Product Management is NOT about adding new features to your product! It's about adding VALUE! ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ด ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐๐ฎ๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฑ ๐๐ฎ๐น๐๐ฒ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฑ๐๐ฐ๐:
- ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ด ๐๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ต๐ณ๐ช๐ค๐ดโ ๐จ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ต๐ฉ - This most basic, business-driven aspect of the โvalueโ concept. It will often drive your product goals, and itโs easy (and mandatory!) to measure. New features will mostly fall under this category!
- ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ด ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ถ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฑ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ต๐ณ๐ช๐ค๐ด - 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 doesnโt get to appreciate until itโs 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.
- ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ข๐ค๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ - Measuring stuff is often not easy and straightforward. How do you for example measure if a call was โfunโ 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.
- ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ด ๐จ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ดโ ๐ต๐ณ๐ถ๐ด๐ต - If you do not have your stakeholdersโ support and people in your company donโt understand your decision, your work will be misunderstood. Thus, you need to dedicate time to ensure your efforts are transparent and itโs easy to trace your steps and support your decisions.
- ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต - Encourage your development team to investigate any process bottlenecks and propose solutions. Itโs up to you if you accept the investment! It might work out and bear fruit later or the change might be hardly noticeable.
- ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ด ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ท๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ข๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ซ๐ฐ๐บ ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ - 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 otherโs 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.
- ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ด ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐บ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐จ๐ถ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด - Sometimes you will need to work with legal and make the product worse to simply secure its future. You simply have to do it!
- ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ด ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ - 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.