Ten tragic mistakes of product managers

Being a product manager is not easy, and mistakes are often made. This article details the top ten mistakes that product managers often make. It can be used for reference by product managers, technical leaders, and entrepreneurs.

Product managers need to create products. God is also a product manager, he created the product of people.

It is very difficult to make a successful product. In addition to the need for resources, timing and other issues, the bigger factor lies in the product manager. A good product manager can coordinate resources and seize opportunities. But product managers themselves often make mistakes.

A recent review of previous records found that senior product expert Marty Cagan made a similar point. Marty Cagan has served as the vice president of Netscape, senior vice president responsible for eBay products, has a very rich experience in product design and product management. Wuzhao has also participated in Marty Cagan product training, so Wuzhao and I, based on Marty Cagan's summary and our understanding of product design, compiled this article and shared it with you.

Mistake 1: Confusing user requirements with product requirements

The workflow of most product managers is: after collecting user requirements, start writing product requirements documents, then hand them over to technical staff for development, then track project progress, coordinate resources, check results, and finally release products.

There is nothing wrong with the whole process, but the error-prone place lies in how the product requirements are determined. The same is true for product managers within Taobao, who often translate the needs of operating classmates into documents and hand them over to technical staff for development. The end result is that the product has more and more functional points, the product becomes more and more complex, and it becomes a hodgepodge.

Be sure to think about the needs from the perspective of product design, and convert the needs of users into product needs. When the train doesn't show up, you ask what the user wants most? Users will say, I want a faster horse. The user's demand seems to be a good horse, but in fact, it is transformed into a product demand that requires faster traffic speed.

User requirements are a problem posed, and product requirements are a viable solution to this problem. So when user needs are expressed as a solution, it is necessary to explore the hidden problems behind it. A better solution to the problem is to strengthen feasibility analysis and demand review.

Mistake 2: Confounding Boss Needs with Product Needs

This may be a pain in the heart of many product managers. For most of Taobao’s PDs, they should have encountered big and small bosses who came to ask for their needs. Even if the needs are obviously unreliable, it is not easy to refute them, so they can only arrange development.

The boss has the boss's vision, his exclusive information and experience, and his rights. The boss's needs must be listened to. The boss is also one of the users, and his needs are also the needs of users. Just don't listen to them directly as product needs.

According to the needs of the boss, it is necessary to strengthen the traceability of needs. From the boss, we can deeply understand where his needs come from, what kind of scenarios and what kind of users are based on, and whether there are specific examples.

Most of the boss's needs are reasonable, but the priority is not so high. We can use procrastination tactics to deal with:

Boss, your demand is very reasonable and quite in place. I plan to plan it well in the next version. This version has more function points, and there are too few developers. Ah, boss, can you help me fight for two more? development engineer...

When it comes to the next version, the boss often forgets his needs. If he still remembers, just help him realize some functions, and face is still to be given.

Mistake 3: Confusing invention with innovation

This is a common problem for product managers who are engaged in innovation. Especially inexperienced product managers with a strong sense of mission often implement an idea and a mission directly as innovation.

Inventions are made in the laboratory, and creations are applied in the industry. The stuff of the laboratory is new, but the prerequisites are limited, and the commercial verification, market promotion, scale and other aspects will not be thought too clearly in advance.

Creation is a change at the industrial level, which can be commercialized, support the team, scale, and truly reach and be accepted by users.

The most unacceptable thing is that for a new product, the prospects are very good. After a long time of planning and design, a lot of engineers have been invested in the development, and a product with many defects was released after half a year, and it could not be brought to the market; and At this time, the market has already undergone some changes, and it is necessary to continue to change the product demand, and at the same time to improve the previous products. This product is doomed in the end.

It should focus on the smallest core problems, solve the most core problems, complete small and beautiful functions, and then quickly iterate, with users first. To be able to feed the team, let team members live a good life. Otherwise, even if the company does not stop the project, the team will be disillusioned.

