importance of product management essay

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Why Is Product Management Important?

The role of product managers is critical to organizational success. Find out why, along with the variety of roles and responsibilities that product managers may be called upon to fill.

Product management is the most important function in an organization, with the term "product" meaning both products and service offerings. Other functions like marketing and sales, engineering, or finance might feel otherwise, but without a product development team delivering a solid product that customers are willing to buy and use, a company's prospects are poor at best.

Here’s what I plan to discuss in this article:

• Why Product Management Is Important
• The Role Of Product Management In An Organization
• What Is The Role Of A Product Manager?

Who Works Under Or With A Product Manager?

• Successful Product Management Processes And Practices

How To Hire A Great Product Manager

Why product management is the most important role in your organization.

Product management is the reason an organization exists: to deliver great products to customers and hopefully make tons of cash. However, having the right product strategy and developing a successful product is hard because Darwin rules supreme in the world of products. Most new products and start-ups offering products struggle to survive.  

Here is a shortlist of the challenges faced by an organization in product management terms:

• Customers cannot easily articulate what they want
• The technology landscape is changing rapidly
• Competition is fierce and global
• Industry boundaries are changing
• Players from outside are launching products in your markets (Tesla, Apple)
• Product pricing is more challenging than ever, especially given global competition
• Operational efficiencies and economies of scale are making mincemeat of margins
• Figuring out how to be #1 or #2 in any market is harder than ever
• Getting the maximum ROI from an organization’s existing financial resources and other resources is difficult

I’m just rattling this off the top of my head. Creating successful offerings that can deal with all these criteria is what keeps product managers up at night. 

Good product managers who can make sense of the cacophony of customers and markets and then dream up and deliver successful products are worth their weight in gold. 

What Is The Role Of Product Management And Product Dev In An Organization?

The product manager role has traditionally either been part of engineering for technology-focused companies or has been a part of marketing for consumer companies. To understand why it is important for product management to stand alone, we need to first examine what the role entails.

It is often said that a product manager is a jack-of-all-trades and must know a little bit of everything, but that is not exactly correct. The truth is that a product manager must know enough of everything, which is a whole different enchilada. The definition of "enough" differs from industry to industry and from organization to organization.

Additionally, product management must be independent enough to be able to determine product roadmap , direction, and strategy. For instance, a product manager reporting to an engineering head will be forced to focus on engineering details like technical specifications & requirements. On the other hand, in marketing, a product manager will need to be primarily focused on the marketing aspects. This is natural because the heads of each of those functions want to ensure that their division does well, which ironically means the product management function as a whole, does poorly. A classic case of local maxima .

What is needed is for the product management function to be equally involved in both. Therefore, it is best to have product management as a separate, independent entity with its own C level representative and clear definitions of success. Even an early-stage start-up with no org chart needs to keep its product management function independent. 

The location of product management in an organization's structure will quickly tell you whether a company considers the function to be important.

What Is The Role Of A Product Manager? 

A product manager is someone who can make soup out of stone . If this is being vague, it is because the role is not easy to pin down. Product managers have influence over cross-functional teams , and are often leaders, not managers, in the sense that they have no direct authority and no large teams assigned to them. 

In a larger organization, the product management function may be split among roles like group product manager, technical product manager , growth product manager, and product owner . However, someone in product management, such as the vice president of product, will be responsible for everything, so let’s take a look at things from that perspective.

The mission of a product manager is simple: deliver successful products . The path to that goal, however, is complex and requires a product manager to wear several hats:

The Idea Evaluator Hat

Every good product manager needs to have a system to receive new product ideas or features and evaluate them. Typically evaluating ideas involves a combination of market and domain expertise, customer insight, and a mechanism to evaluate the idea in the real world. Such a system would include steps like focus groups, customer surveys, pilots, MVPs, or A/B split testing. Some of this may be part of marketing, but ideally a product manager has to be part of the evaluation team. Even if an idea has merit at first glance, it may not be viable:

• The market may be too crowded with options
• There may be no other similar product on the market which means having to educate prospective customers
• The cost of manufacturing may be too high
• Customers may not be willing to pay for a product
• There may be insufficient barriers to entry which means too much competition too soon

The Strategizer Hat

No product manager can function effectively without the ability to create a strategy for one or more products or features along with a roadmap for these. Strategy involves defining a vision, using business models to evaluate the possibility of success, analysing the competition, and defining the product position or brand position in the market. Getting strategy right is insanely for new products in uncertain business cycles, but it is hard at the best of times. A good strategy needs to be accompanied by a roadmap with clear outcomes, goals, a timeline, and checkpoints or gates. Once the strategy is in place, a good product manager will evangelize it inside the organization to all the stakeholders and constituencies. The strategizer, therefore, needs to be a great communicator , able to win over the hearts and minds of product teams and stakeholders alike.

Learn more here: Using Product Strategy To Make Meaningful Impact (with Chanel Maddox from Crema)

The Market Maven Hat

This person needs to be a guru in the markets where their product is sold. They need to have a deep understanding of customers’ psyche including how they perceive a product and why they are motivated to buy. Simultaneously, they need to know the competitive landscape thoroughly including each competing product’s comparative strengths.

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The Naysayer Hat

Product managers must be able to deal with the tug-of-war between various constituencies within the organization and outside. They need to be able to keep their focus on what’s best for the product and say no to everything else. 

A seasoned product manager will be able to decline a request while explaining why. They will be comfortable with the disapproval of others. A thick skin is an essential tool in the armory of a product manager.

The Empathizer Hat

In this role, a product manager has the customer’s best interests at heart. The empathiser can hear not just what a customer is saying but also what that customer is unable to articulate clearly or is hesitating to say.

Getting into customers’ heads is non-trivial and requires the ability to ask the right questions, understand the nuances of vocal tone and body language, and have deep empathy for a customer. 

This is a critical ability because without having the right understanding of what customers need, and more importantly, being able to intuitively suss out what customers don’t know they need, a product can be dead in the water before it is even launched.

Related Read: 12 Product Launch Success Strategies (+Examples)

The Advocate Hat

An advocate speaks up for and represents the customer or any stakeholder who is not present in the room. Typically, since customers can't attend meetings, the product manager in the advocate avatar becomes a customer, asking questions from the perspective of a customer. This goes hand-in-hand with having deep empathy for a customer. Sometimes, this role requires a PM to be the devil’s advocate who asks tough questions that no one is asking or that everyone is avoiding.

The Deliverer Hat

Getting the right product or feature through the door in time is one of the key responsibilities of a product manager. In this role, the product manager pushes hard to release a product. 

This may involve nudging the engineering team to expedite, removing roadblocks to marketing or distribution, and taking specific actions to ensure that a product or release hits the market on time (or more realistically, after minimal delays). Achieving operational excellence usually involves using carrot-and-stick or kissing and kicking approaches, and having the willingness to be tough and realistically stubborn when it comes to meeting deliverable deadlines, and goals. A product manager needs to be tough without being an a-hole as far as possible. These definitions may seem vague and one person’s tough guy is another person’s a-hole, but the point I’m trying to make is to have the driven sense of urgency and fire that pushes teams just the right amount to get them to deliver while keeping morale as high as possible. If being tough sounds difficult, there is always the option of getting into an easier line of work like becoming a navy SEAL . 😉

The Analyst Hat

While a lot of product management requires intuition, heuristics, and gut feel, there is a whole world of data, metrics, and analytics that can tell a product manager how the product is doing. The ability to analyse, digest, and make sense of the ocean of data that is available is critical to being a successful product manager. For instance, which metrics are real and which ones are vanity metrics that will simply kick problems into the future? If the number of users/subscribers go up after a sale discount, what does that mean? Is it better to go after more prospects and have a higher churn rate? Even received wisdom like the 80/20 rule a.k.a the Pareto Principle can be misleading. In software, 80% of users indeed use around 20% of the features of an application, but if each user uses a different feature set that amounts to 20%, it makes no sense to optimise for 20%! This is an important consideration for LITE versions of a software product.

Related Read: 10 Best Product Analytics Tools & Software For Product Teams

The Optimizer Hat

In the messy and competitive world of product management and dynamic markets, a product manager often needs to choose between two equally (apparently) difficult options. Limited resources, strict deadlines, and tough competition means making hard choices and figuring out the optimal route to product success, despite all the constraints. The optimizer can deal with ambiguity and pivots—continuous changes in direction—that are inevitable in early-stage product development .

This depends on whether your organization is a start-up, an SMB or SME, or a large enterprise. In a start-up, the founder or CEO may be the product manager and therefore have everyone reporting to them. 

In Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMB or SME), there will usually be a distinct role for product managers with the product management hierarchy looking something like this:

Chief Product Officer (CPO)

The CPO is the C-level representative of the product management function, usually the senior-most in the organization. This person is responsible for the overall strategy and budget of the product management function.

Head Of Product Or Vice President Of Product

This role involves managing a group of product managers in a large organization along with P&L and budgetary responsibilities. In some organizations, the VP Product is also the CPO.

Senior Product Manager Or Product Manager

A product manager owns a specific product and leads it through the product life cycle . A senior product manager is a seasoned product manager who guides or acts as a mentor to other product managers.

Junior Product Manager Or Associate Product Manager

This role involves working under a product manager having responsibility for a specific part of a product or even a complete small product.

Product Owner

Strictly speaking, product owner is a role in Agile and Scrum, not an organizational role. The product owner role may be played by a product manager, a junior product manager, or even a business analyst.

Product managers may be part of a product team that consists of marketing, UX, architecture (for software companies), and analytics. They may be responsible to ensure that engineering delivers on spec, in time.

How Successful Product Management Processes And Practices Increase Business

Successful product management practices can determine whether a business succeeds or fails. Some of the factors that impact a business from a product culture or product management perspective are:

• Resource allocation: Most companies have limited resources and an unlimited set of opportunities to deploy those resources. Product management can determine the optimal resource allocation strategy, helping a company get the most bang for the buck.
• Alignment with real, current market requirements: It is easy for businesses that have been successful to continue down a redundant path. Success can be its own undoing and the history of business is littered with examples where someone held on to an outdated strategy for too long. Nokia and Blackberry are two examples of market leaders in a single industry that lost the plot. A high-quality product management team will help ensure that an organization’s strategy is guided by market realities and not by mere wishful thinking.
• Delivery of terrific products: Good product management practices help a company that has the right resource allocation strategy and market strategy to build and deliver awesome products. Delivery can involve creating product specs, guiding engineering and marketing teams, and coordinating with distribution channels.
• Sales enablement strategy: Helping your sales team to generate the maximum possible sales is an important aspect of product strategy. Ensuring that the sales team has the in-depth product knowledge, the tools, and the content to succeed, forms the basis of the sales enablement strategy. The content and tools include product guides, articles, whitepapers, blogs, videos, feature lists, product comparisons, or any other assets that help a sales team to identify more prospects and close more deals.

As I’ve already mentioned before, finding an excellent product manager is not easy. However, there are several steps you can take to improve the odds in your favour. Have a clearly defined role tailored to your organization’s product strategy.

Be Clear About What Is Expected From Your Product Manager

• Are you looking for a product manager who has successfully managed a multi-million-dollar product in a similar space and brings in that experience? 
• Do you need someone who has deep knowledge of technology (in which case you may need a technical product manager)?
• Do you want a PM who will roll up their sleeves and tackle challenges coming at them from multiple quarters in a start-up? 
• What does your current product roadmap look like? 
• At which stage of the product life cycle will they be joining your organization?

More Articles

Product strategy: what it is, and how to nail it, the top 10 ux design trends of 2024, 13 brainstorming techniques every product manager needs to know, identify clearly where a product manager fits into your organization .

• Will they report to the CEO? The head of product? 
• What teams or individuals will report to them?
• Will they be managing one single product or a product portfolio ?

List out the skills , responsibilities, and key performance indicators (KPIs) that are critical to your hire’s success.

Where To Find Product Managers

Sourcing candidates for your open product manager position will involve accessing multiple channels: LinkedIn is a great source for potential product management hires from around the world. Top job search portals like Indeed, Monster, as well as sites like Glassdoor can help you reach out to candidates. Remote working sites are another option to locate potential hires. 

Hiring Process

Since the skills required to be a successful product manager are varied, product managers typically come from one of these three backgrounds: marketing, design, or engineering. This in turn means that your PM candidate has a natural preference and affinity for one of these. Your interview process needs to be able to identify the stars from the also-rans. Your process might involve steps like:

Resume filter: Identify a fit based on the resume and see whether it is worth setting up a 30 minute telephone or video interview

30 minute video interview:  Here, you as the hiring manager attempt to understand your candidate better. These are some ways you can find out if your PM candidate is a good fit:

• Are they passionate about product management? Ask questions like “Name one great product you have personally used in the last year. Why do you feel it is great?” Look for specifics in their response that tells you about how they think as a product manager.
• Do they have the required skill set for your organization? Ask questions about what skills they feel a product manager needs and which ones they feel are their strongest ones. Needless to say, it pays to be tactful with senior candidates.
• Are they a good fit for your organization? Provide one or more challenging scenarios that a hypothetical or actual product faced and see how they would tackle such a scenario.

Panel interview: If your candidate has passed the first two filters, get a panel to interview them. Your panel can consist of the hiring manager, one or two colleague PMs or senior PMs, and someone from design and engineering. This can help identify the cultural and personality fit. Decide the structure of interviews in advance and ensure that confirmation bias and the halo effect are minimised or eliminated . 

Offer, Acceptance, Onboarding: Finally, once you’ve decided to hire, extend an offer and set up the onboarding process once the offer has been accepted and your PM hire is due to join.

What’s Your Take?

Like everything truly worthwhile, product management takes time and effort to master. During this process, you may sleep like a baby (wake up crying every couple of hours), but the rewards are well worth it. If you are an experienced product manager, feel free to share your challenging experiences in the comments below. If you are a new PM, let me know why you decided to become a product manager and what aspects of product management challenge you the most.

To keep receiving awesomely insightful articles on product management, subscribe to our newsletter .

