Quick Start Guide to Product Managment
All the essentials to get you going...
1
The Essence
"So, what is it you do?"
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As a new product manager this can be one of the hardest questions to answer. I can still feel myself shudder when I remember my humble beginnings where I tried to explain to relatives and friends "what I do".
But even in the company you start in, people might not "get" what you do…
That nagging thought about not being able to tell how I contribute to a company's success led me on the quest of finding the "Essence of Product Management".
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The great, but also slightly confusing, thing about product management is that it is extremely broad. It is near impossible to find a definition all can agree on. And all too often PM is a profession someone lands "by accident" without a concrete job description.
But after a few years in PM myself, I discovered some commonalities that PMs share. In a way, they bring together a definition of this misunderstood career:
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The Mission of Product Management:
Product managers operate in a complex environment to find a way to discover, build, and deliver value to a relevant market and maximize business impact.
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This mission contains all the puzzle pieces that make up product management.
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COMING SOON:
Find out more about the details that make up the mission of PM and what kinds of expectations you'll be able to fulfill in a company.
2
The Mindset
Product managers - regardless of industry and background - seem to share a common set of principles to guide their work, and even life.
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Always humble, always learning
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Looking for the statement "behind the statement"
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Proactive, always challenging the status quo
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Structured to handle all the different job dimensions
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Creative by being further away from the solution
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Obsessed with finding a better way for the customer
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Always a listener, never a people pleaser
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See also the classic essay "good product manager, bad product manager" (Horowitz) which does a great job explaining.
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COMING SOON:
Learn more about developing a Product Manager Mindset that boosts your effectiveness as PM.
3
The Job
What are the expectations towards product managers? Or, more specifically - what is the output a company pays you for?
There are different "flavours" of product management. That depends on the industry and whether you are in the startup business or in an industry behemoth. Also - are the products you manage in their initial phase growth stage or is the focus on their maintenance.
Anyway, the three "pillars of PM work" which are generally accepted in the PM community are:
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Vision and Product Strategy
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Innovation and Ideation
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Lifecycle management
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COMING SOON:
​Learn more about the three pillars and how they contribute to a company's bottom line.
4
The Skills
How do great product managers work and grow their experience? All activities which are directed at fulfilling the "PM work" fall into one of five areas in the "PM competence profile". The same is true for the tools you'll generally work with as a PM.
A common picture about PM is the one Martin Eriksson paints: "The Product Manager at the intersection of UX, technology, customer". While this may hold true for the role of software product managers, I propose a wider view. I base this on my experience as former PM of hardware/software/mechanical products and IoT business model development.
This one helps you not only to understand what to do now but also where to develop your skills and add more value in the organization.
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Market and Customer Experience
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Technology and ~Trends
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Business & ~Model Development
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People & Stakeholder Management
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Personal Development
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COMING SOON:
Learn the details of the "PM Competence Profile" and how you can apply it to produce outstanding results.