Mistake 4: Replacing the user's needs with your own

Most product managers have relatively strong communication skills and are relatively strong. When the product manager is in a hurry, or cannot find the target user, and is too advanced, it is easy to generate some product requirements. They do not find the target user to verify the core problem and solution, and describe the product story (user scenarios and user problems) with taken-for-granted ideas.

The current situation Many people emphasize the importance of data, and it is easy for product managers to ignore customers. Because they look at data every day, they replace customers. When I was in charge of searching for products, I often told the product manager of the search that users should be regarded as people, not data. Data is very important, but data can easily obscure the humanized needs of users.

Product managers should learn to listen to different perspectives and communicate more with those who dare to criticize their own views. Whether it is a product with a small number of users or a product with a large number of users, you must take time to understand the needs and feelings of real users. Even if you chat with them, you will definitely find some conclusions that are different from the previous ideas.

Mistake 5: Thinking of "Building the Right Product" as "Building the Product Right"

This is the same as "doing the right thing and doing the right thing". Many people are used to being arranged, and then do things according to the process, and do not think about why this thing is done or whether it is really done.

Product managers are also easy to do the same. When they arrive at a position, they receive a task to complete a function, and then follow the process. In the end, the product is completed perfectly, but basically no one uses it. This problem is more likely to occur in large, rigorous companies. Especially in the environment of subdivided work and platform-based and streamlined operation, product managers can easily become executors under a rule.

For example, if a product manager is tasked with designing a website to promote the company's technology brand. The most common practice for product managers is to design various modules and content of the website, and even design a forum, form documents, and then submit them for development. When things are done, this website is done, but it is found that there is no traffic, and it does not play a role in promoting the company's technology brand. What should be the correct way of doing this example? Everyone can think for themselves.

We should encourage product managers to realize their dreams, and we can also consider verticalizing the team. On the one hand, it can improve efficiency and on the other hand, it can avoid many mistakes.

Mistake 6: Thinking of "Adding Features" as "Product Improvement"

Any product needs to constantly add new functions, on the one hand to meet the needs of more users, and on the other hand to adapt to changes in the environment. Product managers often regard adding functions as product improvements. This phenomenon is more obvious in a team with existing mature products. The existing ideas and evaluation indicators often result in constant homogenization and continuous addition of nice to have function.

But adding features is not necessarily a product improvement. How to determine if it is a "product improvement"? It is important to determine the metrics for a reasonable product.

An unreasonable product measurement indicator can easily bring negative effects to the product. There are many such examples in Taobao, which constantly launch sweeping products, and measure the success of new functions by transaction conversion rate and overall transaction value. Sina Weibo also has similar functions, such as changing background pictures and templates, sending and guessing gifts, recommending activities to follow, etc. Internally, it should be measured by how many users participate.

If Taobao search uses the search conversion rate as a measure, the final result will easily lead to low prices and popular models; Sina Weibo uses user participation as a measure, and there will be functional modules that recommend attention everywhere, allowing users to follow It is easy to be disgusted; Dangdang did one thing last year to encourage users to post book reviews. Internally, it should measure how many people participated in the evaluation. The final result was that a large number of spam comments were generated, and the original very good book reviews were also submerged. Lost.

If you want to solve this problem, you need to really think about the problem from the user's point of view and formulate reasonable metrics. Some metrics are mutually restrictive. For example, the metrics of Taobao search have a Gini coefficient, which is used to ensure that the traffic distribution cannot be too concentrated. How to formulate reasonable measurement indicators will be very different for different businesses and requires comprehensive thinking.

Mistake 7: Inability to distinguish between "exciting" and "nice to have" features.

This error is somewhat similar to the sixth error.

The development of wireless Internet has made users more and more picky about products. If there are no "exciting" functions, it is easy for users to forget this product. But product managers often put too much effort into building some “nice to have” features.

If a product has hundreds of thousands of users, any function can meet the needs of some users, and some users are also using it. Similar functional requirements will never be completed, and if they continue, the product will become more and more complex. WeChat sets a good example in this regard. The biggest function of WeChat is communication. Although WeChat can do many things, including media, circle of friends, etc., the main line of WeChat products is still in communication. The function of communication is very convenient. The design of the intercom function is an exciting Function. WeChat has also done some good features, such as voice reminders. It looks good, but not many people actually use it.

