Unit 2

Product Manager

Product Management is a strategic and businessoriented role, focused on delivering solutions to market needs. Product Managers... Identify profitable opportunities that meet market needs Launch products into the market Oversee products already in the market Wind down products that longer meet market needs

What Is A Product Manager?

Your relationship to the organization Type of New Tenured product New New product, New product, new organization same organization
Existing
Existing product new organization Existing product same organization

Four types of new Product Managers

Product managers are involved in three major types of activities: 1) Management Tasks: These are associated with the administrative process beginning with the establishment of objectives and ending with the year end plan employed during the previous year. Tasks are: to set marketing objectives Planning marketing activities Determining budget Scheduling marketing activities Control overview process

Functions of Product Manager

Communicate plan to responsible persons Monitoring Specify corrective action Report to the management at the end of the year Measure the plan revaluation 2) Marketing Decision: product managers are not the real decision makers for strategic marketing decisions. It is the job of marketing directors. The greatest participation of the product manager is with respect to the number of timing of promotions.

Cont

Marketing decisions are: Product Packing Pricing Advertising Advertising media selection Marketing research Types of promotions Timing of promotions

Cont..

Instructions to sales force Instructions to agent Size of sales force 3) Budget and Marketing Plans: almost in all types and sizes of organizations, the product manager has a definite say in the annual marketing budget for the product that he manages.

Cont

Product managers have bundle of roles and responsibilities, these are as follows:

Role and Responsibilities of Product Managers

 Communicates with customers & prospective customers Conducts usability tests Surveys Keeps an ongoing record of compliments/complaints Actually uses the product regularly

Understands The Market

 Research, research, research Is aware of, and understands, the competition... ... but is not just slavishly copying their feature sets Dont feed The Blob by creating bloatware!

Develops Market-Based Product Strategies

 BRD: Business Requirements Document - Identifies business problems, solutions MRD: Market Requirements Document - Functional, non-functional requirements PRD: Product Requirements Document - Feature details, user interface, flow FSD: Functional Specifications Document - Engineers, screen by screen Note: Not every company uses these acronyms--or docs--in the same way!

Creates Relevant, Usable Documentation

Image source: http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/eng185dwb.html

 Your job is to meet market demands and actually make it to market Realize that pioneering doesnt always pay But understand the importance of not falling behind the curve Timing is crucial

Examples: Xeroxs Star computer (81), Lycos TV (99)

Brings Products Into (And Out Of) The Market

Image source: http://www.ioffer.com/selling/daylily1

The Means...

The 5-C Method...

Face to face Email Blog Telephone Social networks

Clear, not jargon Concise, not convoluted

Confident, not weasel words

Courteous Completely understands the issue

Develops Customer Relationships

Image source: http://www.relenet.com/ Image source: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/01/04/nytfrontpage/20070104POD_index.html

 Sales Marketing Communications Engineering Design Customer Service QA Operations

Bridges Every Department That Touches Product

The Product Managers Role: To Avoid This

 Manages the brand Generates sales leads Responsible for the profit & loss of the product Brings new products to life... maximizes profits in existing
products... winds down unsuccessful products

Champions the product, internally and externally

What Else Does A Product Manager Do?

Qualities Require for successful Product Manager

Tips for successful Manager

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Spend time with customers Ask dumb questions Let go of your past Surround yourself with experts Gather data Focus Concentrate on what, not how Communicate, communicate, communicate Sell your product internally Do whatever it takes

Ten Tips

The single most important thing a product manager can do is to understand the market
The best way to understand the market is to spend time with customers

Spend time with customers

Spend more time with customers than with colleagues

Set goals for customer visits Establish a regular schedule for customer interactions

Bring colleagues along with you

Bring back information to share

Spend time with customers: To Do

Dumb questions are really more about when they get asked than about what you are asking New product managers have the luxury of asking nave questions Ask as many questions as possible as soon as possible Who to ask? Customers, colleagues, stakeholders, superiors, partners, competitors

Ask dumb questions

Develop a list of initial questions

Generate additional questions each time one is answered Make note of interesting answers for future reference Ask the same question to different people and compare answers

Ask dumb questions: To Do

141 Thursday - letting go: Uploaded to flickr by roujo flickr.com/photos/tekmagika/474086212/

What were you in your past life? Whatever it was, youre a product manager now There is a natural instinct for product managers to gravitate towards the function of the business from which they came resist it

