Product managers are responsible for the revenue of their products. I’m not talking about the marketing department or sales force having to meet quarterly quotas; product managers are expected to manage revenues for specific products and should be working closely with product marketing managers and key customers to understand specific opportunities for upsells and cross-sells. The expectations might vary based on industry vertical, but it can’t hurt to always have your finger on the pulse of how you’re bringing in revenue.
Product managers need to be business savvy enough to understand which metrics matter most, but technical enough that they don’t get lost in the weeds every time they talk with engineering teams about new features and bug fixes.
Product managers play a key role in negotiating deals with third-party vendors and making sure that the company’s marketing strategy is in place (and working). They also need to be well aware of all of their competitors’ activities in order to maintain product differentiation, maximize market share and win new customers.
It’s a lot to ask, but we’ve come up with 10 best practices for managing products successfully.
Best Practices for Product Managers to Followed are:
1. Start with a Vision
Sometimes it’s tough for product managers to see the forest from the trees. The best way to do this is to start by figuring out where you want your product (and company) to be 5 years from now, and then work backwards to determine the path you need to take in order for you and your team(s) to get there. Once your vision is defined, everything will fall into place much more easily over time.
2. Have a Strong Belief in Your Product
If you don’t truly believe in what you’re selling or making, how can you expect anyone else on your team – especially those responsible for marketing and sales – to have faith? If possible, align yourself with passionate customers as well as those on your team who have a passion for what you’re doing.
3. Be a Strong Advocate on Your Team
Product managers need to be their company’s biggest cheerleader and champion the importance of having a great product as well as outstanding customer service. When everyone from sales, marketing, support teams and executives realize that their success is tied directly to the quality of the product being developed by those sitting in the proverbial ivory tower, they’ll be more likely to rally around its continued development and improvement.
4. Know How You Rank Among Competitors
Regardless of whether or not you compete with direct competitors, it’s important that you know which products are most comparable – both technically and price-wise – to your own offering. This will enable you to make better business decisions based on a clear understanding of how your product is performing in comparison to similar products from other companies.
5. Put Together a Detailed Product Roadmap
In order for everyone from executives to the development team to have a clear idea of where you’re going, you need to spend time laying out Step 1 through Step 3 and then break down each step into manageable chunks that can be assigned to individual teams or developers. Keep in mind that this is not an exact science and changes will happen once the process gets under way; it’s just important that everyone has a comprehensive plan so they can work together at creating something truly great for your customers.
6. Establish Key Milestones
Similar to breaking down long-term goals into manageable chunks, create smaller milestones that can be assigned to individual teams. These are points in time during which you expect certain features to be implemented or improvements rolled out to users. This gives everyone on your team something to look forward to and helps keep them moving closer and closer towards the end goal.
7. Communicate Frequently Inside Your Company
It’s important that all of your employees – from those working directly with customers to those building code – feel as though they’re a key member of your team who is valued for their input and contributions. By having a frequent line of communication, you’ll soon find that people will respect you more for being accessible rather than aloof or unreachable behind the wall of an open door office – especially if you’re one among many in an open office space.
8. Communicate Frequently with Customers
One of the most important components of any product manager’s job is to stay in touch with customers so she can better understand what they want and need. Without this knowledge, it’s impossible to know if the roadmap you’ve laid out includes items that will be interesting or relevant to your user base or whether certain features are worth implementing at all.
9. Prioritize Your To-Do List
With everything you have on your plate, it can be difficult (if not downright impossible) to accomplish tasks if they aren’t prioritized correctly. Make sure that every item on your list falls into one (or more) of these categories:
• Must be done
• Should be done
• Nice to have
By establishing these different categories, you’ll easily be able to see what’s most important versus what’s not nearly as important – and give yourself an opportunity to focus on the tasks that truly must be completed during any given workday.
10. Don’t Over Promise or Underdeliver
One of the keys to running a successful business is keeping your customers loyal by offering them outstanding products they can enjoy time and again. If yours is a product-based company, it will also require you making promises about future releases or updates in order to hype your customers up for new items on which they can spend their hard-earned money. However, don’t make promises you can’t keep or you’ll damage your reputation (and possibly lose customers) as a result.
11. Make Sure the Product is Working Correctly
While it might sound like an afterthought, one of your most important responsibilities as product manager is making sure that everything related to the product – both front end and back end – works smoothly and according to plan across all platforms. By taking this vital step, not only will you avoid being inundated with complaints from users who are experiencing issues, but you’ll also be able to identify any mistakes early on before they have a chance to become larger problems down the line.
12. Gather Feedback from Users Frequently
One thing every company needs in order to improve its products is feedback from actual customers. Without knowing exactly what they want and need, it’s impossible to create an experience that will keep them happy or loyal over time. By gathering feedback early on – ideally at the beta phase of a product before it goes live – you’ll be able to make adjustments to your roadmap based on this information which allows you to make the necessary changes needed to improve the user experience.
13. Show Relevant Analytics Data
While gathering feedback is important, showing relevant analytics data is equally crucial since understanding how users are interacting with your product now will give you insight into how they’ll behave in the future. If they’re spending more time than ever engaging with one particular feature or clicking through certain screens but ignoring others, you can use this information later down the line to alter your roadmap and make the features they’re using more prominent.
14. Find Ways to Improve Each Process
It’s not enough to be able to do things right; you should also be able to find ways in which each process can continually improve across time since there’s always room for improvement, no matter how good something is. By striving for this level of excellence, not only will you continue growing as a product manager but it will show other employees that you’re willing to go the extra mile no matter what (even if that means taking on responsibilities outside of your job description).