education for product managers
About the Job
What is Product Management ? What do managers do ? Let's see what some experience PMs tell us about their activities and responsibilities. Types of PMs.
Know Your Client
The ultimate target is to satisfy client's needs: who are the clients? Are there different groups with common needs ? How can you understand what they want and how much they are willing to pay for it.
Know your Market
Product exists within market context: the moment in time and the geographical limits have a significant impact in product success. Competition should help you shape your offer.
Business Context
Define which of the 6 main BM your company is looking to adopt for the product. Define the formal and informal power structures and map the stakeholders that can affect your product.
Build your Team
Get the right skillset: designers, developers, testers. Get the right people to work together and build a supportive environment to face challenges.
Development Process
Key concepts: backlog, personas, roadmap. The product development workflow: design, prototype, test and iterate. Product development is discovery: get ready to iterate until you get it right.
Present and Listen
Show your skecthes, prototypes, MVPs and ask for feedback. Iteration depends on how far you are to a viable product. You may have to pivot and change course radically.
Refine the Product
To get to a viable MVP you may have to detail features that you did not expect. How to manage the different stakeholders' expectations and keep the backlog lean and mean ?
Data Analysis
What can numbers say about the product fit ? Can users tell us something with their actions that they don't verbalised ? Models and quantitative tools that can help navigate. Pipelines. Dashboards.
Product Lifecycle
Products are living organisms that must be updated to adapt to new market conditions. Set your team alert and doing continuous innovation.
Avoid Common Mistakes
Where do projects derails and products go wrong ? Beware of the 12 main risks to your product.
Product Management Maturity
In the long run, the short-term tactics are not effective. To avoid attrition with key stakeholders new mechanisms have to be set up. The sooner you act, the better: less burnout and manageable claims.