Related Read: A Guide To The Product Manager Career Path + Roles And Skills

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Product Management

The need and importance of product management.

In product management parlance, a “product” is the most crucial function in an organization, which can mean either products, service offerings, or both. Managing this “product” becomes vital because other organizational tasks—like marketing, sales, or even finance—wouldn’t exist in the first place if the product didn’t.

What is product management?

Product management guides the steps in a product’s lifecycle, from conception to development to positioning and pricing. In product management, the focus is on the product and its customers. Often, a product manager who advocates for customer needs and ensures a connection with market trends ends up succeeding with the products they lead. This focus on customer needs primes product teams to routinely ship better-designed products that perform exceptionally well. Having someone to look at how the product is developing and suggest changes based on factual findings can help prevent effects from getting uprooted by newer solutions. The art of managing customers allows product managers to create tailored solutions for them.

The need for product management

Product management is relatively new in the club of established professions, but it isn’t a role that suddenly emerged out of thin air. The duties of a product manager were usually handled by other team members, whose primary job would be something else. This ad-hoc way of life can be seen in lean start-ups, where few founders and early-stage employees wear many hats to save funds until they hit paydirt.

But as customer expectations changed, the roles and responsibilities of people taking care of product management activities increased until it was viable to have a dedicated employee to oversee the product and help the team improve it in the best possible manner.

A good product manager makes the rest of the organization understand the product’s value. By understanding customer pain points, a product manager can improve the product, which increases customer loyalty. They also act as conduits between different departments to determine what is necessary to create a successful outcome. There are various metrics for product managers that are used to measure the success and impact of the product.

Product management is vital for six reasons

In the current SaaS landscape, where self-service and transactional sales models are favored, switching costs tend to be lower, and differentiation between service providers becomes difficult. In such cases, product managers gain importance because they ensure all teams and tasks are working as intended (apart from coming up with product ideas and shortlisting features for the future and a million other things). Here are some factors that highlight product management’s importance.

Product management helps teams focus on customers

Building healthy customer relationships early on is key to success in any business. Still, in software solution providers catering to other software organizations, the importance increases multi-fold. The organizations that focus on their customers’ pain points and actively try to solve them are the ones that endure – and product managers play a huge role in making that happen. They create product roadmaps and share them with stakeholders, where they publish product features they’re working on, ideas that might see the light in the future, features implemented, and other relevant details. They also constantly collect customer feedback and feature requests and analyze them to better understand the client’s immediate and upcoming needs.

Product management results in a smooth UX for clients and employees

Regarding user experience, B2C (business to consumer) organizations are miles ahead of B2B SaaS operators. The amount of personalization that one can do in consumer goods is unprecedented. The clients of SaaS companies are used to such seamless modes of operation as consumers themselves, and they expect their solution provider to match that level of sophistication. A product manager who understands this pushes for experience refinements that simplify the lives of customers, especially the digital natives who expect to use software and products at work in the same way they use apps like Uber, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc.

Understanding this is important for all organizations, but for small start-ups, it can be the difference between thriving and barely surviving. Using tools like Roadmap portal and Screenjar can help them improve their customer experience multifold without spending much. These apps integrate seamlessly with Jira and use the ticketing format to create valuable lists — allowing teams to focus on resolving issues and developing features instead of sifting through a mountain of customer feedback. Product managers can introduce them to the team and help them plan their day better.

Product management helps in keeping up with market trends

Customers’ needs are changing rapidly, and the pace is also picking up in B2B sectors. Product management principles require teams (and product managers) to interact with existing customers regularly and analyze feedback. This can lead to issues getting fixed sooner and new features getting adopted before the rest of the market wises up.

Product management prioritizes features according to product vision

Unlike in the physical goods world, products are constantly changing in the world of technology. An app or a solution is viable only when it stays up with the latest trends, and this means teams have to innovate and solve customers’ problems even before they become one. The eagerness to innovate can lead product development team members to prioritize features wrongly, not based on product vision – which can alienate the product from its purpose over time. Product managers are focused on the customers’ industry and the developments and can adequately guide the teams on the direction the next update cycle takes.

Product management prevents effort loss

One of the essential duties of product managers is to create and maintain a product roadmap, which is then reviewed regularly (usually weekly). The product owner takes the updates made up for further execution. This constant check-in with the product’s upcoming updates with the vision ensures that the efforts of product developers are not wasted in solving issues that may not matter to customers.

Product management ensures the development of the product

The product development team is responsible for the software, but the product is much more than that. Product management encompasses everything from ensuring the correctness and understandability of documentation to creating different versions of release notes for different target audiences. Along with product marketing, communication can be crafted uniquely and appealingly.

What are the critical aspects of product management?

Product management roles differ from traditional ones like marketing, sales, development, etc., because they encompass a bit of everything with a technical bend to it – a product manager is usually involved in the planning, designing, positioning strategies, and many other processes related to the product. Product management is essential for the organization’s survival not only because of the inherent dependency of the organization on the product to thrive but also because of how product management allows the product’s vision to permeate through the organization, contributing to its culture. Product roadmaps can pave the way for a better understanding of products and company vision. Here are some product roadmap examples which a product manager can leverage to figure out which one will work best for you. If taken care of, some essential aspects of product management can boost product organizations to create successful, world-class products.

Churning out ideas

Ideas are where a product begins life – first as a concept, then as and when data supports its existence – as reality. Product managers are responsible for this stage, where they gather ideas from various stakeholders, colleagues, feature requests , suggestion lists, and more. They list promising ideas, thoroughly analyze the pros and cons, and decide what direction to pursue in consensus with their team.

Finalizing the product/features

The ideation phase reveals a lot of options, but only a few would fit well with the product vision . At the end of the finalization process, product managers and team members should clearly understand what is being built, why it is being made, what it is supposed to achieve, and how to measure if the product goal or vision is achieved. These few ideas the product manager has shortlisted are then run through another level of scrutiny so that the product team can better understand the product’s impact.

Planning milestones

After finalizing the product and features, it’s time to start building. Not yet. The product strategy and steps to meet the vision are yet to be defined. This section, commonly known as creating the product roadmap, is necessary to communicate business goals, areas of focus, prioritization of features , scope, and more. These roadmaps aren’t rigid – they allow enough leeway for the product and feature list to evolve and morph according to the organization’s needs and the market’s demands. With the product owner, product managers ensure the execution is happening at the right pace. The frequency of check-ins also allows the product owner and manager to step in if product development team members are experiencing issues. These strategic communication documents can be public or private and enable all stakeholders to know how product success can be achieved.

Prioritizing products and features

This can be considered a sub-step in creating a product roadmap. Still, because of the granularity with which some product strategies must be established, product managers must first develop a clear picture. Then they can guide the product development team on what should be built first. After cross-checking the feedback, suggestions, and market trends, prioritization can answer questions like “what feature/component should be built, when it should be built, and what value it can generate for the customer,” among others.

Developing the product

Once the ‘what’s’ are determined, product managers closely work with different teams to validate if the agreed-upon features are being implemented according to product strategy. Following some product strategy examples can help you set correct framework. They ensure product ops are on track by checking with the product owner. The quality of the solutions is also limited, as product managers interact with multiple teams to get the design mock-ups, technical specifications, feedback, and others in perfect working order.

Delivery of the product

Once the development is over, where it plays a supporting role, the project management process becomes focused on the product or feature delivery. Product managers must constantly communicate with product marketing, engineering, testing, and other teams to ensure the final product is built according to specifications. They also lead in generating release notes, deciding on communication channels and messaging, arranging training sessions for clients if need be, and more. Product managers can follow product launch best practices for go-to-market success.

Gathering customer feedback

Feedback data is essential for usage analytics, but it is listed as a separate step because of the intricacies of gathering genuine feedback. Product managers can use multiple tools and data avenues to gather input, but the traditional survey method and tracking issue redressals are two main methods. With tools like Roadmap Portal and Screenjar, collecting feedback becomes smooth and helps teams better understand issues. Product marketing team members can help craft compelling messages that urge customers to provide feedback. NPS vs CSAT surveys are both valuable tools for collecting customer feedback. Leverage them to understand friction points and winning experiences.

Analyzing product usage

By understanding how customers use the product, product managers can identify different ways in which it can be made better. Once the product is in use, managers shift their focus to determining its effectiveness through business analytics. Data is tracked continuously, and results are compared with the values in the product roadmap to identify if it meets the vision and if any customer expectations are not being met. These changes are then fed through the discovery phase , and the product life cycle continues.

Product management has been and will be an integral part of the development process—just because the duties of a product manager were distributed among multiple teams before doesn’t mean it shouldn’t exist now. A competent product manager can improve the synergy of the teams they work with and inspire the group to create something great. It starts with an idea (or a bunch of them) and then brings them to life because their existence is necessary to solve a particular issue. Creating or enhancing a solution requires careful planning, and product lifecycle management provides an abstract framework to achieve it.

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The Art of Product Management

Why and how to develop the essential human skills.

By Ken Norton

8 min read • Apr 4, 2022

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In a previous newsletter , I reflected on my career in product management and shared some lessons I’d learned. One section, in particular, seemed to generate the most responses:

In product management, there’s an art and a science. The “art” gets dismissed as soft skills. When PMs fail, it’s usually because of “The Art.” The most important thing you can do early in your career is grow these skills. Don’t let them be dismissed as “soft skills,” don’t get lured by the promise of tactics and techniques: they’re essential, but the craft depends more on the art over the long term.

I want to explore “The Art” further today. My hope with this essay is that we can all begin to appreciate how critical these so-called soft skills—or rather, “human skills”—are to product management.

(I’m certainly not the first to point this out. Folks like Petra Wille , Kate Leto , Teresa Torres , and Lisa Zane have explored this. It’s just that all that other “Science-y” stuff—the frameworks, models, tools, threads 🧵👇, and methodologies—suck up so much of the oxygen in the PM community.)

Allow me to head off a response I’m sure to receive: “This applies to anyone. None of this is specific to product managers.” Yes, that’s exactly right! And it’s precisely why they’re often overlooked and matter so much. Anyone will benefit from building these muscles. But they are crucial for success in product management.

The skills that comprise “The Art” primarily fall into six purpose areas. Let’s call them “The Six C’s:”

• Communication: the ability to connect and share with other people
• Collaboration: the ability to work with other people and support their ability to work with each other
• Creativity: the ability to transcend the traditional and concoct something new
• Critical thinking: the ability to analyze, evaluate, and form an objective judgment
• Curiosity: the ability to form a strong desire to know what is unknown
• Consciousness: the ability to develop the inner strength to navigate, cope, and grow

Communication

A first-time PM on my team once complained, “I feel like all I do is talk to people, saying the same things over and over. When do I get to do real work?” Communication is the work.

• Listening: Active listening leads to understanding, but few do it well. It takes practice and self-management to really, truly listen. You’ll learn a lot from Ximena Vengoechea’s book Listen Like You Mean It .
• Writing: Mastering the written form is becoming even more essential for product managers than when I began my career. More companies are following in the footsteps of Amazon and Stripe and becoming document-first cultures. No matter where you work, you’ll need to be a concise, clear, compelling writer. There are many marvelous books to enjoy here, but Stephen King’s On Writing is my favorite.
• Persuasion: Whether it’s evangelizing the solution you and your team decided upon or convincing another team to make necessary prioritization changes, you’ll need to exercise your persuasion skills constantly. Fortunately, Aristotle taught us how to do this more than 2,000 years ago.
• Influence: As a product manager, people might look to you for direction—and they’re trusting that you’ll know what’s best. But you’re not usually the boss, so influence must be earned. Read the classic Influence Without Authority .
• Saying no: Product managers want to be helpful and are easily distracted by interesting, new things. Saying no doesn’t come with the backing of formal authority, and saying no to customers (and sometimes their money!) can be intimidating. But learning to say no assertively and gracefully is one of the most important skills a product manager can uncover, especially early in their career. My choice here is William Ury’s celebrated The Power of a Positive No .
• Storytelling: The best storytellers know how to captivate their audience and evoke emotions. You’ll learn more about great storytelling from reading fiction, reading comic books, or watching films than from any book on business presentations. Check out Pixar Storytelling or Pixar’s 22 rules .
• Empathy: Putting yourself in the place of another human being and seeing the world through their eyes allows us to build better products and create more inclusive, happier, and nurturing environments. Check out the definitive Nonviolent Communication . Oh, and read fiction .

Collaboration

Being a part of a team builds on many skills we learned in kindergarten—sharing, saying please, and cooperating. But collaboration is more than that. As leaders, collaboration is not only about our ability to play well with others; it’s about building and supporting an environment that values and encourages teamwork.

• Team-building: As a PM, you’re part coach, motivational speaker, therapist, and mediator, bringing disparate parts together. See what you can learn about team-building from jazz great Miles Davis in my talk, Please Make Yourself Uncomfortable .
• Facilitation: Shaping and guiding the process for how a group of people work toward goals and accomplish what they set out to do requires a gentle but assertive touch. Or, as my friend Matt LeMay puts it, “The tactics of how to get ten people on a Zoom call to somehow make a decision together.”
• Giving and receiving feedback: In the spirit of growth, product managers should be quick to give—and accept—feedback. Not everyone can do this well, and sadly, it’s easy to do it poorly. I recommend the classic book, Thanks For The Feedback .
• Promoting psychological safety: If we want our teams to share bold ideas or challenge popular thinking, they must know they have a safe environment. Everyone can contribute to this, but as leaders bridging multiple teams and perspectives, we have a special obligation to foster psychological safety. I recommend anything by Amy Edmondson and Tom Geraghty’s fantastic newsletter and toolkits .
• Dealing with difficult people and situations: Difficult people and situations warrant action and response on our part, especially when you’re called upon to intervene on behalf of your team. Check out Difficult Conversations: How To Discuss What Matters Most from the Harvard Negotiation Project.

Creativity will help you solve customer problems, outmaneuver your competitors, and see around corners. Determining the right solution—which isn’t necessarily the fastest, cheapest, or least complex—requires creative thinking.

