly, bi-weekly or monthly) meetings to examine progression. See to it that the status is checked in the meeting and all actions coming from the meeting are thoroughly recorded in the meeting, correctly circulated following the meeting and verified in the next meeting. Recorded actions contain three key elements: 1) just what is the action 2) who is responsible for the action 3) when does it need to be complete.

Finally: Product Management is a demanding, but highly enjoyable role. Seeing your product become real is a very satisfying adventure. To help you get to the top as a product manager bear in mind what I explained earlier. All the best in your job as a product manager.




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