Successful product management can be the difference between a strong product and a weak one. Product Management is about working as part of a successful team, using the resources around you and ultimately, exceeding customer and market expectations. Check out the best articles from the past week and learn how you can use product management to reach success for your business.
A Product Manager’s Hierarchy of Needs
The proper way to build a product is with a customer-centric approach with the base being the customers, then the ideation and value proposition, followed by product development then feedback and finally, profitability and success. You need to start by understanding the market you are in, then scope out areas to make your customers live easier and offer a valuable product or service, then execute this vision into reality, gather feedback to improve your idea or product. As important as this plan is, it is also important to be able to identify if you are on the wrong path, which is evident if you cannot describe the describe you are in, the behaviour of your customers, the pain points and problems that customers experience and why your product exists.
Product Management Lessons Learnt building the #1 App on the Shopify App Store
Receiptful is currently the top, most popular app on the Shopify App Store and the founder shared some lessons he learnt on how he built the product to put it in a position where this kind of success is expected. The most important aspect is to be super focused and do one thing really well in this case it was to allow e-Commerce stores to allow marketing to their e-mail receipts.
3 More Applications That Will Help Product Managers
Lucidchart, ProductPlan and Apptivo are three applications designed to help simplify product management that every business should be aware of and consider using. Lucidchart is a flowchart software that helps improve visual communication by creating and sharing flowcharts, while ProductPlan helps create roadmaps to help guide the organization or team until the completion of a project. Lastly, Apptivo allows small business the same creative and analytical resources that are usually only available to much larger organizations.
Product Management Explain by Hunter Walk
Hunter Walk is the former director of Product Management at Google and believes product management is about building, communicating, helping, simplifying,collaborating, and leading. Product Managers should be focused on helping a team build a product that is loved by the entire community and no project manager can be successful without a supportive, helpful and ultimately, successful team.
The Product Manager vs. the Product Marketing Manager
There are some general guidelines and rules that can help differentiate between the product manager and the product marketing manager which help describe their roles and responsibilities. The product manager is responsible for defining the “why”, “what” and “when” of the product that is being built, while the product marketing manager has to clearly communicate the “why”, “what” and “when” to the overall market.
The product manager has to set a product vision and strategy, while the marketing manager defines the market position with the overall strategy and despite the differences in roles, the best product and marketing managers work side-by-side to deliver a product experience that exceeds customer and market standards.