• Taste: There are intangibles and great nuance to understanding how your customers will accept the products your team delivers. Sometimes your sense of taste and beauty will need to be your guide. Ancient philosophers were on top of this as well .
• Product sense: A recent survey indicated that product sense—what I’ve called “product spidey-sense”—may be one of the most critical skills a product manager must perfect. It builds on taste, intuition, and empathy. Jules Walter penned an in-depth exploration .
• Seeing patterns: Sometimes, a product manager’s most important contribution is just… noticing. You may find inspiration in entirely unrelated industries or situations because you can identify the patterns and how they may play out for your specific product. Some of the most brilliant innovations in history came from connecting one field to another .
• Dreaming: The best products in 10-20 years will look very different from how we might imagine them today. Know when to suspend disbelief and let go of the implementation details. I’ve written about this in 10x Not 10% and Ants and Aliens .

Critical thinking

What does it mean to be a critical thinker? For product managers, it’s the ability to analyze facts, synthesize, draw inferences, and solve problems.

• Truth-seeking: Much has been written about the observational, logical, analytical, and synthesizing aspects of critical thinking, but one overriding motivation brings them together: the persistent pursuit of the truth. Product managers must be relentless about truth-seeking, whether it’s when uncovering customer problems, analyzing data, or getting to the bottom of a bug.
• Probability and statistics: Product managers need to understand statistics, probability, and uncertainty. I recommend decision scientist and poker champion Annie Duke’s Thinking in Bets .
• Interpreting patterns: You’ll be able to draw conclusions by synthesizing the patterns you recognize, even when they may not be completely obvious to most.
• Daring to be wrong: Product managers must be bold enough to present solutions that might not work. But if they do, they have the potential to be industry-changing. This skill requires not being overly attached to your ideas or approaches. Having the humility to let go of needing to be right.
• Understanding bias: Product managers need to understand cognitive biases and account for them, especially when they’re our own. Confirmation bias, outcome bias, and the sunk cost fallacy are common PM afflictions. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

Product managers understand that there are many layers underlying customer decisions and behaviors. Curiosity motivates us to keep digging in —and getting to the “why.”

• Awe and wonder: Think of a moment when you were taken back in awe? Maybe it was the first time you grappled with the size of the universe or experienced an incredible feat of human athletic achievement. Harness that emotion and pour it into your products. It’s good for you .
• Openness to new ideas: Being open-minded to new ways of thinking—from any source—is an essential product management skill. What can I learn from this? What does the team know today that we didn’t know yesterday? What is still unknown?
• Championing diversity and inclusion: Your team members, customers, and users will represent countless ethnic, gender, socioeconomic, and other groups. If we want to build winning products for everyone in the world we need to lean into our curiosity. That can help us to learn, listen, admit our mistakes, and grow. I’ve been enjoying Ruchika Tulshyan’s new book, Inclusion on Purpose .
• Daring to be wrong: You’re not always going to be correct. You and your team will make mistakes, and you must be willing to do so. As I write this, I’m looking at a framed print by my pal Mike Monteiro with this phrase: “ Let’s Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow .” I can’t imagine a more appropriate product management tagline.

Consciousness

This is the big one. Consciousness is all about being rather than doing. It’s the self-awareness to understand who you must be to endure the bumps and bruises along the way and grow stronger as a result. The resilience to build a career you love and to avoid burnout. Mind, body, and heart—the whole person. Invest in yourself with therapy, coaching, fitness, wellness, and mindfulness.

• Emotional intelligence (EQ): Some might argue this is the most crucial product management skill. There was a time when feeling your feelings was considered a sign of weakness, and talking from the head was the only acceptable way to operate. Now we know that EQ is just as important as IQ, or even more so. Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence is the gold standard, but I also highly recommend The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership .
• Balance, mental health, and wellness: The day-to-day life of a product manager can be exhausting. You’ll take care of your products and teams, but be sure to take care of yourself, too. Create space for friends, family, hobbies, music, and other activities that bring you joy. Staying healthy, exercising, and practicing mindfulness will help you achieve the inner strength to be present.
• Sense of purpose: Find your purpose and let it fuel you. Put it into words: What is the impact you want to have on the world, and what is it that you uniquely offer?
• Dealing with the inner critic: We all have self-sabotaging inner “voices” that work to hold us back. Sometimes called the inner critic, the judge, or saboteur, these forces can produce feelings of shame, anxiety, incompetence, and failure and contribute to imposter phenomenon. These voices never go away—after all, it’s neuroscience—but we can train ourselves to cope with and even control our saboteurs. For more on this, check out Chatter by psychologist Ethan Kross.
• Understanding your values: Find work in line with your values, as it will only motivate you to be an even better product manager. Values are who we are, but they’re often not front and center in our lives. They might be suppressed or neglected. Learning to connect with your values and letting them guide you through difficult decisions will help you lead a life of resonance and fulfillment. Brené Brown has excellent resources for exploring your values, including exercises on her website and an entire chapter in her book Dare to Lead .

I’m confident I’ve overlooked many vital skills. And there’s a great deal of ambiguity: That’s why I depicted the purpose areas as overlapping circles. Many skills fit under several practice areas. The Six C’s amplify and reinforce each other. They’re squishy, subjective, and open to a million different interpretations.

It is art, after all.

Originally Published: April 4, 2022

Ken Norton is an executive coach who works with product leaders. He spent more than 14 years at Google where he built products used by more than 3 billion people.

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Product Management: What is it, Importance + Process

Have you ever wondered who created these digital experiences while you stream your favorite movie or begin a chat with a coworker on your company’s messaging platform?

The answer is that many different people contributed to creating any product. Still, product management is one of the most important factors in creating any digital experience.

The most well-liked things in the world—from cutting-edge computers to cozy sweaters—are the results of extensive research, testing, and design procedures.

Product management, along with the use of an effective product management tool , allows business owners to learn vital information, such as whether a product appeals to buyers or which features to include. Businesses of all sizes may develop and introduce outstanding products with a solid product management foundation.

What exactly is product management, why is it important, and how does one go about doing it? In this blog, you may find all the answers to these questions.

What is product management?

Product management is bringing a new product to market or improving an existing one. It starts with an idea of a product that a customer would use and ends with an evaluation of how well it worked.

Product management connects business, product development, marketing, and sales. According to research, competent product management can boost profit by 34.2 percent, demonstrating the significance of its execution.

One of the most significant aspects of product management is developing and documenting a product strategy, a process so vast and important that it warranted its own article.

In tech, where newer and better products quickly replace old ones, product teams ship better-designed and better-performing products because of this customer focus. Knowing customers and personalizing solutions to them is more important than ever. That’s product management.

Importance of product management

Product management is important to a company’s success because it connects the different departments and ensures that a product is developed and brought to market in a way that meets customer needs and fits with the company’s overall strategy and goals.

This includes market research, figuring out what customers want, setting product strategy, making product roadmaps, and working with cross-functional teams to get the product to market.

Product managers launch new user experiences. They connect UX teams, technical teams, and business leaders to the product vision. Product managers also monitor performance and make necessary changes to ensure the product stays competitive and successful.

Most importantly, product managers define product success, establish the product strategy, and show how it will affect customers and the company’s goals. With a product owner’s voice, teams could navigate large and small enterprises’ diverse interests.

Overall, product management is important for the development and success of a company’s products and, ultimately, for the company’s overall growth and profitability. It is a necessary component of every successful product strategy, facilitated by effective product management tools .

Process of product management

Product management can take many forms, so the process will change depending on the company, the type of product manager, and the scope of their work.

But there are some best practices you can use, like defining buyer personas and planning the launch of a new product. Let’s find out:

1. Research Your Customers

According to Helen Huang, founder of the product management education platform Co.Lab, the first stage in product management is understanding your ideal consumer and the market you intend to penetrate, including its size, rivals, and current trends.

Create your ideal buyer persona first. Ask:

• What do they enjoy or disapprove of? 
• They consume information in what ways? 

Write down as much information as possible about this persona and treat it like a genuine person. The rest of this process will be built on the information provided in this paragraph.

You can find out more about your customers by visiting relevant forums or groups, such as Reddit, LinkedIn, or Discord.

Many people in these groups post queries, discussions, and even issues. You might also participate in these forums and interact with the folks there by asking them about their professional experiences.

2. Identify the Problem

First, identifying a problem can often lead to brilliant ideas. This pertains to product management and involves identifying issues that affect your target market and developing solutions.

Examining your buyer persona and posing inquiries like the following can help you identify pain points:

• What is most important to them?
• What inquiries do they make online?
• Is there a common issue among them?
• Do they alone experience this issue?
• Is there a workable answer to this issue?

Product managers can motivate other stakeholders to develop a solution by using the clearly defined problem as a springboard.

3. With Stakeholders, Brainstorm

Product managers can meet with engineers, marketers, and customers to brainstorm ideas.

Interview potential consumers. Ask them about their product experiences in your business. Ask insightful follow-up questions, such as why they feel or believe the way they do.

Use the problem you outlined in the previous stage to talk to internal stakeholders. You want to show potential clients that your company can solve their problems with a product. Customer interviews can also aid these discussions.

Ask internal teams and stakeholders for their ideas without judgment. Bad ideas sometimes lead to good ones, after all. Write these down and utilize them later to conceptualize the product.

4. Build the Concept Out

After gathering suggestions from all relevant parties, focus on a single, sound direction the organization can go. You could choose a standout notion from one source or blend elements of several themes.

After that, read the product specifications to determine what should be included in the suggested product. Make a document that responds to the following inquiries:

• What shape will the product take?
• How does it deal with the stated issue?
• What components should the final product have?
• How will the company evaluate the effectiveness of the product?

Product managers either build products or advise on them. Therefore, the document’s detail will differ. If you are more technical, the product specs should include technical direction guidelines.

Instead, you can advise developers and engineers on product content. Discuss what you can build with other departments.

5. Establish a Product Roadmap

A product roadmap outlines each phase of the development and launch process. A road plan includes dates, targets, and KPIs to keep the project on track.

Your product roadmap should include the following items:

• Specific dates and times for reaching a milestone
• Tasks and how each one contributes to the success of the product
• Those in charge of meeting specified milestones
• Metrics for determining the success

6. Prioritize various features

It’s time for feature prioritization when you decide how much time to devote to developing various features once you’ve built out high-level goals in the road map.

Think about how each feature contributes to the final version of your product, how well it solves a problem for your persona, and how much time and money it takes to make the feature.

A lower-effect feature could be dropped in favor of one with a greater impact if it takes several months to complete but only slightly enhances user experience.

7. Implement the Plan

When a road map is created, and features are prioritized, the product manager can begin giving instructions. They could delegate milestones to particular teams, like software developers, and assume more advising roles.

As an alternative, more technically inclined product managers could take on active responsibilities and help programmers create the product.

Agile and waterfall delivery models are frequently used. Releases of a product are made iteratively using an agile methodology, and each release incorporates consumer feedback.

On the other hand, a waterfall process adopts a more meticulously controlled approach, with products only being distributed once they receive final approval.

8. Try, and Test New Methods

After release, the product management process continues. Product managers will assess a product’s performance and identify areas for improvement.

For example, A product manager might utilize A/B testing in the early launch phases to enhance marketing or the product.

Ask them if they have any issues or questions with the product as you continue to gather their feedback. Continue working with internal stakeholders and inform them of criticism and suggestions for improvement.

LEARN ABOUT: Client Management

The role of product management is ultimately all about strategy, which is our conclusion to the question, “What is product management?” 

Product managers first create the strategy for the product and effectively present it. Then, they ensure that the strategy is reflected in and supported by all decisions related to development, marketing, etc.

The success of new features for an organization and its customers heavily depends on product managers, who work at the nexus of business and technology executives. 

Product management might be a very lucrative career path for persons with a passion for collaboration, strategic thinking, and providing excellent experiences for others.

QuestionPro is a survey software that product managers can benefit from in various ways of product management. Customer feedback surveys can collect input on existing products and ideas for new items.

Customer requirements, customer demands, and problem areas can be identified with surveys, which can then inform new creations and improve existing products.

Customer satisfaction surveys can gauge how well customers respond to current offerings and pinpoint areas that want improvement. Benchmarking research can compare the company’s products to the competition and identify areas where they shine or fall short.

So try out QuewstionPro now!

LEARN MORE         FREE TRIAL

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Why is Product Management important?

Learn how Product management drives a product to achieve success throughout its lifecycle.

Product Management is important because it ensures "Product" is successful and meets organizational goals. Product Management owns the responsibility for Product" throughout its life cycle, from idea generation to post-launch evaluation. This means Product Managers are the decision-makers for the Product and work closely with internal and external teams to ensure its success. 

Product Management helps a company:

Deliver value to users faster and more consistently than competitors by identifying and executing opportunities aligned with the company’s overall Business and Technology strategy.

Establish a compelling purpose that aligns with the organizational vision and guide the Product Team to prioritize and create product experiences that solve users' pain points.

Proactively remove roadblocks, pave the way for innovation, and handle multiple priorities to ensure an excellent end-to-end customer experience.

Develop solutions that address customer needs by working at the intersection of software development, data science, and user experience.

Define metrics, organize and structure them to make them consumable, and track product outcomes' impact to the company’s North Star and P&L.

Launch MVPs, validate business cases and conduct A/B testing and experimentation of new features with the Product Marketing team to deliver the best customer experience.

Next: What does a Project Manager do?

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Home » Product Management Basics » What is Product Management?

What is Product Management?

An introduction to what product management is, who does it, and why.

Product management is the job of looking after a specific product within a business.

It’s a role at the very heart of an organization that needs to balance the need to deliver value to your company (usually profit) with what customers want and what’s technically and operationally possible.

That means coming up with a product strategy, thinking about what to build (Product Development), and working out how to market and sell the product (Product Marketing).

Learn with free resources

What are the key aims of product management?

