What is a Product Manager?
A product manager is responsible for planning, developing, launching, and managing a product or service throughout its entire lifecycle. They work with other departments in the business such as tech, sales, compliance and marketing to see that the outcome achieves business objectives and user necessities, maximising return on investment.
Main duties of a Product Manager
Understanding user needs
A product manager conducts market research on competitors' offerings and industry trends so they understand what's available on the market. This helps them determine how their company's offering stacks up against its competitors' offers, which can help them decide how to position their product to the competitors.
Defines the product vision, strategy, and roadmap
Product managers help define their company's strategic direction by developing a clear picture of what they want their products to accomplish.
The strategy defines how the company will organise its resources toward achieving its objectives. For example, if you want to get more users, you might decide to invest in marketing or sales.
Once your strategy is set and you have decided which features will help you reach your goals, it's time to put together an actionable plan. This often takes the form of a roadmap that benefits everyone involved in seeing and understanding what needs to get done and when.
Oversee product development
Product managers are involved in all parts of the product development process, from its initial conception to launch. They collaborate with many different teams, such as engineering, marketing, and sales, and work closely with customers to meet their needs. They also manage timelines and budgets for each project.
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Skills and qualifications
Leadership skills
Product managers have to lead cross-functional teams that include representatives from other departments such as the engineering team, marketing team, sales team, and other teams. Leadership is essential in getting all team members on the same page and working toward the same goal.
Problem-solving
A product manager must solve problems, think critically, analyse market data and feedback and then make a strategic decision based on the information. Many pitfalls can occur in a product development journey. A good product manager must be able to provide solutions promptly to potential issue that may arise.
Technical expertise
While this is not strictly a requirement, it can be helpful if a product manager understands the technicalities associated with product creation. In tech, knowing front-end or back-end development will help the product manager speak the same language as the product team and ensure mutual understanding of how quick or time-consuming a task may be.
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The opinions on this page are for general information purposes only and do not constitute legal advice on which you should rely.