Let go of your past

Audit the time you are spending on each area of the product
Have an open conversation with colleagues in your former role
Discuss experiences and establish boundaries

Think hard before overruling decisions Review regularly to discuss progress

Let go of your past: To Do

Product managers can not and should not do it all alone Your success depends on others Do not try to be an expert in everything Leverage the expertise of others in certain areas Look for formal and informal advisors Experts do not just have to be within your organization

Surround yourself with experts

Identify areas important to products success

Identify internal experts in targeted areas Enlist experts as Trusted Advisors

Utilize advisors for decision-making, planning, support and overcoming obstacles

Surround yourself with experts: To Do

In a truly consumer-driven company, decisions are based on data so the person with the best data wins. Scott Cook; Founder, Intuit
Lots of different types of data
Internal data External data Market data Product data

Gather data

Data: Uploaded to flickr by kokeshi flickr.com/photos/kokeshi/119345900/

Gather existing market research and industry data primary and secondary
Identify information gaps and develop plans to fill them Gather existing product performance data

Identify missing and desired information and leverage colleagues to obtain

If desired data is not available, quantify the value of it in order to obtain support for projects to gather it

Gather data: To Do

It will be overwhelming
You will not know where to start It is better to do one thing well than to do a lot of things poorly
irony; Uploaded to flickr by mrpattersonsir flickr.com/photos/mrpattersonsir/30325860/

Focus

Make a list of all of the internal and external priorities

Determine timelines, relative levels of effort, and resources required Pick a few quick wins and focus initial effort During that time, develop longer-term focus Get agreement on focus, communicate, and reiterate it

Focus: To Do

It will be tempting to control how things get done with your product
Resist the temptation Product managers should define what needs to happen

and others should define how those things happen

Concentrate on what, not how

Clarify roles and responsibilities with team members

Engineering Design Marketing

Get regular feedback on whether you and others are keeping with the agreed-upon responsibilities

Concentrate on what, not how: To Do

Do not underestimate the importance of communication in all forms

Informal, formal, written, verbal, unspoken, method, timeliness, frequency, tone

Communicate, communicate
Calling_all_Flickrs; Uploaded to flickr by carf flickr.com/photos/beija-flor/5011611/

Communication

Source: Seven Traits of Successful Product Managers; Michael Shrivathsan

michael.hightechproductmanagement.com/2006/12/seven_traits_of_successful_pro.html

Manager Sales Product Manager Marketing

Engineering

Communication

Executives

Other PMs
Finance Legal

Manager Sales Product Manager Marketing Customer Service

Project Management

Engineering

Communication
Design

Executives

Customers Sales

Other PMs
Finance Legal

Manager

Partners
Investors

Product Manager

Marketing Customer Service

Project Management

Industry Analysts

Engineering

Communication
Design

Audit current communications (if any)

Get feedback from stakeholders on preferred communications channels and frequency Develop communications plan; type and frequency
Email newsletter Intranet site State of the Product presentations

Set reminders about communications and stick to schedule!

Communicate, communicate: To Do

Be the champion for your product

Sell your product to executives, team members, other departments Will help gain resources, funding, support for issues and new initiatives

Sell your product internally

Regularly communicate good news

Dont go overboard Dont ignore or try to dismiss bad news

Make sure your communication plans include all the necessary audiences
Get others to help sell your product
Explicit enlistment Find good supporters and keep them happy

Sell your product internally: To Do

Be willing to do whatever it takes.

I know of many cases where the product manager needed to help out with deliverables for customer support, sales training, technical writing, QA, engineering, and marketing. You may need to just do it.

Do whatever it takes Source: Thriving in Large Companies; Silicon Valley Product Group
www.svproduct.com/blog/files/thriving_in_large_companies.html

Learn about as many areas of your product as possible Help out at the right time

The more you know, the more you can help

Dont start too early, but dont wait too long

Dont complain about having to help out

But make sure to discuss it later if there are skill or resource issues that need to be addressed

Do whatever it takes: To Do

Learn from other product managers

There are plenty of great (and often free!) resources available Books, blogs, newsletters, webinars, conferences, training, professional associations, local groups, mailing lists, social networking sites

Bonus tip #11