The 3 fundamental aims of product management are:

1. Build once, sell many times – this gets the economies of scale that result in higher profitability

2. Being an expert on the market as well as the product – this makes sure you build products that customers will buy

3. Lead within the business – with a balanced view across all the different aspects of the product

If you are new to product management, our course Product Marketing and Product Management for technology-based products will teach you everything you need to hit the ground running.

You might also be interested in our white paper – Product Management as a leadership role .

Finally, check out all our infographics which give you great insights clearly presented on a single page.

You could also answer the question ‘What is product management?’ by talking about the team, or department, that has that title.

In some businesses, this area reports into another area, such as Development or Marketing. However, the majority report directly through to the board (42% in our 2021 Industry Survey).

We think that helps product management have a balanced, independent and objective view for their products. See why we believe product management needs to lead.

How the team performs will depend on how well it is led, how it is organized, the people that work there and the processes and tools they use.

Download resources

The various product roles

And the different varieties of product management don’t stop there. You may only have internal customers, be selling customized solutions, or managing a service – and still be called a Product Manager.

There are lots of different job titles that focus on product-related activities.

Three of the most common are shown in the diagram. And, to make things even more confusing, these product roles often overlap and are implemented differently from one company to the next. See  Product Manager Job Descriptions for more detail.

Our view is lots of people across an organization do product management. Some of these people have the word ‘product’ in their job title, and others don’t!

The role and mindset of product management is the 1st module of our course, Product Management & Product Marketing for technology-based products .

You can read lots more about the product roles in our Product Management Journals – sign-up here .

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Product Activities Framework 

To help clear things up,  our   Product Activities Framework  identifies all the activities that need to take place in any company with products.  

Strategic Product Activities are about working out what the right product is for the business. Inbound activities mean working within the business to help deliver the product. Outbound Activities are assisting the business to sell the product.  

Product Activities Framework (sign up to get a free copy)  

What is product management to other parts of the business?  

To the Development team, product management provides direction, gives insights into what the market wants, and validates that what they’re creating is needed. If the Development team lose focus and start building stuff that’s not wanted by customers, it’s down to product management to bring them back on track.  

To the Sales team, product management can be the  saviors  who deliver shiny new products that let them have new discussions with their customers. They also provide information and support to help Sales to sell. But Sales teams are heavily motivated to keep their customers happy, and often this means demanding that new features should be added to a product. As a result, Sales sometimes see product management as the ‘ sales prevention department ‘ when they say no . In these situations, product management must balance the needs of one customer against the needs of others by evaluating what’s planned for the roadmap, the perceived commercial value, and resource constraints. See  Taming the RHiNO .  

To Senior Management, product managers give a view of what’s going on in their business from a product perspective. Ideally, they also view product managers as the people who understand the market and who can help advise on the best product strategy for the business.  

Product managers tend to be people who can get things done. They motivate and direct teams around the business to make sure the company delivers products that customers want. Although they drive activity in many areas of the business, they rarely have direct control over other people, so they need to be good at communicating, influencing, and leading virtual teams. The diagram shows all the different stakeholders that product managers may work with in a mature business.  

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The Product Management Lifecycle 

Another way to answer the question, ‘What is product management?’ is to describe the process a company uses to choose, develop and sell products. There are lots of different methodologies and processes used by businesses in this area. We’ve simplified the steps into what we call our  Product Management Lifecycle .  

In some businesses, this process doesn’t exist at all. In others, there is a New Product Development (NPD process that covers all the steps up to launch. Some companies have a formal process covering Innovation through to End-of-life (known as ‘cradle to grave’).  

For companies developing software using iterative Agile techniques, this series of steps may look like a purely Waterfall approach. However, our experience is that all products, releases, or sprints will go through these logical steps in some shape or form.  

Product Management Lifecycle (sign up to get a free copy)  

The activities in these different stages are carried out by people in different parts of the organization working closely together. Product Management is leading or heavily involved in  all of  the steps.  

At the  Innovation  stage, it’s about generating and collating new ideas, prioritizing the ones that look most interesting, and coming up with what the customer proposition might be. It’s a phase of ‘discovery.’ If the idea seems like it might be successful, a decision is made to commit resources to investigate it further.  

In the  Analysis  stage, it’s about validating if there is a market need, writing the high-level requirements, and justifying the investment. In many big companies, the output of this work is a business case that must be signed off by senior management before development can begin.  

In the  Development  stage, the product is designed, built, and tested. With Agile software development, this is an iterative process, and there may be several sprints – each preceded by more client discovery work and analysis before the decision is made to release something to customers.  

In the  Go-to-Market  stage, the company prepares for launch by running trials, finalizing the proposition, and making sure the company is ready to sell the product. For companies building high-risk products in industries such as health or aerospace, this might take many months. For other companies such as those making online web-based products, the phase may be done in minutes as new functionality is continually released.  

Once the product is launched, it is  In-life . The focus is on selling, tracking performance, and fixing any issues. During the in-life phase, there may be many more product versions, each of which has been through the  I nnovation,  A nalysis,  D evelopment, and  G o-to- M arket planning phases.   

And then, at some point, when the product is no longer needed, it is withdrawn in the  End-of-life  stage.  

Throughout the whole process, product management needs to track what’s happening in the market and respond to any changes.  

The Importance of Product Management to the Business

Product management is one of the critical functions of any business as it is responsible for the overall success of the products or services. The range of activities that require the attention of product managers is wide. This diversity of responsibilities and the many interactions with different teams means that product managers need to possess different types of skills.

The number of decisions that product management is involved in has been increasing in recent years. Product managers work closely with teams inside and outside the organization to build and execute a plan to ensure that the product meets its financial and strategic goals better.

What is product management?

Product management is the business area that manages products at all stages of their life cycle , from development to removal from the market. Product management includes not only physical products, but also services, software, and everything else that companies produce and deliver to the market as a result.

A Product Manager (PM) is the person who identifies the customer needs and the business goals that a product is going to suppress. A PM defines what success will look like for a product and assembles a team to transform the vision into reality.

Product management is the crossover between the business, technology, and user experience functions:

The focus of product management is to optimize the product to meet business objectives while maximizing return on investment;

Product management must have the ability to understand the technology and understand the level of effort involved in building the product;

User Experience

On the other hand, product management is the voice of the user or customer within the business and should know in detail the user’s experience.

What are the benefits of good product management?

Product management helps the company to deliver value to the market and obtain a financial return. The main benefits of having good product management are:

• Delivering the products and services that best meet customer needs;
• Having satisfied customers that generate positive references through word-of-mouth;
• To capture and sustain markets in the long term, through a solid product strategy;
• Increase revenues and business profitability.

What skills does a product manager need?

Given the variety of a product manager’s activities, the skills required to successfully perform their role are also varied:

• Strategic thinking to develop a product vision for the short, medium and long term that is clear and realistic and a plan with desired results;
• Leadership skills to manage multiple teams. The ability to clearly talk to all teams involved and organize the entire product development and market introduction process efficiently;
• Communication skills to effectively communicate critical information to different stakeholders (customers, vendors, development team, management, etc);
• Research and analysis skills to understand the market. Product managers have to follow the market, develop competitive analyses, and be constantly aware of all the current trends to make the best decisions. Market Intelligence  can play an important role in providing market insights;
• Technical knowledge to understand the product and technologies and help in the decision-making process;
• Financial skills to analyze costs, and revenues, and define pricing strategies;
• Project management knowledge to manage product development roadmaps and market introductions;
• Continuous improvement skills to test products, analyze data, and identify improvements in a structured way.

What are the responsibilities of a product manager?

The specific responsibilities of a product manager can vary depending on the industry and the size of the company. But these responsibilities are as follows:

• Define the product strategy and vision: Manage the product range and product life cycle and define the vision, positioning, and initiatives to implement for each product ;
• Manage stakeholders involved in the product vision: have the ability to communicate with the whole team briefly and clearly;
• Follow the market and develop competitive analysis: be aware of all current trends and have a thorough knowledge of the market to make the best decisions;
• Understand and represent the user’s needs : be close to the customer;
• Launch new products: plan and manage the introduction of products into the markets;
• Define the pricing strategy: define the price list, discount rules, promotional actions and special commercial conditions;
• Train sales and customer service teams: train the teams to sell the new products (points of differentiation, FAQs, Up-sell and Cross-sell suggestions);
• Collaborate in marketing activities: together with the marketing team, develop strategies for product promotion and customer loyalty ;
• Ensure continuous product improvement: Test products, analyze data and identify improvements;
• Prioritize resources and product features: have a clear list of development priorities.

Product management plays an important role in defining business strategy because the knowledge it has of products, markets, and competition is essential for decision-making to introduce new products in existing markets or to launch existing products in new markets.

Other strategic activities are the management of the organization’s product range and the management of each product’s life cycle. These activities consist of monitoring the evolution of sales, costs and margins and deciding which products to introduce, invest in, keep, or phase out.

Whenever a decision is made to introduce a new product to the market, it is necessary to define the strategy for what is intended to be achieved before starting to develop the product. This includes defining the product vision, business model, positioning, pricing model, personas, and segmentation of the target audience .

Investigation

The investigation by the product managers includes three major areas: market and competition, internal teams, and the customer or user.

Market and Competition Investigation

Being aware of the market and competition is essential for any PM. This activity includes activities such as:

• Building lists of direct and indirect competitors;
• Analyze available materials (company website, customer reviews, financial information, …);
• Testing competitors’ products (if possible);
• Document the user experience and identify the strengths and weaknesses of competitors’ products;
• Create a competitive analysis report and share it with R&D, sales, and marketing teams.

Market Intelligence can play a relevant role in this process, as it provides market insights.

Internal Customer Voice Investigation

Collecting and analyzing feedback from internal departments such as marketing, sales, customer support, R&D, and logistics is essential. All these departments may have vital information for improving the product or the buying experience . It is necessary to set standards for collecting the internal voice of the customer in a structured and systematic way.

External Customer Voice Investigation

The PMs must always be close to users and learn the needs and challenges of their customers. To do this, they should participate in the following:

• Calls and meetings with customers;
• Focus groups, polls and surveys;
• Usability tests.

Collection of the voice of the customer, through focus groups or surveys, in a structured way is necessary to design a process. The process should start by defining the purpose of the research and selecting the target audience. Then it is necessary to select the research method and design the data collection forms. After conducting the survey, it is necessary to analyze the responses, compile the data, and share the findings.

New Product Launch

One of the primary responsibilities of the PMs is launching new products. This includes product development and marketing and sales responsibilities to introduce the product to the market.

Active participation of the PMs in product development should happen when designing the product development roadmap, managing the feature backlog, and performing product testing (mock-ups and prototypes).

In planning the market introduction of the products, the PMs must participate in defining the product’s strategic goals, defining the Go-to-Market roadmap, and managing the resources involved.

Product managers are also responsible for managing the pricing strategy for the various products, types of customers, and sales and distribution channels.

This responsibility includes activities such as:

• Creating and adjusting the price list;
• Establishing the discount rules;
• Defining promotional actions;
• Establishing special commercial conditions.

Dissemination

Product management must support marketing in defining messages for websites, social media, catalogs, merchandizing, and other means of communicating with potential buyers or influencers of the purchase.

Product managers should complete the StoryBrand of the product segments and products with the marketing team, which serves as the basis for developing marketing and sales content .

Generally, the product manager is the most qualified person to provide product training to the sales and customer service teams.

The teams’ training should include the demonstration of the product and its features and the points of differentiation, FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), and product suggestions for up-sell and cross-sell.

Using practical demonstrations, role-play exercises, and sales scripts during the training facilitates learning.

Improvements

The PMs must be constantly concerned with improving the value proposition for the customer. To do so, it is necessary to establish an idea management process to improve the technical characteristics and functionalities of the product, but also production costs, logistics service, or others.

Managing in a structured way the customer’s ideas and requests and the feedback from internal teams is essential. A standardized process is essential:

• Registration of ideas and requests;
• Reviewing of ideas and requests and grouping of duplicates;
• Ranking each idea based on consistent criteria, assigning a numerical score;
• Grouping of ideas into categories and sorting by score;
• Transformation of ideas into features and introduction into the product development backlog.

Product management indicators help PMs track performance to ensure the company continuously improves and works towards a successful product strategy. The diversity of activities product managers perform means that the performance indicators they track are also different.

The PMs track indicators for sales, costs, margins, quality, service level, customer satisfaction, and retention rates, among others. Indicator tracking and performance analysis should be based on internal and market indicators, such as industry growth, market share, and others.

What is Product Life Cycle?

One of the most relevant activities of product managers is managing the product lifecycle. A product goes through a sequence of stages, from its introduction to the market until it is phased out. This series of stages is called the Product Life Cycle. The activities to be performed by the product manager vary depending on the stage the product is in.

Identifying, recognizing, and understanding a product’s stage is as critical as knowing what each stage requires.

Introduction

The main challenge of this first stage is to generate demand, i.e., to create awareness and communicate the benefits of the product. During this stage, teams must be agile to keep the product viable by emphasizing the different aspects of the value proposition, highlighting relevant features, and eliminating friction points.

Typically, the introduction is the least profitable stage of the life cycle.

In many cases, there is no competition, and it is necessary to define the pricing strategy. There are usually two possible strategies: sell at a higher price to eager early adopters or set a low introductory price to convince as many people as possible.

At this stage the PM should:

• Explain to all stakeholders what the product can actually do and why someone would want to buy and use it;
• When the product starts to gain more users, they should understand who is really using it and what aspects of the product they value most;
• Be an available resource to help the marketing and sales teams.

This is generally the stage in which the investment in marketing is most significant. The messages that are having an impact and the best channels for customers are identified.

At this stage, it is normal for competition to increase, which may require reducing prices, creating alternative products, or expanding the target market.

In this stage, profit margins increase with economies of scale, and it is necessary to reinvest part of the profit to continue improving the product.

In the growth stage, the PM must:

• Manage the balance so that the products remain competitively priced but without giving away margin unnecessarily;
• Identify who might want to buy the product and what new features or changes are needed to grow the business;
• Analyze the data to discover patterns and trends.

