Many CEOs do not believe in product management. A standard refrain is: “Our company is small so we do not need that” or “We want our workers to work all day, not just when their specific product needs attention” you might even hear that “product management is a hack”. What they do not understand is that project management can be as crucial for small organizations as lage ones.
Product managers are usually the core of every smoothly operating company. The company appoints them to take care of one specific product, from its conception to its release.
Here are five facts to explain why they do that:
1. Experts Work Better and Faster
Many companies choose not to assign a specific product manager to specific products. They assign one person for many products. That can turn out be a great mistake. Product managers who have experience and are experts in the field tend to do the tasks and handle product management responsibilities much faster than other non-expert workers (VPs who aren’t responsible of specific products).
2. Product Managers Look at the Bigger Picture
In addition to working better and faster, product managers also tend to have a wider perspective than other workers or VPs. They do not need to look at other products and think whether it is good or not. What they do is concentrate on one specific product and everything about it – and that is why they can better understand the problems and weaknesses it may have. For example, a VP working with many products, might not notice an error somewhere deep in the product description. A product manager tasked with taking one project from incept to release would notice that right away.
3. Multidisciplinary – a Long But Important Word
a Product managers must have a keen understanding of a few different fields. – They must know a little bit about engineering to understand the way the product works. They must know a lot about marketing to promote the product correctly and be great business managers. Product managers should have knowledge in computer sciences or design If the product is either software or a physical item. The key is to stay a few steps ahead of upper management. That, in many cases, is the key to make them better.
4. A Product Manager Needs to be a Team Player
Even though they have a lot of power in their hands, product managers are not the god of their products. They cannot always be in touch with each engineer or programmer (and, sadly, many times they just don’t have the authority over others). For that reason, product managers must be team players. Keeping allies within the various departments they need to navigate thorough is essential.
5. Fundamentalism Is Not a Bad Word
A product manager must be a “fundamentalist” for his product. It is not that he must pray to it all day, but he must know everything about it, to believe in it wholeheartedly and promote it with everything he has. A product manager that does not know his product perfectly or does not believe in it will quickly lose his job. For that reason product managers are usually better than normal vice-CEOs. They understand what it will take for a product to be successful and they get it done.