Resources are always limited, and product managers should focus on the main path, constantly asking themselves, who are typical users of the product, do the users really like and really need this feature urgently? Designing one exciting feature is far more important than delivering 10 that are good.

Mistake 8: Pursue an impressive requirements document, not an impressive product

Writing a good PRD (Product Requirements Document) is really important, because it can help product managers to clarify their thinking, and at the same time let technical staff know the design details of the product. But I have always been doing technology before, and I don't look too closely at PRD, and I only look carefully at the places that are not clear, just like we usually treat the manual of electrical appliances. In addition, no matter how profound the PRD is, the target users cannot really perceive the design of the product.

Therefore, for writing PRD, it should be enough. The best way is to communicate effectively with technology and designers. Before officially launching the product implementation, use a fully dynamic high-fidelity prototype to gain user approval and perceive the user's voice. Pure algorithm products or data mining products may be difficult at this point, and real data analysis can be used to express the design of such products.

Mistake 9: Thinking of a product launch as a success

This mistake is not only easy to make by product managers, but also easy to make by many company bosses. In some large companies, when a small product or even a small function is released, there will be a thousand-word happy news email. This kind of email is morale-boosting, it just doesn’t count a product launch as a product success.

A seemingly simple truth, but not so easy to do. Many product managers are eager to release their own products, resulting in a very bad product experience. Even if subsequent rapid improvements are made, it is difficult to restore the loss and reputation of users. Many products are now starting to implement the mode of invitation to test. For example, the 5.0 beta version of WeChat, the menu function of WeChat public account; the media account test of Weibo; the invitation test of Weitao to participate; Taobao search launched many functions, but also used 5% of the traffic to test first. These are all done to avoid rashly releasing a product or feature.

Product release means that users really start to use it, and success depends not on whether the product is released, but on whether users really like it. To make users really like it, the product launch is just the beginning.

Mistake 10: Going into "feed the beast" mode

What is beast feeding? The beast is never full and needs to be fed constantly. A product manager sometimes has no idea what functions should be done, but needs to give his corresponding technical team enough workload, so he has to find a bunch of small functions for them to develop.

Many companies have a similar situation. You often hear technicians or designers say: You have less work here, there is nothing new to learn in your work here, I have no sense of accomplishment, my promotion will be affected, I am going To make a big project... At this time, if the product manager needs to win these resources, he must provide enough and large enough requirements for the corresponding team to develop, and keep giving the requirements to feed the development and design stomach. It doesn't matter what the demand is, what matters is that the resources to support this product will not be taken away by other products.

The disadvantages of doing this are obvious. Not only is it a waste of the company's resources, but more importantly, it will make the entire product illogical and bloated. In the end, it will either become a mediocre product or require major subtraction surgery. But a product is easy to add, but very difficult to subtract. Any subtraction will damage the usage habits of some users.

The occurrence of this mistake is sometimes unconscious, and even happens without our own awareness. To avoid this mistake, on the one hand, it is necessary to give reasonable time to cultivate products from the company organization, and also give enough trust to product managers, and product managers should also have enough self-reflection; on the other hand, consider the verticalization of the team, so that technical personnel and The product people are all together, either wonderful together or lonely together.

The above 10 top mistakes are summed up by Marty Cagan based on his more than ten years of product management experience, which are worthy of reference for the development of Internet products. In particular, some medium and large Internet companies have multiple product lines, and the technical division of labor is becoming more and more detailed, and there are more and more similar mistakes. Marty Cagan's original text is the top ten mistakes in product design. This article has been changed to a product manager, which will be more suitable for national conditions.

Of course, the top ten mistakes summarized by different people may be different, and if I were to summarize, there may be other mistakes. The mistakes mentioned in this article are not applicable to all companies. If you are interested in product design, or you are a product manager, you can save this article and take it out every once in a while. Check it out Have you made the same mistake yourself.