At this stage, new customer growth slows, competitors devour market share, and profits decline.

The challenge is to keep as much of the customer base as possible while fighting abandonment.

The role of the PM in this stage is:

• Attempt to reduce costs while continuing to invest in product differentiation;
• Be selective in which features to invest in and how the value proposition evolves. The focus should be on improvements with a high ROI that allow to charge current customers more for new features or open new target markets with a unique offering. The focus on metrics is critical during the maturity stage;
• Understand user behavior and which actions result in continued usage and payments versus those that precede abandonment. It is necessary to analyze the needs for developing nurturing campaigns , targeted promotions, and price changes to keep current customers happy and satisfied for as long as possible.

The decline can be market-wide or specific to the company’s offering, with competitors outperforming the product in popularity, accessibility, or features. When the entire market is shrinking, product managers must explore how they can leverage existing technology and branding to continue in a new market.

In the decline stage, the PMs must:

• Understand what scenario is driving the decline to know how to deal with the situation;
• Discover how to get former customers to come back. Identify the profile of former users with the most potential to return and understand which messages impact their return most.
• If the decision is to remove the product from the market, try to make the transition seamless for the remaining customers.

The Importance of Product Management for the Business

Product managers today face complex challenges given the ever-changing demands of customers and the speed of technological change.

Organizations that manage to improve the different areas of product management will stay ahead of the competition and achieve sustained growth. To do so will require:

Improve the information available

Ensure that all of the information needed for decision-making is available and turned into insights (buyers’ needs, technologies, market sizes, and dynamics, etc.);

Improve product management teams

Optimize product management strategy and teams by developing new processes, reorganizing resources, and improving collaboration with the entire company;

Improve product development

Improve product development effectiveness with well-prioritized investment, good backlog management, and reduced product development time.

Improve product introduction to market

Optimize marketing and sales strategies and messages so that they have an impact on new customers and that the market launch of products is successful;

Know and properly manage the Product Life Cycle

Develop and innovate the product or service throughout its life cycle while maintaining financial growth.

Proper product management allows the company to deliver customer value and achieve a financial return.

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What is Product Management and why is it important?

Every year thousands of startups and enterprises launch their products with the hope to earn billions of dollars. They hire top-notch developers and marketers to make sure the product reaches the right audience.

Still, most of these startups fail within the first 5 years . One of the major reasons is the lack of clarity about the consumer’s expectations and performance of the product.

Customers have an important part in the success of your product. They decide how long your product will last as well as how much money it’ll produce. But how can you stay on top of everything? That’s where product management comes into play.

Organizations hire product managers to make sure the voice of the market is heard and the consumers are advocated.

What is Product Management?

Product management is an organizational role that is critical to the creation, definition, delivery, monitoring, and refinement of products. It supports every step of the product lifecycle from idea to pricing and launching.

Product Management advises the business on how to best allocate its resources to provide competitive goods that meet market demands. Then it collaborates with other departments to assist the company in achieving its goals.

The ideal strategy to create a successful product is to hire a product manager who will act as the customer’s voice. When you design a product with the client in mind, it’ll perform better than its competitors. A product manager will oversee all parts of the product and guarantee that it’s published on a regular basis. Also it’ll help in keeping up with technological changes and updates, as well as adding new features for consumers.

Without it, it would be a challenge for businesses to find out what their target audience needs in order to develop an effective product. This is why the position of a product manager is so important.

Product management, according to Martin Eriksson, is the convergence of business, user experience, and technology.

Business — Product management bridges the communication gap between the developer, designer, the customer, and the management, allowing teams to meet their business goals.

UX — Product management is concerned with the customer experience and serves as a representative of the consumer within the company. The way this concentration reveals itself is through great UX.

Technology — Product management takes place in the engineering department on a daily basis. It’s critical to have a good grasp of computer science.

Key responsibilities of a product manager

The primary goal of a software product manager is to assess and understand the demands of consumers. Product manager should strive to surpass customers’ aspirations and be on the cutting edge of innovation.

The primary duty of a product manager varies based on the company’s size and requirements. For example, when a group of product managers works on a product in a huge corporation, it becomes difficult to get all of the parties to agree on the conclusions or survey results. Product managers at small businesses, on the other hand, spend more time managing the resources.

To help you understand this better; we have listed out the key responsibilities of every product manager:

Developing a strategy

Strategic planning is putting out significant investment areas so the product manager may prioritize what matters most. You’re also in charge of the product roadmap . Which is a visual representation of what you’ll produce and when. A product manager is in charge of defining the vision and strategic direction of your product at the highest level. Product managers must be able to properly describe the business case for a particular program or feature so that your team knows why it’s being developed.

Considering a concept

The product manager handles the concept management process of the product owner. Then he or she decides which concepts should be elevated to your plan in order to progress the product strategy ahead. Product owners also ensure that customer input and requests are included in product planning and design procedures. Product manager updates your clients, partners, and internal co-workers on the status of ideas they contributed.

Launching a Product

Product launProduct managers integrate strategic plans into work plans, determining what will be built and when it’ll be released. You’re in charge of the launch process and cross-functional requirements, as well as all of the actions that go into bringing new products, innovations, and performance to the marketplace.

Tactical roadmaps are created and shared

A product roadmap depicts how your product will fulfill your business goals and aids in project management. A product manager may make a variety of various sorts of roadmaps based on who you’re speaking to and what you’re trying to say. Executives are more interested in high-level planning, but engineers and designers have to know the scheduling of critical tasks.

Features that should be prioritized

Product managers rank features against strategic goals and activities to determine their priority. You’ll have to make difficult decisions depending on the value that new feature will bring to your consumers. You’re also in charge of setting feature needs and the user experience the product manager wants to achieve. A product manager works collaboratively with engineering on technical requirements and makes sure that teams have everything they need to bring a full product into the market.

The difference between Product and Project Management

Product management and project management are sometimes used correspondingly. Product management is the duty in charge of overseeing the product’s lifetime. From its conception to its introduction to the market, acceptability, and ultimate retirement. There is no set schedule because it’ll be determined by the product’s commercial success.

The role of project management is concerned with the practical production and implementation of the product. It has a set deadline and is a one-time project that ends when the venture is finished and the product is given to the customer. The project’s life cycle is divided into five stages:

• commencement
• implementation
• monitoring and control

A software product manager is the one who determines a product’s what and why. They’re in charge of guaranteeing that all new products or functionalities meet the demands of customers and the company’s goals. Project manager, on the other hand, concentrates on the how and when of a project.

Being a product manager necessitates product knowledge. That is, having the insight to recognize when to shift a product from alpha to beta testing. When to postpone a rollout due to a defect, and when to delete a product or portion of it because it no longer makes financial sense.

Product managers are also in charge of a product’s profit and loss function. That’s why they work closely with the sales, marketing, consumer experience, and support personnel.

The project managers must take the product manager’s concept, create a project timetable and schedule tasks for the project team in order to meet crucial milestones and goals. Their job is to effectively complete a project within the agreed-upon price, schedule, and quality. One assignment at a time.

The project manager may also obtain user needs. He or she’ll have little role in formulating and prioritizing them, as well as assisting the product manager in developing user requirements. This informs them that the team’s guidelines are as transparent as possible so that they may readily follow them.

Consider a clothing retailer that operates solely online. They intend to release a mobile app that users may use to explore merchandise. The firm may appoint a product manager to oversee the app’s evolution. The product manager will establish the app’s objectives, determine which technologies should be included, oversee a group of product developers, and keep track of new difficulties as they occur.

The product owner may then engage a project manager to help them achieve their objectives. Let’s assume the product manager discovers that when buying a product, consumers want to talk to their friends about it, and decide to make this a main feature of the app. A project manager may be in charge of launching a functionality on the app that allows users to message each other about pieces they like.

The project manager may assemble a team devoted to the new feature, establish a production plan, and oversee the team’s completion of a project. Meanwhile, they may communicate with the product manager a few instances a week to provide progress reports.

While product managers and project managers are two distinct jobs, they regularly collaborate in order to produce a successful project. Both jobs are focused on the product. They strive to increase product value, improve customer happiness, and produce high-quality products on schedule and within budget. They must both be able to communicate more effectively, as well as possess excellent organizational and administrative skills. Competence and proper training are essential for both professions.

Benefits of Product Lifecycle Management

Every product has a life cycle that is analogous to the cycle of life in certain aspects. The first is the manufacturing, processing, or harvesting stage. During which the product is created, processed, or harvested. The product then passes through four major stages in its life cycle:

• introduction
• development

Taking crucial decisions

When you’re faced with a number of possibilities, you’ll need additional information to decide which path to pursue. Since it contains sales data as well as performance data, the product life cycle assists managers in making such decisions. The confluence of these two can aid managers in making quick judgments.

Competitive edge

In addition to managing their own product life cycle, a marketing executive can also control the life cycle of rivals’ products. This offers a decent idea of what the participants must be dealing with in terms of planning. As a result, the company doing the study has a strategic advantage since it’s always relevant and competitive.

For example, a competitor’s product is in the early stages of development, while your product is nearing maturity. The mature product begins to advertise and attract customers, preventing the fresher product from taking off.

Ease at planning

The most important advantage of the Product Life Cycle is that it may assist a product manager in defining the tactics that can be implemented based on the life cycle stage. So, if a product is in the growth stage, it’ll require a significant amount of advertising and expenditure to maintain it there. As a result, the Product Life Cycle makes planning easier.

Predicting sales

With enough expertise, predicting how a software product will progress through the product life cycle and, as a result, what sales levels it’ll accomplish becomes simpler. For example, when Apple introduces a new mobile phone, it anticipates that the device will expand for 5 to 6 months. Then achieve maturity, and begin to decline as people look for other devices.

Product management tools

Prioritizing.

A Product Manager must be able to see both the good and bad aspects of a situation. They must be able to prioritize when something isn’t working. This is an extremely useful skill. If the product manager works alone; he or she’ll save time & expense. Tools like GridRank , Trello , Hygger , etc are important tools that help the product manager in prioritizing. A quick peek at a colorful Trello board informs the product manager what’s been accomplished so far, what’s in the works, and what’s still to do. A Trello board looks like a whiteboard, except it’s full of colorful sticky notes, each of which represents a task for both the manager and your team.

This technique is applied in a variety of professions. Product Managers can make use of tools from other fields. Tools like Agilean and Binfire are adequate for small and medium-sized businesses.

Asana has a lot of features for larger companies. While Planbox integrates areas for multiple teams to operate on the cloud. A product manager must identify the priorities. Would you rather spend your money on a more robust, complicated product management system? Will you promote your Sprint with a combination of freemium applications and more standard mail, analytics, and PowerPoint tools?

Prototyping

Before a product manager can reach full bloom, he or she must first demonstrate that your product concept can be transformed into reality. As product managers aren’t the ones who create wireframes, they’ll choose solutions that make their job easier. Software products that make getting feedback and communication simple. More and more technologies are developing as the relevance of user design and pleasant consumer experiences grows.

In fact, the variety of web-based apps accessible has increased as a result of their appeal. Yet, some are a little iffy when it comes to usage. The majority of people are using multi-purpose applications for whiteboarding, developing, and prototyping. Once product managers learn how to control products on a whiteboard, a product manager can utilize a virtual whiteboard. Miro is a fantastic tool for visual collaboration. You’ll have to master how to employ a whiteboard for collaborative brainstorming prior to getting going with Miro. This is required in case the product manager hasn’t adopted whiteboard or Miro already.

If you’re searching for a multi-purpose tool that’s also good at prototyping, we recommend Figma. At the outset of the epidemic, Figma, like Miro, swept the product world by storm. The comment function, which allows teams to offer comments immediately on the same edition, is the most well-known aspect of this simple design tool to make prototyping simple.

Roadmapping

This is a primary task in Product Management. While PMs are famed for their adaptability, charting your course reveals the stakeholder’s negotiating skills and data-driven strategy. In the implementation of a strategic plan, a product roadmap is critical. Local teams will be required to follow the plan and concentrate in order to achieve business goals. Team workers can schedule a task list for the following several days or weeks with the use of roadmaps. Teams will be able to predict when a feature or task item will be released. A roadmap helps clearly explain the product’s progress and updates to external partners.

Productboard , based on what we’ve heard from product managers, favors ‘keeping things simple’. AHA is also beneficial and is founded on good conceptual underpinnings regarding how product managers operate. Airtable , airfocus , and Roadmunk are also popular among product managers, so keep them in mind when choosing an application for the roadmap.

Project Management

There’s a chance to bring your solution to reality once you’ve decided what you want to provide. PMs must keep track of the features being produced by developers during the development period. The idea is to use technologies that enable them to duplicate and assist engineering and technology teams’ agile methodologies lifecycles.

Product managers need a smart tool that indicates precisely what they have to do to get back on the right track, both graphically and in relation to the data if the product manager wants to maintain the backlog down.

Any of the above-mentioned planning tools can be used to manage tasks. Keep in mind, though, that some tools are better suited to specific techniques. They might not be beneficial for your team if the product manager doesn’t deal with small groups, for example. JIRA is a great illustration of this. Several of the world’s best combos are Confluence, a cooperative information wiki, and Jira, an issue- and mission-tracking software. It’s possible that you’ll need to teach your workers to function at full pace. ClickUp, an all-in-one solution for people management, programs, and everything else in between, comes highly recommended.

Data Analytics

Without data , a Product Manager is worthless. Even if your instinct is founded on years of experience, you’ll get nowhere without reliable analytics. Data is one of the most important tools in a Product Manager’s toolbox since it’s utilized to make decisions, defend decisions, and test hypotheses. Data may be used to improve almost every aspect of a product manager’s work. As a result, while searching for management solutions, there will be a plethora of possibilities to pick from.

Google Analytics is a free and simple tool for tracking web analytics. But if a product manager wants to go deeper, we prefer Mixpanel , which allows the product manager to analyze user engagement and do A/B testing. It stores records of every user activity instantly, allowing for real-time analysis.

