What Is Product Management: An Easy 6 Step Guide (2021)

Introduction

To explore successful career prospects in Product Management, you must know what is Product Management and what it takes to be a Product Manager. The objective of Product Management is to deliver and accept innovations, as well as to drive business growth. Product Management revolves around managing the entire lifecycle of a product. If you are seeking an in-depth introduction to Product Management, then you are in the right place. 

This organizational role has grown manifolds in popularity with quite a remarkable number of openings across various industries and domains. The importance of Product Management is backed by the fact that it influences a product’s success to a remarkable extent. Because of the high market demand, the salary of a Product Manager is one of the highest in India.

Let’s take a look at what we’ll be covering in this article:

  1. What does Effective Product Management look like?
  2. What are the Key Responsibilities of Product Managers?
  3. What are Some Important Product Management Tools?
  4. How To Make A Career in Product Management?
  5. What isn’t Product Management?
  6. Are Product Management Certifications Helpful?

1) What does Effective Product Management look like?

In most cases, the objective of Product Management is to manage the product right from its conceptualization to the delivery. Product Management professionals focus mainly on the following:

  • Conducting Research: Research on gaining expertise about user personas, the company’s market, and competitors. 
  • Communicating Plans: Developing strategic plans following the product roadmap and offering it to the key stakeholders, including investors, executives, development teams, etc. 
  • Building Strategy: Aligning the Product Management strategy and associated plans to the industry knowledge that the Product Managers have learned, such as goals and objectives, broad overview, timeline, etc.
  • Coordinating Development: Executing the plan by coordinating with other team members, including development, marketing, management, and other key stakeholders. 
  • Acting on Feedback: After planning, building, testing, and delivering the product to the marketplace, the Product Management process extends to learning about feedback and data analysis. It is critical to figure out what works, what doesn’t, the scope for improvement, and so on.

2) What are the key responsibilities of Product Managers?

To understand what is Product Management precisely, it is crucial to know about the roles and responsibilities that this organizational profile brings along. Project Managers are responsible for performing internal and external job roles. Internal Product Management revolves around gathering customer data, industry trends, and competitive intelligence, setting up Product Management strategy, and determining the roadmap.

External Product Management involves marketing responsibilities that include messaging, branding, advertising, customer communication, product launch, event management, etc. However, the key roles of the Product Managers include:

  • Defining the product development strategy and product roadmap
  • Sharing insights on product planning
  • Developing the core positioning of the product
  • Setting up product prices to meet revenue and achieving profitability goals 
  • Proposing product budget to ensure maximum profits
  • Working in collaboration with the Product Management team – marketing, engineering, sales, and support – for achieving business goals and customer satisfaction
  • Researching market trends and data to gather crucial information about the product
  • Executing digital Product Management practices by employing responsive tools
  • Coordinating with third-parties for assessing partnerships and licensing opportunities 
  • Presenting product demo to prospective buyers
  • Training the staff about product functionality and working procedures
  • Making use of Product Management tools efficiently to make collaterals
  • Preparing reports, market forecasts, and analyzing product sales based on market demands
  • Determining and defining the goals for product marketing communication

The Product Management definition explains the roles and responsibilities that the Product Managers are accountable for. Professionals who are looking forward to exploring this dynamic career must possess a variety of advanced skills. Considering the ever-growing job market, one needs to be an organized quick-thinker and a problem-solver.

Due to the evolving future of Product Management, there’s a huge competition and one who strives to learn with the pace often achieves success. In addition to Product Management skills, an analytical and innovative approach also plays a vital role.

3) What are some important Product Management tools?

Product Management is an essential organizational structure in an enterprise that focuses on designing and developing quality products. Gone are the days when Product Management tools were restricted to presentations, spreadsheets, and text documents. Due to digitization across all areas of technology, tools have improvised to a remarkable extent. Today, Product Management professionals utilize highly responsive tools to communicate their Product Management strategy and roadmap effectively. 

Though the spreadsheets and presentation tools are readily available and are incorporated in the company’s application suite, companies are also required to invest in advanced tools. An undeniably important fact is that building a product successfully cannot be possible without employing several Product Management tools and resources. Balsamiq Mockups, Trello, Jira, Azure, OmniPlan, and MindMeister are some of the top-rated tools that every Product Manager must be aware of. 

Since Product Management is expanding with each growing year, companies rely mainly on Cloud-based and SaaS Product Management software. The availability of cloud-based applications makes it easy to set up strategies, manage plans, launch releases, define features, and gather customer feedback, all at a single instance of time.

4) How To Make A Career in Product Management?

The first step towards building your career in this rapidly growing domain is to understand what is Product Management and how it works. It is undeniable that you need to be well acquainted with the basics of Product Management, but it’s equally vital that you stay updated with all the latest skills and trends in this dynamic industry.

No doubt, Product Management is a highly paid and rewarding career. Based on your expertise and knowledge, you will need to handle and execute multiple roles and responsibilities in your organization. The scope of Product Management is ever-evolving, so it’s good to update your skills to face more challenging tasks. 

The future of Product Management is expected to flourish across various domains, and thus the demand for qualified and skilled product managers will grow exponentially.

5) What Isn’t Product Management?

Well, the Product Management definition calls it out as a strategic function; it also entails communicating the product’s goals, plans, and objectives to its stakeholders and potential customers. A common misconception about Product Management is that the Product Managers are responsible for every peculiar detail of the product. That’s not true! 

People often misinterpret a Project Manager’s responsibilities with the Product Management framework. Product Managers are responsible for researching the product while Project Managers are bound to break down the overall project’s initiatives into simple tasks. While the Product Managers are accountable for setting up product vision, the Project Managers look after project deadlines.

6) Are Product Management Certifications Helpful?

The entire Product Management system has evolved drastically. Over the past couple of decades, the demand for Product Managers has increased substantially. The current industry is so dynamic that all current Product Management professionals, as well as aspiring Product Managers, need to upskill.

To learn all the tricks and techniques in the trade, opt for our Product Management Course. It is the ultimate guide for Product Management 101. The 6-month certificate program is designed to offer extensive knowledge with a hands-on approach. The certification is in collaboration with the best minds from IIM-Indore, who will share their Product Management experiences and best practices. This program is one of its kind in India as it takes you through the complete product development life cycle. It is the best option for future CEOs and aspiring professionals who wish to make a stable career in Product Management.

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