Product Management is NOT about adding new features to your product! It's about adding VALUE! 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝟴 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗱𝗱 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁:
- 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘴’ 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘵𝘩 - This most basic, business-driven aspect of the “value” concept. It will often drive your product goals, and it’s easy (and mandatory!) to measure. New features will mostly fall under this category!
- 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘱 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘴 - Any product is like a house; if not maintained and fixed, it will eventually collapse. This aspect translated into quality that the client/user often doesn’t get to appreciate until it’s too late. To achieve this kind of value, you will have your development team fixing bugs, making products scalable, and introducing/replacing old technologies in favour of newer ones.
- 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 - Measuring stuff is often not easy and straightforward. How do you for example measure if a call was “fun” on Skype? This aspect of value is not only about investing time into creating tracking dashboards and implementing tracking software, but also figuring out to how to measure in the first place.
- 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴’ 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵 - If you do not have your stakeholders’ support and people in your company don’t understand your decision, your work will be misunderstood. Thus, you need to dedicate time to ensure your efforts are transparent and it’s easy to trace your steps and support your decisions.
- 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 - Encourage your development team to investigate any process bottlenecks and propose solutions. It’s up to you if you accept the investment! It might work out and bear fruit later or the change might be hardly noticeable.
- 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘫𝘰𝘺 𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 - Sometimes the best thing you can do for a product is to make sure people who shape it, enjoy what they are doing and each other’s company. Skipping the obvious elements of empathy and being an honest man, a team that likes their work will act as junior Product Managers! They will contribute great ideas, warn you about possible dangers and, in general, will be passionate about their work.
- 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 - Sometimes you will need to work with legal and make the product worse to simply secure its future. You simply have to do it!
- 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 - Finally, any creative, brainstorming work, making SWOT exercises: when done at the right time, can unravel great new ideas and perspectives.
Originally written by Bart Jaworski, Ph.D.