Because of its free strategy, Amplitude is a common pick among early-stage entrepreneurs. While larger businesses appreciate its power and quickness. Pendo is well-known for its ease of use, which makes it an ideal option for cross-functional collaborations.

The global software products market has witnessed a growth of 4% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from $930.93 billion in 2020 to $968.25 billion in 2021. And it’s expected to grow further at a CAGR of 11% to reach $1493.07 billion in 2025. Among the major causes for this is that too many items aren’t adequately equipped for the marketplace. Economic problems frequently result from ignoring one component of product development while focusing heavily on the other. It’s feasible to avoid such effects and boost the possibilities of a product’s success in the market with good product management.

Product Management serves as a fundamental repository for product and market data for Revenue, Advertising, Production, Help, Finance, Administration, and other departments. Each department creates its own vision of market realities, product attributes, and product offerings development in the absence of this center.

Users, the industry, technology, competitors, platforms, press, experts, market dynamics, etc must be considered in order to succeed. These are all areas in which product managers take it on themselves to be established as acknowledged experts.

They have a real direction for their products and build strategic approaches that are in line with the company’s objectives and guarantee that time, budget, and effort are wisely spent. Product Management is needed to sustain the existing product portfolio while guiding activities that prepare the company for future prosperity. This will generate a parallel perspective of the operational current and conceptual future.

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• Integrations
• Learning Center
• The Ultimate Guide to Product Management
• Table of Contents
• What is Product Management?

What isn't Product Management?

What is the product management process, the people of product management, what are the most important product management skills.

• Product Management and Roadmaps

Product Management Tools

• B2B vs. B2C Product Management

Optimizing Product Management Operations

Product management meetings.

• Agile Product Management Operations
• Product Launch Responsibilities
• Conclusion: Product Management Strategy
• Download Book

The question, “What is product management?” comes up pretty often, even from experienced business people. One reason is that product management encompasses a wide-ranging area of responsibilities. Indeed, the role itself means very different things in different organizations.

Here is the most concise response we’ve come up with for the “What is product management?” question: Product management is the practice of strategically driving the development, market launch, and continual support and improvement of a company’s products.

Of course, that is an abstract explanation of the role. So what is product management? What does the job entail? 

The day-to-day tasks include a wide variety of strategic and tactical duties. Most product managers or product owners do not take on all these responsibilities. At least some of them are owned by other teams or departments in most companies.  

But most product professionals spend the majority of their time focused on the following:

• Conducting Research: Researching to gain expertise about the company’s market, user personas, and competitors .
• Developing Strategy: Shaping the industry knowledge they’ve learned into a high-level strategic plan for their product—including goals and objectives, a broad-strokes overview of the product itself, and maybe a rough timeline.
• Communicating Plans: Developing a working strategic plan using a product roadmap and presenting it to key stakeholders across their organization: executives, investors, development teams, etc. Ongoing communication across their cross-functional teams throughout the development process and beyond.
• Coordinating Development: Assuming they have received a green light to move forward with their product’s strategic plan, coordinate with the relevant teams—product marketing, development, etc.—to begin executing the plan.
• Acting on Feedback and Data Analysis: Finally, after building, testing, and introducing the product to the marketplace, learning via data analysis and soliciting direct feedback from users, what works, what doesn’t, and what to add. Working with the relevant teams to incorporate this feedback into future product iterations.

Product managers owning the day-to-day details of a product’s development is a common misconception. As we describe on our product management vs. project management page, this is the role of a project manager.

Product management’s strategic function

Product management is a strategic function. Tasking product managers with determining a product’s overall reason for being—the product’s “Why?”  

They’re also responsible for communicating product objectives and plans for the rest of the company. They must ensure everyone is working toward a shared organizational goal.  

Product management encompasses a broad set of ongoing strategic responsibilities. They shouldn’t be responsible for the ground-level details of the development process.

Innovative organizations separate this function and assign tactical elements to project managers, such as scheduling and managing workloads. This distinct division leaves the product manager free to focus on the higher-level strategy.

There is no single “right” way to manage a product. Processes will evolve and adapt to the organization, the product lifecycle stage, and product team members’ and executives’ personal preferences.

But the discipline has developed some consensus regarding best practices. So while rigid adherence isn’t required and there isn’t the same level of zealotry as one might find when discussing Agile, the basic tenets are widely accepted.

Defining the problem

It all begins with identifying a high-value customer pain point . After that, people or organizations are trying to do something, and they can’t. Or, if they can, it’s expensive or time-consuming or resource-intensive or inefficient, or just unpleasant.

Whether it’s moving a person or thing from Point A to Point B, finding the perfect gift, reaching the right audience, keeping people entertained, or some other objective, what’s currently available isn’t quite cutting it. People want something better or something they don’t have at all.

Product management turns these abstract complaints, wants, and wishes into a problem statement looking for a solution. Solving that problem and easing that pain is the spark and motivation for everything that comes next. Without a clearly articulated goal that directly impacts that pain point, there’s not much hope that the product will gain traction or staying power.

Quantifying the opportunity

There are many problems and pain points, but not all are worth solving. This is when product managers swap their customer-centric hats for a business one.

To justify investment in building a new product or solution, product management must answer the following questions and be able to build a business case based on the answers they find:

• What is the total addressable market ?
• Is the problem or pain severe enough that people will consider alternative solutions?
• Are they willing to pay for an alternative solution (or is there another way to monetize the solution)?

Once product management has evaluated the potential market, they can then try to address it if there’s a significant enough opportunity.

Researching potential solutions

With a target in mind, product management can now thoroughly investigate how they might solve customer problems and pain points. They should cast a large net of possible solutions and not rule anything out too quickly. For example, suppose the organization already has some proprietary technology or IP or a particular area of expertise to give the company an advantage. In that case, those potential solutions will likely leverage that somehow.

However, this does not mean that product managers should start drafting requirements and engaging the product development team. They’ll first want to validate those candidates with the target market, although it is prudent to bounce some of these ideas off the technical team to ensure they’re at least feasible. Product management will often develop personas to see whether there’s actual interest among those cohorts using any of the table’s ideas. 

Skipping this step and jumping right into building something can be a fatal flaw or cause severe delays. While there are no guarantees, getting confirmation from potential customers that the idea is something they’ll want, use, and pay for is a critical gate in the overall process and achieving product-market fit .

Building an MVP

After validating a particular solution’s appeal and viability, it’s now time to engage the product development team in earnest. First, the bare minimum set of functionality should be defined, and then the team can build a working version of the product that can be field-tested with actual users.

Many bells and whistles will intentionally be excluded from the Minimum Viable Product , as the goal is to ensure the core functionality meets the market’s needs. Nice-to-haves can wait for a later stage in the product lifecycle since there’s little point in expending additional resources on an unproven product.

MVPs can test how the product works and the overall messaging and positioning of the value proposition in conjunction with product marketing. The key is finding out whether this nascent product is something the market wants and if it adequately meets its core requirements.

Creating a feedback loop

While customer feedback is essential throughout a product’s life, there’s no time more critical than during the MVP introduction. This is where the product management team can learn what customers think, need, and dislike since they’re reacting to an actual product experience and not just theoretical ideas tossed out in a conversation.

Product management must make it easy for customers to provide feedback and create frequent prompts soliciting it. But, just as importantly, they must process, synthesize, and react to this feedback, turning this input into actionable ideas that make their way into the product roadmap or backlog.

And, not to be forgotten, product management must also establish a method for closing the loop with customers so they know their complaints and suggestions were heard and, when applicable, have been addressed.

Setting the strategy

Assuming the MVP is well received, it’s time to invest in a product strategy . The team now knows they’re onto something that can get some traction, so goals and objectives must be established to improve the product, bring it to market, expand its reach, and align with the overall company strategy and desired outcomes.

The strategy should be based on reasonable, incremental progress toward achievable goals, with key performance indicators and other metrics defined to evaluate success. These measurables should track with the organization’s general objectives and complement what the company already does well (assuming it’s not a startup still in its infancy).

Driving execution

With a viable product concept, a scalable feedback management system, and a sound strategy, it’s time to turn ideas into reality. This means prioritizing potential development items and plotting out the product roadmap.

Product management doesn’t have too many subspecialties, primarily because product people are expected to do a little bit of everything. However, this career has some variety, along with expected tiers of seniority and additional responsibility.

First, some jobs often get lumped in with product that doesn’t belong there. This includes project management , program management, product marketing, and scrum masters.

Each of those critical roles interfaces with the product management team quite a bit. Some organizations may even arrange those jobs into the same groups, such as making product management and product marketing part of the overall marketing organization. But these positions aren’t product management jobs, as they don’t actively define what is in the product or report to the people who do. 

Product Management Jobs

The ideal product management job is—unsurprisingly—being a product manager. A product manager will usually own one or more products or a horizontal function across multiple products, such as “user experience” or “e-commerce.” 

Associate product managers and junior product managers are typically new to the domain and have more limited responsibilities. A senior product manager will have a little more seasoning and a broader scope of their role. But these are essentially slightly different flavors of your basic product manager.

Technical product managers are another critical variation of the role. These individuals are often transitioning from a role in the engineering or IT teams and tasked with managing aspects of one or more products requiring a deeper understanding of technical issues, such as infrastructure and APIs.

Agile product managers

In an Agile organization, product owners also may be part of the puzzle. While there’s some debate, product owners are often considered part of product management. However, they are distinct from product managers. A product owner is embedded in one or more scrum teams, but their focus is mainly tactical, helping ensure the strategy laid out by product managers is appropriately executed. 

As one moves up through the ranks, more senior product management roles have more significant distinctions. For example, a product line manager will own multiple products that are typically related to each other, sometimes overseeing individual contributor product managers that manage a single product or sub-component.

The Product Executive Track

The executive track begins with Director and Senior Director roles. Depending on the company’s size, this may be a loftier title for a “lone wolf” product management professional. But, on the other hand, it may indicate an even broader portfolio of products and the corresponding direct reports to support that. 

Vice President and Senior Vice President are similar escalations up the corporate ladder. Those holding these jobs may see more diversity on their staff as they may also end up owning business analysts, UX, product marketing, or other related functions. The apex of a product management career is Chief Product Officer . Although not as common, this increasingly seen role elevates product management to the C-suite. It gives the product the same political weight as Engineering or Marketing, which often indicates an organization is committed to product-led growth. A CPO is typically supported by a larger team and provides directional guidance and coaching rather than diving into the nitty-gritty details of particular products.

With a shared understanding of product management’s scope, we can dig into what it takes to be a product manager. Product managers find their way by following the paths of those who came before them. And those more experienced in the profession have plenty of lessons to offer their peers and newcomers . 

You can’t get a degree in product management. There’s no single career path to get there. It’s more about the skills required to do the job well than a particular pedigree. Here are some of the key hard skills in product management.

Communication  

Communication skills leap to the top of the list when considering what it takes to be a successful product manager. So many aspects of the job rely on prowess in this domain. 

To solicit and gather feedback, product managers need to be great listeners. They must also know how to work those relationships and exhibit significant customer empathy .

Of course, customers aren’t the only source of input to the prioritization process. Product managers must also work with various stakeholders to understand their goals and needs . 

After that, product managers must succinctly convey the product’s mission. It should be a synthesis of all those inputs turned into something easily consumable that others can be inspired by.

Evangelizing and alignment

With vision, goals, and the roadmap defined, product managers must socialize and evangelize these pillars of the product to the entire organization. It’s all about creating alignment , generating buy-in, and getting the whole company on the same page, including leveraging public forums such as all-hands meetings , as well as smaller forums and one-on-one sessions.

Once the product plans begin taking shape, product managers must work extensively with the product development organization. This collaboration includes engineers  along well with product managers, architects, and quality assurance teams. 

Collaboration

To create a fantastic user experience, product managers must also collaborate with UX designers . Nurturing a true partnership and not being merely transactional is key to delivering exceptional products. 

Finally, as the product gets ready to launch, there’s another round of communication and coordination. Product management must educate and edit marketing plans for the product. They also must provide the sales team with the necessary training and talking points they’ll need.

Technical skills  

There may be no debate quite as polarizing in the product management community as this subject. Just how technical must a product manager be ? Will non-technical product managers become extinct ?

There’s no debating that a product manager must have some level of technical understanding. Luddites don’t make great product managers, at least not for software products.

Product managers must be conversant enough in the fundamentals for meaningful dialogue with engineering. They must understand if they’re creating a massive amount of technical debt with their decisions and managing down existing debt . And they should probably be knowledgeable enough to use their product and relate to the customers it’s intended to serve.  

And in organizations where there is an actual need for product managers with in-depth technical know-how, they can always hire a technical product manager to fill that role.  

Business savvy

When product managers dub themselves the “CEO of the product,” they’re generally referring to this category of skills. Product managers may or may not carry responsibility for a product’s revenue. But they’re integral to making sure the product is financially and strategically successful.

It starts by defining a vision and goals for the product. While these may come from the founder or executive team, product management must own them once established. Then, translating those abstract ideas into the tactics required to make them a reality is all part of the job.

Other duties, such as finding product-market fit and assessing requests from customers and prospects , also require keen business smarts. 

To do so, product managers must think strategically, even when dealing with minutiae. No choice is inconsequential. They must dynamically consider all possible repercussions to avoid negative impacts on the customer experience or sales.

And then there are the numbers. Product managers must be conversant in the metrics that matter. They must use data-driven decision-making to propel the product forward. Growth, revenue, and profitability all fall under product management’s purview, even if they’re not directly responsible for them.

We might be a bit biased, but there’s no single aspect of product management as pivotal as a product roadmap. It’s the culmination of countless hours of research, negotiations, strategizing, and consensus-building.

Watch the webinar, Key Ingredients for Successful Product Roadmaps, for more on what goes into a roadmap.

