Product management is an essential part of the software development lifecycle, as much a key part as the technical side to software engineering. The essence of product management is to be able to develop a new product, with a clearly defined roadmap and goals/milestones outlined from the requirements of the customer - keeping a clear view of the overall vision and strategy. This is different to the role of a project manager, who is responsible for the internal organization and operation of the development team, to make sure goals are achieved and timelines are met.
Some key features of a successful product manager:
- Able to efficiently and clearly prioritize tasks.
- Understand the product, people and environment that you are working with.
- Guide your development team without being authoritative.
- If you are making tradeoffs, be sure to explain and outline the opportunity cost.
- Perfecting writing, reading, and giving feedback for code reviews.
The following article outlines the product manager role and responsibilities, the main points that it entails and some tools and methologies to promote successful product management practices: Product Management: Main Stages and Product Manager Role
This article goes into a little bit further detail from a beginner's perspective on steps to take to become a successful product manager: Product Manager: The role and best practices for beginners
One of the new challenges for project managers is the new possibility of having to deal with projects on a remote setup. The inability to have face-to-face interactions with teammates often results in lack of communication between team members. This obstacle first emerged for product managers during the COVID-19 pandemic and I will now present two case studies on this issue, illustrating how product managers managed to excel despite these new challenging conditions.
Referencing this article , Irene is a product manager in Singapore working on cybersecurity products at a B2B telecommunications company. During COVID-19, she had to adjust her style of product management to match the new working conditions. To succeed, she had some main strategies:
- To keep everyone in the loop about the project’s progress, Irene’s team held weekly 30-min calls so team members could align on the tasks they needed to complete, as well as identify any potential blockers.
- Irene’s team was able to react swiftly and effectively to the changes brought on by COVID-19 by first reviewing an existing product roadmap they had, which allowed everyone on the team to have a common document for reference as they made their decisions and reviewed timelines.
Irene sees the pandemic as transformative, allowing unprecedented work flexibility. She finds that the newly added option of working remotely adds value to her work and increases the potential of teams. She believes that by incorporating some of these strategies, many product managers will be able mirror her success.
We now report the experience of several product managers working at TopTal remotely, referencing this article. Sam Nissinen and Darshan Dave, two product managers at TopTal, tell us how this transition presented challenges due to the difficulty of not being physically present with teams. This required product managers to enhance their communication skills but ultimately led to success.
Sam and Dave, succeeded at overcoming this new challenge by:
- Established clear expectations and acknowledging diverse work cultures to build trust.
- Leveraged digital tools (e.g. Trello, Basecamp, Jira) and adapting communication methodologies to maintain productivity and team unity.
These product managers discovered, quite unexpectedly, that remote work — originally a necessity due to the crisis — offered unexpected advantages such as increased deep work and adaptability. This led to conversations about the sustained incorporation of remote work practices within product management. Such insights from the case study offer reassurance that thriving in a remote environment is entirely feasible for product managers.
One of the defining qualities of a good product manager is the ability to develop and envision a client-centered product. We present a case study that underscores the significance of this skill in the realm of product management.
Jeff Bezos, the founder and former CEO of Amazon, is renowned for his unique leadership style that has been integral to creating the world's largest ecommerce and cloud computing platform. This case study explores the core tenets of Bezos’ approach, which have been pivotal in driving Amazon's consistent results over more than two decades.
Bezos laid the foundation for Amazon's business and management methodology in his celebrated 1997 letter to shareholders, influencing Amazon's operations and culture to this day. In this letter he outlines Amazon's values, among which we can see:
- Customer Obsession: Prioritizing customer needs over competitors
- Long-Term Thinking: Bezos advocates for decision-making with a long-term perspective, focusing on market leadership and sustainable shareholder value.
These principles illustrate Amazon's customer-centric culture and highlight the vital role of forward-thinking in product management. By consistently focusing on customer satisfaction and long-term value, Amazon demonstrates the effectiveness of a client-centered approach in product development and corporate strategy. You can read more about this in this article.