Suffering to find the right product management approach? New to the scene? Our Product Owner, Inge, tells her story. Discover the lessons she learned, and take advantage of how she turned them into product management tips for any - experienced or brand new - product manager out there.
Trial... and error.
I sucked at product management. 7 years ago, I became a Product manager with barely any experience. I didn’t understand what it actually meant. I learned the hard way.
And like most of us, I did what I thought was necessary:
- Asking customers exactly what they wanted
- Listening to customers, sales and the boss - whoever shouted the loudest - and implemented their requests as fast as possible (Oh hello, feature factory)
- Cramming as much as possible within one release (deliver faster please)
- Dictating to the development team what to do, when to do it, what it should look like, and then validating their work (CEO of product over here)
I thought I was being the voice of the customer. I thought I was doing an awesome job. But I failed, many times.
Turning lessons into reality
A mindset switch
Learning the hard way isn’t always bad. It forces you to search for other solutions and you often learn the most from it. However, my approach was inefficient. I became the bottleneck, lacked transparency, and had no clear vision.
But suddenly, my world opened up. I read countless articles, posts, blogs, and books about product management. I found truly inspirational product experts. And I learned, tried different approaches, failed, and tried again. For the first time, I enjoyed product management.
What I learned
Ultimately it took me some time to understand how to do things differently. But I got there. Some of the lessons I learned:
1. Create a product vision, mission, and strategy
A clear vision, mission and strategy give everyone focus and direction. Make sure to take the time to define these, before diving in head first.
2. Combine qualitative and quantitative information
The combination of different types of data and information offers the right insights. As soon as you understand these techniques, you are able to move towards common goals. Without any form of insights and measurements, it is impossible to measure success.
3. Look beyond customer wants and needs
Understand your customer's needs and identify where their issues lie. Customers will tell you a different story when you ask what they are lacking. To build the right solutions you need to hone in on the customer's painpoints and possibly create different solutions than the ones the customer is asking for.
4. Lay out opportunities and solutions
Identify potential areas for improvement and provide clear, actionable solutions to address them. Try using techniques such as the solution tree to explore the best opportunities. Focus your efforts on a few specific ones instead of trying to implement it all at once.
5. Focus on outcomes over output
Prioritize meaningful results and deliver value to the user, rather than just completing a task. There is no point in delivering a feature on time if it is not what the customer wants and is not driving a key metric for the business.
6. Use product roadmaps
Roadmaps help you strengthen your concepts and give you something to hold on to. The term 'roadmap' is not just another buzzword. As soon as you understand its value, you will understand why no product company can live without one.
7. Work with product trios
Product trios (a product manager, designer and software engineer) are the way to go. Having a key group that represents usability, business value and feasibility is necessary to make the right product decisions. Every discipline brings its respective expertise and perspectives. Collaboration is key, there is no CEO of product. Ditch this idea. Forever.
8. Ensure a feedback loop
Get continuous feedback from both user and stakeholder input and analytics to continuously refine and improve the product. Block the calendar, standardize the process and reduce any friction to bring forward any improvements.
9. Tell the story
Storytelling helps in communicating the vision and journey to engage and inspire stakeholders. Use real world examples over persona's wherever possible, so one can identify with the customer. Stories stick!
Closing thoughts
Navigating the complexities of product management is a challenging journey filled with lessons and growth. I hope you can learn from my mistakes and use my product management tips. Embracing a clear vision, driving collaboration, and continually learning are key to transforming challenges into triumphs. In the end the ultimate goal is to create products that users love and that drive business success. Keep learning, keep evolving!
Join our training 'Managing the product lifecycle' with PXL Next & get inspired!