Product roadmaps set the agenda and set expectations for the entire organization. They set a course for the future and provides a point of reference to inspire the whole organization. They turn the mission and vision into a concrete plan for making grand ideas a reality.  

But what’s on the roadmap is only half the battle. The other part is figuring out what kind of roadmap makes the most sense for the audience , the product’s maturity , and the timeframe it covers . One size does not fit all (although one tool can help you with every kind of roadmap you might want to create).

The first step is prioritizing the various initiatives and features using a prioritization framework . Define the parameters of your roadmap. Will it be feature-less? Based on themes ? 

Setting the ground rules for the roadmap’s scope and level of detail are the hard part. Plugging in everything is easy. Then it’s time to rely on those communication skills and showcase the final product .

Product managers have more options than ever when it comes to tools . They cover a wide range of tasks and areas that product managers are responsible for.

But a product manager’s job involves a lot more than gather product insight, tracking the backlog, and reviewing the product roadmap. Whether you’re a new product manager or a seasoned PM just wanting to make sure you’re not missing a key component of your role because you’re lacking the proper tool—the following is a list of product management tools to help you excel in your role.

These include solutions for tracking user behavior, including heat mapping and session replays. Plus, there are surveying tools for gathering feedback. There are also a host of new options for collaboration. It encompasses asynchronous messaging, voice chats, file sharing, and document editing.

For demos, presentations, and onboarding, product managers can turn to web conferencing tools that support screen sharing and recording. These can also be co-opted for low-budget usability testing, as product managers can “ride-along” while users complete tasks using their products.   Quickly visualize concepts and workflows with wireframe tools and flowcharts.

Project management tools have also made a massive impact on how product managers keep track of things. There’s no excuse to be managing your life and projects in a spreadsheet .

Asking for a tools budget

Product managers shouldn’t be shy about asking for a tools budget ; their time is just as valuable as other contributors. Requesting budgets for a tool is still a relatively rare occurrence for product teams, who traditionally haven’t had any dedicated budget and rarely ask for anything financial other than approving travel expenses or a new laptop. So, how do you successfully broach this subject with the executives holding the purse strings?

1. Make assumptions

2. Strength in numbers

3. Acknowledge the alternatives

4. Try the free-trial

One common belief in product management is that there is a vast difference between working on B2B and B2C products . While there are certainly some distinct aspects between those two worlds, they have plenty in common.

For B2C, your users are generally also your buyers, and you’re serving a single persona. For B2B, the person controlling the budget is often unrelated to the person who regularly uses the product. After identifying each persona, product managers can tailor the product and the pitch for each one of them. 

Both situations require multiple value propositions. Even single consumers are looking for numerous reasons to buy and use a product. Therefore, messaging should always speak to practical, emotional, and financial justifications for taking the plunge.  

It impacts the sales process, as B2B sales take a lot more convincing and win over many hearts and minds for a single transaction. And the cost of acquisition will be higher, and the growth rate slower for a B2B product.

But with proper expectations, there’s no reason the same skills and experiences can’t be transposed from one market to another. Product managers shouldn’t feel pigeonholed into only working in one market or the other. It just might take a little more convincing during the hiring process to shake them out of their false preconceptions.

Product managers have an often overwhelming amount of obligations. Time is a precious commodity. They must be efficient and organized to conduct the necessary conversations and meetings while still having enough bandwidth actually to get some work done.

Process around decisions

Making decisions—and getting internal consensus on those decisions—can be a huge time suck. To get through them all promptly, product managers must find a scalable way to get to an agreement quickly . Clearly defined roles and a consistent process let the parties involved focus on the subject at hand.

A divide-and-conquer approach is another tactic for getting more done in less time. Recognizing the core strengths of everyone available, splitting up tasks, and delegating things lets product managers focus on what they do best while not neglecting anything else that’s important. 

Product managers can also borrow some useful skills from their project management counterparts . This includes defining explicit scopes and sticking to them, cutting down on diversions and ratholes. It’s additionally helpful to create clear action plans and communicate them to relevant colleagues to be sure everyone knows what they’re responsible for and understand the expectations.

Even how product managers schedule their day can lead to increased output and higher-quality working sessions. By minimizing context switching , product managers can cluster similar tasks together to maintain focus and limit distractions.

This includes making time for strategic thinking . It’s tough to take a deep dive into a particular subject when there are constant interruptions. Product managers must carve out time for this critical task and create an environment where they can concentrate.

Meetings are unavoidable for product managers. They have the potential to offer tons of value. But when mismanaged, they can turn unproductive and suck up time they don’t have to spare.

Among our meeting tips for product managers , the focus is on efficiency. Whether it’s limiting attendance or defining a narrow scope, the goal is to have a purpose, stick to the plan and get it over with as fast as possible.

Follow-through is also essential. Product managers should take notes, circulate key information, and clarify any action items before everyone leaves. Of course, the best advice might be skipping the meeting altogether if it proves to be more distracting than beneficial.

Capitalizing on Customer Meetings

While internal meetings may seem like a chore, meeting with customers is one of the best parts of the job. It’s an opportunity to capture an unfiltered influx of feedback, ideas, and inspiration that can help product managers power through the less-than-awesome aspects of the situation.

Meeting directly with customers is always preferable to relying on coworkers in sales or support to funnel information back to the product team. Of course, this may not always be possible, but product managers should seize these opportunities when they arise. 

While sales and support might bring back valuable tidbits, they’re conducting conversations with customers through the lens of their particular jobs. The sales team is trying to gin up more business; support aims to solve the customer’s problems and move on quickly.

As a product manager, the only goal is to understand the customer better so the product experience can be improved and enhanced. These conversations can yield invaluable context for using the product and where they’re encountering challenges. Product managers should also take some worthwhile detours to explore other ancillary opportunities where the product could potentially be even more valuable or helpful to users.

Product management needs an established process for handling this feedback . First, ideas worth pursuing must be captured and tracked. Whether they’re eventually slotted into a release or discarded, customers who provided suggestions should be informed either way. This follow-up will encourage future feedback, and it shows customers their input is appreciated.

And while it may not always be pleasant, it’s also great to have conversations with ex-customers. Using “exit interviews” to collect churn feedback can shine a spotlight on key product flaws or shortcomings that might cause other users to call it quits. It may also uncover disconnects in product-market fit or pricing that motivate some customers to abandon the product.

Agile has been around for a while in the product development world. However, Agile Transformation is a newer concept that brings the dynamic, nimble, responsive qualities of Agile to the entire organization.

One permutation of this approach is the concept of product squads . Pioneered by Spotify, they are autonomous teams with a group of developers and one product owner. Assigned to a particular functional area of the product, they’re able to attack the challenge freely. As a result, they can rapidly deliver value to the market while building in-house expertise on the subject.

Product squads may or may not make sense for a particular company or product. But they’re a great example of how product teams can reconfigure themselves to respond to opportunities more dynamically. Freed up from bureaucratic oversight, ad hoc or permanent groups can take ownership and drive rapid innovation.

After the product ships, product managers don’t get to kick up their heels and relax. There’s still plenty of work to be done.

Before the dust settles

Quickly following a launch, product managers should lead a product retrospective session . This post-mortem meeting looks back on how the release went. It ensures lessons are captured and brought forward to improve things the next time around.

As things mature

While everyone’s always excited about version 1.0, a product’s lifespan will include many ups and downs along the way. Likewise, the role of product management also evolves as a product matures and travels through the various phases of its lifecycle .

Before launch, subject matter expertise was the priority for product managers. So they’re trying to learn as much as they can from as many sources as possible. In addition, they’re prioritizing features for the MVP to make sure they’re delivering something with real benefits to the market.  

After the initial launch, the focus quickly shifts to growth. Product management worries about scale while adding functionality that continues to propel growth.

Once all those new users are onboard, the emphasis transitions to retention. It’s all about what’s required to keep customers happy and minimize churn .  

Most products inevitably begin to decline in usage, which presents new challenges. Product managers must consider how the product can be repurposed, extended, or pivoted toward new verticals. This maximizes the company’s value for an asset they’ve invested time, effort, and dollars into over the years.

Final farewells

Sadly, sometimes it’s time to say a final goodbye to a product. Product managers don’t get to skip out on the tasks related to the end-of-life process , either. They must take the lead, bringing the same consideration they spent on the product’s birth and subsequent iterations.  

A proper shutdown requires extreme attention to detail. Product managers must map out all possible ramifications that may arise from pulling the plug. From contractual and financial obligations to data portability and migration assistance — there’s plenty to juggle.

Most important of all is how the event is communicated. Customers must be handled carefully (particularly if you want to retain their business with other products). Stakeholders, customer service, strategic partners, and sales all require education, talking points, and escalation plans.

Ultimately, our answer to the “What is Product Management?” question is that the role is all about strategy. First, product managers develop the product’s strategy and persuasively communicate it. Then they ensure all decisions concerning development, marketing, etc., reflect and support the strategy.

If you are interested in what makes a competent, successful product management professional, read the “Five Traits a Successful Product Manager Needs” section on our What is a Product Manager’s Job? page. Also, check out our ultimate guide to resources for product professionals to help you in your career development with all the best books, podcasts, and conferences our team recommends. Curious to learn the trends of product management in the upcoming year?

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116 Product Development Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Product development is an essential aspect of any business looking to stay competitive in today's ever-evolving market. Whether you are a small start-up or a large corporation, coming up with new and innovative products is key to attracting and retaining customers. To help inspire your next product development project, here are 116 essay topic ideas and examples to get your creative juices flowing.

• The importance of market research in product development.
• How to identify consumer needs and preferences.
• The role of technology in product development.
• The impact of sustainability on product development.
• The process of idea generation in product development.
• The importance of prototyping in product development.
• The challenges of product testing and evaluation.
• The role of branding in product development.
• The impact of social media on product development.
• The evolution of product development in the digital age.
• The influence of cultural trends on product development.
• The role of consumer feedback in product development.
• The challenges of global product development.
• The impact of regulatory requirements on product development.
• The role of cross-functional teams in product development.
• The benefits of open innovation in product development.
• The challenges of managing product development teams.
• The impact of design thinking on product development.
• The role of project management in product development.
• The importance of risk management in product development.
• The impact of competitive analysis on product development.
• The challenges of product differentiation in a crowded market.
• The role of pricing strategy in product development.
• The importance of product positioning in product development.
• The impact of branding on consumer perception of products.
• The role of packaging in product development.
• The challenges of product distribution in global markets.
• The impact of product lifecycle management on product development.
• The role of intellectual property rights in product development.
• The importance of quality control in product development.
• The challenges of product recalls and product liability.
• The impact of customer service on product development.
• The role of customer loyalty in product development.
• The benefits of customer retention in product development.
• The challenges of product obsolescence in a fast-paced market.
• The impact of product innovation on market share.
• The role of product diversification in business growth.
• The importance of product line extensions in product development.
• The challenges of product cannibalization in product development.
• The impact of product bundling on consumer purchasing behavior.
• The role of product customization in product development.
• The importance of product personalization in product development.
• The challenges of product standardization in global markets.
• The impact of product localization on market penetration.
• The role of product adaptation in product development.
• The benefits of product differentiation in brand building.
• The challenges of product homogeneity in competitive markets.
• The impact of product convergence on market segmentation.
• The role of product exclusivity in luxury branding.
• The importance of product exclusivity in niche markets.
• The challenges of product commoditization in mass markets.
• The impact of product differentiation on pricing strategy.
• The role of product innovation in market disruption.
• The benefits of product innovation in market leadership.
• The challenges of product imitation in product development.
• The impact of product imitation on brand reputation.
• The role of product imitation in market saturation.
• The importance of product imitation in price competition.
• The challenges of product counterfeiting in global markets.
• The impact of product counterfeiting on brand equity.
• The role of product counterfeiting in market dilution.
• The benefits of product counterfeiting in market expansion.
• The challenges of product plagiarism in creative industries.
• The impact of product plagiarism on intellectual property rights.
• The role of product plagiarism in market distortion.
• The importance of product plagiarism in consumer deception.
• The challenges of product piracy in digital markets.
• The impact of product piracy on revenue loss.
• The role of product piracy in brand devaluation.
• The benefits of product piracy in market penetration.
• The challenges of product infringement in patent disputes.
• The impact of product infringement on innovation.
• The role of product infringement in legal battles.
• The importance of product infringement in market competition.
• The challenges of product simulation in virtual markets.
• The impact of product simulation on consumer behavior.
• The role of product simulation in market research.
• The benefits of product simulation in product testing.
• The challenges of product simulation in product design.
• The impact of product simulation on product development.
• The role of product simulation in risk management.
• The importance of product simulation in quality control.
• The challenges of product simulation in resource allocation.
• The impact of product simulation on time-to-market.
• The role of product simulation in cost optimization.
• The benefits of product simulation in innovation.
• The challenges of product simulation in market forecasting.
• The impact of product simulation on market segmentation.
• The role of product simulation in demand forecasting.
• The importance of product simulation in supply chain management.
• The challenges of product simulation in production planning.
• The impact of product simulation on inventory management.
• The role of product simulation in logistics.
• The benefits of product simulation in distribution.
• The challenges of product simulation in pricing strategy.
• The impact of product simulation on promotion planning.
• The role of product simulation in channel management.
• The importance of product simulation in customer service.
• The challenges of product simulation in brand management.
• The impact of product simulation on customer loyalty.
• The role of product simulation in product differentiation.
• The benefits of product simulation in market positioning.
• The challenges of product simulation in product launch.
• The impact of product simulation on product lifecycle.
• The role of product simulation in product management.
• The importance of product simulation in product strategy.
• The challenges of product simulation in product development.
• The impact of product simulation on product innovation.
• The role of product simulation in product diversification.
• The benefits of product simulation in product expansion.
• The challenges of product simulation in product consolidation.
• The impact of product simulation on product discontinuation.
• The role of product simulation in product repositioning.
• The importance of product simulation in product rebranding.
• The challenges of product simulation in product relaunch.
• The impact of product simulation on product revitalization.

