Product management is a business process that
fundamentally involves planning, managing, strategizing, analyzing a company’s
resources for a specific task or event, and accomplishing business goals. Along
this, a product manager has a crucial role to play in managing business goals.
The product manager has to plan and implement products
within a business. In this article, we will learn about all product manager’s
job descriptions, the skills of a product manager, and the salary of a product
manager.
Define Product Management
In layman’s terms, Product management is defined as
determining the benefits that the product will usher for its potential
customers. Product management is the
responsibility and role within an organization that is important for a
product’s overall success. A business manufactures and launches products in the
market. It serves a predictable purpose for the business and its customers.
This role helps businesses grow in every aspect.
What is a Product Manager?
A product manager is an individual who recognizes
customers’ needs and larger business objectives. If you opt for a career in product management, you will have to
design a vision; i.e., what’s success for a product. And then, you have to call
up a team to turn that vision into a reality.
Product managers track all the activities across
different stages of a product’s lifecycle. The main goal of a product manager
is to plan, forecast, and certify market products to customers at the right
time.
The answer to the question of what is a product manager in tech is quite simple. A technical
product manager is someone who actively analyzes any issues within a product
development strategy. He/she also fixes the issues by working with product
managers, product owner, and the development team.
Now that you already know who is a product manager,
let’s learn about the roles of a Product Manager.
1. Preparing Strategy
Strategic planning means planning primary areas of
investment to achieve product goals. A product manager has to work towards
setting the product’s vision and planned direction. As a manager, you have to
express the business case and convenience to your team as to why you are
building it.
2. Interpreting Releases
Defining releases means bringing new products,
features, and functionality to market. Product managers play an important role
in translating product strategy into planned work. As a manager, you have to
interpret the ‘what’ & ‘when’ of the product you’ll launch. You also have
to oversee the entire release process and cross-functional processions.
3. Evaluating Ideas
A business can be successfully provided it has better
ideas for product development. Product managers acquire the role of
collaborating, developing, and managing ideas that add value to customers. As a
manager, you have to recognize the idea management process of an
organization/business. You also have to decide what ideas are to be promoted
and what not.
4. Foregrounding Features
Product managers strengthen product development
features by ranking them against the strategic goals. As a manager, you have to
build demanding trade-off decisions. For this, you have to analyze the value of
a new feature & what it might deliver to your customers and the business.
5. Designing Strategic Roadmaps
The product manager has to design and update the
product roadmap. This is a crucial role in a business as it is related to the
communication tools a business owns as a product manager. A product roadmap
pictures how a business’s product will achieve its objectives and stay on
track.
6. Reporting on Progress
An ideal product manager has to work on building and
reporting progress. As a manager, you have to stay focused on results for
customers as well as for the business as a whole. The progress report
illustrates how a business product performs.
What are the Important Product Manager Skills?
To acquire a promising role in product management, a
product manager has to possess several skills – both soft and hard skills. A
product manager must be eligible to lead, take decisions and be more successful
in his/her job role.
” Communication Skills
Product managers have to be experts in communicating
because the job role is itself all about communicating. Product management is
all about leading product meetings, product presentations, and communicating
with clients on business goals and expectations. Hence. You have to speak in a
manner that delivers your priorities in an easy-to-understand manner.
” Business Skills
To build a career as a product manager, you will have
to understand basic business competencies. You must know what’s budgeting and
how profits & cash flow affect product development projects.
” Technical Expertise
Product managers are usually associated with working
with virtual products. In such a scenario, technical skills are a must. You
have to develop software and apps for a product development project, and this
requires basic technical knowledge.
” Research Skills
Product managers are professionals who regularly carry
out extensive market research. Hence, market research skills are a must. This
set of skills helps a product management team to decide what type of products
can help the business stand tall and unique. Good data analysis and research
skills keep product managers updated about several marketing opportunities and
threats.
” Marketing Skills
One of the most in-demand product management skills is
Marketing skills. This set of skills help managers develop ways to rank their
products as marketable among the consumers. Marketing skills comprise skills to
promote & distribute products and services successfully.
The product
managersalaryis quite high. A product manager receives an average annual
salary from $63,000 (4,925,138.40)to
over $200,000 (15535102). We hope this article has
helped you in understanding all about project management and the role of
product manager is achieving business goals for success.
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