It has been said that a thousand companies have a thousand definitions of a product manager. For product managers, it is difficult to have a narrow definition, but we can understand it from a broader level.
First of all, product manager is a position. When it comes to understanding a position, it can be analyzed from the aspects of the position's responsibilities, ability requirements and roles in the team.
It doesn't matter what the title is called, the product manager role we originally identified and now expects is actually a manager who is fundamentally responsible for a product . For example, the boss is responsible for the company, the designer is responsible for his design, and the product manager is fundamentally responsible for a certain product line/product/or part of a certain product (which can be regarded as a sub-product). Then what kind of responsibility law? That is, you need to coordinate multiple resources according to the company strategy above to promote the product to achieve the planned goals.
So what should a product manager do? What are some specific responsibilities? Before I say this, I want to sort out everyone's ideas: some things are the job and responsibility of the product manager, and some things are just some knowledge that the product needs to know. For example, we all say that PM needs to understand some interactions and operations, but it does not mean that PM is doing interaction. In any profession, on the basis of doing a solid job in this profession, it is better to understand and learn the knowledge of other professions and upstream and downstream knowledge. But don't put the cart before the horse. You cannot become someone who pursues code efficiency because you are obsessed with front-end code, and you cannot become someone who pursues visual effects because you are obsessed with the beauty of UI. A product manager is still a product. What a product manager needs to do well should be:
Product strategy and development planning
For example, the boss said that the company will go public within 3 years, so it needs some products that can promote the company to go public. Product managers need to know that the strategic goal of this product is to drive time to market. According to this goal, product managers need to plan how the product should be done at different times and at different stages in order to promote the company's listing.
Product managers need to think about which direction to take the product into, in which area, in order to get the capital to drive it to market. Based on these ideas, the product manager decides a lot of right and wrong issues of the product, such as what is the target market, what is the target user, what is the profit model, and even the temperament and style of the product, etc...
To do this well, product managers must understand the market, understand competitors, and have shrewd business acumen. These capabilities are no less than that of CEOs, and they cannot be done by fresh graduates. Study and work hard in this direction.
Requirements mining and analysis
When product managers translate the company's strategy into product goals, they need to dig out the needs.
These demands are not only from users, but also from market demands and internal demands of the company.
Product managers not only need to think about which requirements may meet the goals of the product, but also deeply analyze which requirements should be done, which requirements should not be done, what are the priorities of these requirements, and how they should be done. This is like the process of digging stones and selecting materials in a mine to finally build a magnificent castle. We call it the excavation and analysis of needs.
Today's Internet products focus more on users, so product managers face and deal with user needs relatively more. Mining demand does not mean doing what is found. Now is an era of more demand and less resources. Product managers must clearly understand whether users really want this demand, under what circumstances, and whether it can bring benefits to the product. How to weigh and evaluate priorities, etc. Otherwise, you have given unreliable downstream demand, and people are likely to call you an idiot behind your back. Now everyone is subtly taking "the ability to mine and analyze demand" as a criterion for judging whether a product manager is professional or not.
So to do this well, the product needs to understand users, understand the market, be able to mine data, be able to observe competing products, and be able to have strong logical analysis and self-management capabilities, etc. There is too much knowledge.
Drive the achievement of product goals
Promoting the product means that the product manager has completed the pre-planning and design, so it is necessary to use the resources of all parties to push this thing forward and realize it, otherwise it will always stay on the idea.
It is not difficult to do the first two well, at most it is your own business, but to promote the product requires a strong teamwork management ability.
Everyone knows that products are CEOs without real power. Specifically, in most companies, PMs do not have direct subordinate resources. Research, design and development are public resources belonging to other departments. PMs not only have to fight for these resources, It is also necessary to coordinate their concerted efforts to complete the goal, which is the side of product managers.
Maybe some PM friends are confused after talking about it. The product strategy seems to be very far away. Isn't this what the boss or director does? We seem to be doing some design work like drawing prototypes, so what's going on?
In fact, the responsibilities and capabilities of the product manager just mentioned are a more rigorous definition and ideal situation. The current national conditions are different companies, and the requirements for product managers with different capabilities are different.
As I said before, it doesn’t matter what the title is. In a large company, various types of positions are clearly divided, and products of different levels do different things. In a small company, the boss may be the PM (because a company may only have one product), The recruited PM only needs to assist the boss to draw the prototype design. There are also some cross-border people. Because the company's division of labor is not very clear, they do product, interaction and user research.
We sometimes say that Jobs is a product manager, and Zhang Xiaolong is also a product manager. As long as the above-mentioned items are truly fulfilled, he can be a product manager. These relatively chaotic situations do not affect the attributes and abilities of a product manager. It's just that you didn't do it.
However, it still has to be said that product managers have stages. Product managers with different abilities and levels have different focus on the above three responsibilities:
novice stage
Most of the titles are called Product Specialist, Product Planning, Product Manager
People at this stage actually focus more on promoting the realization of product goals. In large companies, there is often a senior product manager with a few newbies. These newbies are similar to assistants, mainly helping mentors to write documents, communicate with development and design, collect materials and observe data, collect feedback and effects, etc., through Such a form to develop a product feel.
For many newbies, it’s impossible to have a good sense of and control over requirements from the start, let alone product strategy. Because they have more dealings with people from other departments and resources, they will need to understand interaction, design, and some development content, but these are all means for better delivery and communication, and to promote everyone to make things happen together.
Veteran Stage
The title is usually Product Manager
The biggest specificity of product managers in the veteran stage is that they have certain decision-making power over requirements and focus on the mining and analysis of requirements. Veteran product managers have to decide what to do and what not to do, often thinking about what users like and what has good profit potential, not just thinking, but also showing strong persuasion to convince the boss and convince Heads of other departments give resources. The veterans have certain experience and feeling, good logical thinking and communication skills, and certain leadership skills. Now most product managers are at this stage.
boss stage
Title may be Senior Product Manager, Product Director or CEO
Of course, the boss stage focuses on product strategy and planning. In a small company, the boss may be the boss, and the boss is the biggest product manager. However, in some large companies such as Tencent, it is impossible to pay attention to so many products, as well as various administrative affairs, business affairs and other large and small matters, so they are divided into product directors and product presidents and other people. to lead a product. To put it plainly, it means to enter the boss stage, that is, to have great rights to this product, and of course to have great responsibilities. Every aspect of the product needs attention and handling, but the most important thing is to steer the product in the right direction and be at the helm of the product.
The boss stage is the manager. If you have your own team, many things are delegated to everyone to complete. Of course, you must lead the team well. To achieve this, not only ability and experience, but also opportunities and means are important.
Many companies may not be so finely divided, only one level of product managers. But you should also know that the strength of your ability determines which stage of responsibilities you can do well. Constantly let yourself learn and improve to gain more dominance over the product is what all product managers expect to work hard. direction.
At this point, you may have a comprehensive understanding and understanding of the position of product manager. Of course, the real product manager has already seen through and doesn't mind these details. I hope this can be written for many people who are confused and confused. The "product managers" who are not even aware of it are forced to provide some help. Please understand some of the details and specific methodologies by yourself.