In conclusion, product development is a complex and multifaceted process that requires careful planning, research, and execution. By exploring these essay topic ideas and examples, you can gain a deeper understanding of the various aspects of product development and find inspiration for your next project. Whether you are looking to create a new product from scratch or improve an existing one, these ideas can help guide you in the right direction towards success.

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Home — Essay Samples — Business — Marketing Strategy — The Importance of Product Life Cycle

The Importance of Product Life Cycle

• Categories: Marketing Strategy

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Published: Mar 16, 2024

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Stages of Product Life Cycle:

Importance of product life cycle:.

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Product management: essay on product management (621 words).

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Product and market are two essentials of successful marketing. If marketing can bring together products and markets in such a way that product and consumer demands are perfectly correlated, there is no reason why marketing cannot be successful.

Both are equally important. If the product is sound and easily acceptable to the market, if it satisfies reseller’s needs and consumer preferences and is carefully filled to the needs and desires of the customers, sales success is assured.

A right product is bound to reduce considerably the problems of pricing, promotion and distribution. Thomas pointed out that the product offering of a company ultimately determines the nature of the business and the marketplace perception of the business. In this sense, it is the core of marketing management function and hence product management is or should be the principal preoccupation of marketing managers.

A Product is anything that satisfies a need or wants and can be offered in an exchange. To understand product, let us first discuss about needs, wants and demands.

Need describes basic human requirements such as food, air, water, clothing or shelter. These needs become wants when they are directed to specific objects that satisfy the need. Demands are the wants for specific products backed by an ability to pay. We will discuss these concepts with examples.

As has been mentioned, food is one type of need. But wants are different for different people in different society. Bengalis want maccher jhol-bhat (rice and fish curry), South Indians want idli-dhosa (rice cakes) and Punjabis want makke ki roti and sarso da saag (maize chapatti and cooked mustard leaves) when they are hungry.

Demands are the wants that the people can afford to. Hence although tiger prawn is very much a Bengali’s want, but many cannot afford it. Hence, we cannot say that there is demand for prawn. You may want to be proud owner of Mercedes or Ferrari; but if you cannot afford it, you want cannot be termed as demand.

Abbott emphasised that what people really desire are not the products but satisfying experiences. This view was expanded by Levitt who argued that products need to be seen in terms of the benefits they provide rather than the functions they perform. Hence when drills are sold, customers basically do not want drill, but the hole that can be dug by the drill.

When a consumer buys a product, s/he is purchasing the total product, which includes everything that adds value to the seller’s offering. The product is not mere a matter or a group of matter assembled together. People associate meaning with products and they derive satisfaction by using the product. The product has a total personality, which is made up by the packaging, the brand name, the price, the label etc. For a marketer the total offering is the real tool in the hands of the marketer.

According to Theodore Levitt in his HBR article ‘Marketing success through differentiation of anything’: “Products are almost always combinations of the tangible and the intangible….To the buyer, a product is a complex cluster of value satisfactions. The generic thing by itself is not the product; it is merely the minimum that is necessary at the outset to give the producer a chance to play the game. It is the playing that gets the results. A customer attaches value to the product in proportion to its perceived ability to help solve his problems, or meet his needs. All else is derivative….The product is the total package of benefits the consumer receives when he buys it………………. The customer never just buys the generic products…………………. he buys something that transcends and what that something is, helps determine fro who he’ll buy what he’ll buy.”

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Product Management

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Essay on the Product Life Cycle | Marketing Management

In this essay we will discuss about the stages of product life cycle.

Each product has a life span when it introduced in the market means birth of a product, grows, mature and finally decline and substituted by a new product, it is a continuous process. Product Life Cycle (PLC) is a concept that provides a way to outline the different stages of a product’s acceptance, from its introduction to its decline.

Product life cycle is based on certain characteristics of products these characteristics may differ according to the nature of a product.

Following are the characteristics of products:

(i) Products have a limited life;

(ii) Product sales pass through different stages with different challenges, opportunities, and problems for the seller;

(iii) Profits rise and fall at different stages of the product life cycle;

(iv) Demand of product varies from one stage to other;

(v) Different marketing strategies are required in each stage.

Product life cycle curves are normally divided into four stages:

1. Introduction Stage:

It is the first stage when a company launched a new product by innovation. High degrees of risk are involved in introducing new product in market. During the introduction stage the growth of product’s sale is slow, because it is new in the market.

Moreover during this stage as the product is new, the company has to spend huge funds on the advertisement of product, so the profits are non-existent in this stage. A new product category requires a longer introductory period to stimulate primary demand. Even a brand that has achieved acceptance in other markets will require introduction in new markets.

Marketing Strategies during Introduction Stage:

Sales remain low in this stage. Production cost remains high due to less production it delays in the expansion of production capacity. Adoption of process remain slow. Sales of new products depend on additional factors such as product complexity and fewer buyers and price of product. In the introduction stage, profits are negative or low because of low sales and heavy distribution and promotion expenses. Much money is needed to attract distributors. Promotional expenditures are high because firm wants to inform potential consumers, induce them for product trial, and wants to increase distribution.

Prices tend to be high because costs are high due to relatively low output rates, technological problems in production, and high required margins to support the high promotional expenditures.

2. Growth Stage:

In this stage people began to adopt new product and sales increases rapidly, as new customers enter the market and old customers make repeat purchases. At this point of time marketer need to add new dealers and distributors, expansion of distribution network took place. Firm began to earn profit at increasing rate. Due to expansion of market, competitors are attracted who copy and improve on the features of the new product, therefore new firm entered in the product category.

In the last part of growth stage profit level declined due to large number of firms in the market and rising competition, but total industry sales are still raising. In this phase, the company faces a trade-off between high market share and high current profit. By spending a lot of money on product development, promotion, and distribution, the company can capture a dominant position.

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Brand and Product Management Essay

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Introduction

Reference list.

According to Naik, Prasad, and Sethi (2008), brand management is an important concept especially when it is applied in the management of fast moving consumer goods. This paper discusses brand management in the fast moving consumer goods within the Australian market.

The paper reports on brand management exercises of two brands from a single category of fast moving consumer goods within the Australian market – foods and beverages. These brands are the P and N beverages and Schweppes.

Importance of brand awareness for FMCGs

Amidst competition that prevails in most industries today, brand awareness remains the key to the positioning of products in markets (Nijssen, 1999). Brand management in fast moving goods is an important subject. This is because fast moving goods have low profits, and thus they have to be sold in big quantities. In addition, most of the fast moving goods are perishable and have to be marketed fast enough.

There are many companies around the world manufacturing and distributing fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs). This means that competition in the fast moving consumer goods market is very high. Companies dealing in FMCGs are forced to develop strong brands so as to gain strong grounds and position in the market.

Companies dealing in the manufacture of perishable goods have to be more proactive in ensuring that the goods that are processed move fast on stocks. This is done to avoid losses that often arise from the expiry of the goods before they are sold (Keller, 2003).

According to Nijssen (1999), brand awareness levels of the fast moving goods ensure that they are quickly purchased in the market. One of the core tasks of brand managers is to ensure that they create sufficient awareness of products in the market. Brand awareness can easily culminate into brand loyalty.

Brand awareness is created through an array of activities among them brand salience (Romaniuk and Sharp, 2004). Research reveals that marketing managers are striving to raise product knowledge amongst customers.

This resonates from the fact that brand awareness helps in ensuring that a firm attains and retains customers hence remaining more competitive in the market. The quicker the brand awareness is executed for FMCGs, the higher the chances of the goods of a firm to attain significant sales in the market.

Breadth and depth of brand awareness for P and N beverages and Supreme foods

P and N beverages are some of the most known brands in Australia dealing in the manufacture of beverages and other soft drinks in Australia. These brands face stiff competition from top beverage and soft drink companies in Australia that have stronger and more dominant brands in the market.

On the other hand, there is a brand within the beverage industry of Australia that has been in existence for a very long time. This brand is called Schweppes and is manufactured by Asahi Breweries.

This is the company that is synonymous with most Australians as compared to P and N beverages. Schweppes is a strong brand in the Australian market because of various factors that have promoted its awareness and loyalty amongst Australian Consumers.

Brand awareness of any product in the market is built and supported by many factors including the existence and long periods of consumption of a product. Other factors for emergent brands in the market are depended on how the brand is managed through the creation of brand awareness and brand salience.

For FMCGs, brand management has to be taken with more seriousness. This is because of the cut throat competition that exists in industries dealing in such goods. Strong brands are often developed over long periods and is accompanied by the continued use of products. This leads to the development of strong tastes and preferences for the product (Driesener and Romaniuk, 2006).

The breadth and strength of Schweppes brand in the FMCGs market of Australia

Schweppes is one of the widely consumed beverages in Australia since it is one of the highly positioned brands in the Australian market. Having stayed in the market for a long time, Schweppes has developed a strong brand in Australian market. Accessibility and prominence, which are key components of brand salience, are argued to have favoured the development and prevailing strength of the Schweppes brand in Australia.

As one of the oldest brands to enter the market, it was easy to develop brand salience for the Schweppes brand in the country. One of the supportive factors for this was the ease of access in the market due to the absence of or minimal competition in the market. Market access is one of the precursors of forming a strong force in familiarizing a brand within the market.

With less competition and a minimal number of competitor products within the market, it becomes quite easy to introduce and penetrate a brand in the market. This case can be attributed to Schweppes. The prominence of this brand was built through the name that was very appealing to consumers from the early times of the inception of the brand (Pride, 2011).

According to Driesener and Romaniuk (2006), marketing researchers ascertain that brands are built using different product aspects. Product name is just one of these aspects. The brand took the long-term prominence path by adopting modern brand building practices.

This was after the company had attained the short-term prominence. These practices have been substantial in maintaining the competitive advantage hence retaining the strength of the brand in the Australian market and beyond. Brand diversification was borrowed into Schweppes by developing different tasted of the Schweppes brand to ensure a stronger presence in the market.

The tasted of this product have been diversified to cater for the differing tastes of consumers in the market. There are pure drinks and creams with different tastes like lemon among many other tastes. There is also lot of diversity in terms of packaging the product, which catches the attention and taste of consumers. The firm has also adopted modern marketing practices such as the use of the social media.

This helps in the creation of strong consumer communities for the product that adds the number of customers. Social media help in the creation of consumer awareness through forums that help in addressing the concern of customers. The brand has gained access into the global market, which is a pointer to the quality and the strength of the brand (Schweppes Australia, 2012).

The breadth and strength of P and N beverages in the Australian market

As compared to Schweppes, P and N brands are considered to be weaker brands in the Australian market. Brands that are produced by P and N include mineral waters, fruit juices, and soft drinks. The company has not stayed in the market for a very long time.

This is in comparison with other beverage companies and brands that came into the Australian market much earlier like Schweppes and Coca-Cola. The companies that came into the market earlier were able to establish dominant brands that are not easily beatable by P and N beverage brands (Romaniuk, Sharp and Ehrenberg, 2007).

P and N was established in the year 1990 compared to Schweppes brands that have been in the market since 1950s. However, P and N brands have managed to attain competitiveness because of the emphasis on brand building. This has seen its brand remain competitive and even pose a challenge to the brands like Schweppes, which have been dominating the market for a long time.

With a lot of advertising and promotional campaigns, a high level of brand awareness has been created about the products helping them to gain many customers in the market (Australian Exporters Directory, 2012). Advertising is one of the best methods of capturing the attention of customers hence positioning a brand in the market.

Aggressiveness in advertising helps in hastening the rate at which customers gain awareness and attachment to the products or brands in the market. In addition, diversity has been used in factoring in the tastes of consumers.

There are diverse products within the P and N products. This ensures that customers get what they want in a single brand. This helps in keeping customers hence building the brand further (Pieters, Warlop and Wedel, 2002).

Brand management is one of the activities that are given more attention by firms because it helps in building brands hence enhancing marketing. Branding is an expensive affair to gain. However, once established, it becomes easy to maintain brands in the market. Schweppes brand and P and N brands in Australia have been built through the adoption of aggressive branding strategies.

Australian Exporters Directory, 2012, P & N Beverages Australia Pty Ltd , viewed on < http://www.australianexporters.net/companyID4967.htm >

Driesener, C and Romaniuk, J., 2006, “Comparing methods of brand image measurement,” International Journal of Market Research , vol. 48, no. 6, pp. 681-698.

Keller, KL 2003, “Brand Synthesis: The Multidimensionality of Brand Knowledge,” Journal of Consumer Research , vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 595-600.

Naik, PA, Prasad, A and Sethi, SP 2008, “Building Brand Awareness in Dynamic Oligopoly Markets,” Management Scien ce, vol. 54, no. 1, pp. 129-138.

Nijssen, EJ 1999, “Success factors of line extensions of fast-moving consumer goods,” European Journal of Marketing , vol. 33, no. 5/6, pp. 450-474.

Pieters, R, Warlop, L and Wedel, M 2002, “Breaking through the clutter: Benefits of advertisement originality and familiarity for brand attention and memory,” Management Science , vol. 48, no. 6, pp. 765-781.

Pride, WM 2011, Marketing principles , Cengage Learning, South Melbourne, Vic: Romaniuk, J and Sharp, B 2004, “Conceptualizing and measuring brand salience,” Marketing Theory , vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 327–342.

Romaniuk, J, Sharp, B, and Ehrenberg, A 2007, “Evidence concerning the importance of perceived brand differentiation,” Australasian Marketing Journal , vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 42-54.

Schweppes Australia, 2012. Our Brands , viewed on < https://www.asahi.com.au/brands/our-brands >

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Essential Features and Importance of Product

Meaning of product.

Product refers to an item, good or service that is capable of satisfying the needs or wants of customers. It is one of the crucial elements of the marketing mix and is offered for sale in the market.

There are basically two categories of products: Consumer products and industrial products. Consumer products are those products that are ultimately used by customers for satisfying their wants. These are final products and do not require any further processing stage. On the other hand, industrial products are those which are used as input for the manufacturing of final products. 

Features of Products

Importances of Product

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