The tasks of a product manager and the approach to work for us are very different from those of product managers in other companies. This means that your company's understanding of the functionality and skill set for a product manager and a designer may differ. For example, in some companies the product manager designs the interfaces, but we do not.
Why did I bring this up? We did a lot of interviews with product designers. Based on my experience and the experience of colleagues, I can safely say that each applicant asks the question about the terms of reference. A different understanding of areas of responsibility can subsequently lead to conflicts that adversely affect the product.
Below there will be no checklists and one hundred percent instructions on how to switch to management. In the first part of this article, I will dispel the myths about "I think I am already a product". In the second part, I will talk about the real tasks of a product manager. More precisely, about those that I come across on a daily basis and which should dispel the idealistic idea of what product management is.
Part 1. My product manager and I do similar tasks. So ... I'm a product manager?
There are qualities that differentiate an experienced product designer from a beginner. Therefore, I propose to discuss the features of those specialists who understand design at a deep level, measure its effectiveness and impact on solving business problems. For some reason, the responsibilities of strong designers are often confused or tried to add to the tasks of a product manager. The next six points are common "mistakes" in understanding the tasks of these specialists. In fact, this is the functionality of a strong product designer, but for some reason many people believe that if he thinks and acts this way, he automatically becomes a manager.
1. Phrases “this is not my job” or “this is not my area of responsibility” disappear from your vocabulary
You don't close your eyes to a situation if you know that you can help solve or correct it. You are ready to take over some third-party process without harming the current load. You understand the meaning of the word "responsibility" and are ready to take it upon yourself.
You catch yourself thinking that you stop telling everyone that they are not competent enough. Instead, you find ways to tactfully convey constructive criticism to everyone. Many designers, as well as other industry professionals, may think that these are the first steps towards management. Yes and no.
Who says a product designer is less responsible for a product than a product manager? Nobody forbids product designers (quite the opposite!) To notice glitches, give advice, help build or supplement team processes. A good product designer is distinguished by the behaviors that I described below.
2. You start looking for insights and their sources on your own
In most cases, the decision to implement this or that functionality remains with the product manager. Very often, a designer, including a product designer, is presented with a list of user problems and pains that need to be solved with the help of design. If you yourself find these problems, tasks, needs or pains, the thought arises: shouldn't the product manager be doing this? In short, yes. And not only this.
Defining user problems is part of the design process. "Interface expertise" is certainly very important, but it must be accompanied by ongoing work with users. True, more often it turns out that it is the designer, not the product, who finds most of the insights and implements them into the product.
3. You understand that the feature being introduced affects not only the user
Designers often base their suggestions on user feedback from surveys, interviews, comments on social media and support requests, saying that users are our everything. No doubt it is. You can and should get insights from users. But not a single user.
When you start thinking that the developed feature X can be used in different communication channels, influence the financial model of the product, legal rules and policies for its use, the strategic goals of the product and the company as a whole, then you become much more valuable and useful for the product and the team as a whole. This is a very good marker for your design hard skill.
Many designers are familiar with the concept of omnichannel. When working on a product, it is worth starting from this concept and carefully considering the proposed user features. Why shouldn't a designer think about the impact of the implemented solutions on the product at all points of contact with users? If you are a product designer, then this is simply a must have. Consistency, detail and thoughtfulness of design solutions at all levels are the top skills of a designer.
4. Shifting focus from design in the usual sense for everyone
The designer primarily works with the product interface. The result of his work should be a visually pleasing and convenient interface. This should not be forgotten, because shifting the focus to in-depth analysis can do more harm than good. Sometimes designers get so immersed in research, analytics and other product issues that they forget about the importance of the user's first impression of the product.
If you understand that the interface and visual communication of a product start to excite you the least, maybe you should not think about design or management, but about the position of the researcher?
5. There is a feeling that the proposed features do not benefit the product
You need to be careful with this feeling, as it can be associated with a sense of self-importance (PSV). It happens that the introduction of features is justified only by "I think so", "I know better" or "it will definitely be more convenient for users."
It is good to be able to analyze features in terms of benefits for a product or company. How to do it? Validate and argue the idea. Are only product managers doing this? Good question.
Whoever you are, a designer or a manager, it is better to compare any feelings with facts and figures, and make arguments for decisions.
6. Your attitude towards product metrics is changing
Often, metrics are already in place. The entire team is working to achieve them, and the designer is no exception. It's cool when you have thoughts that the current indicators can be revised, refined for a more correct interpretation, or at least create or add new ones.
Looking at product metrics from a different angle is a good skill. But does having this skill indicate that you are on your way to product management? More likely no than yes. As a product designer, you can (should?) Test your decisions against metrics, and you will likely learn to look at performance metrics more broadly.
Adding new features or iterating existing functionality should be consistent with the goals of the product or company. A product designer needs to rely on metrics and look at them in a broader context. This does not indicate that it is time for the specialist to move into management.
Indeed, it turns out that the responsibilities of a product designer and product manager overlap in many ways. What then is a product manager actually doing?
Part 2. What tasks does a product manager solve in real life?
Let's be honest: more often than not, a product manager does anything other than his or her direct tasks. If you are a product manager and read this section, then you will definitely smile when you remember yourself as a marketer, designer (especially graphic), salesperson, developer, project manager, PR manager, etc. Yes, I was in all these roles too, but what is really there, a designer from me does not work and will never work.
Below I have collected the main vectors within which product managers perform their "invisible" tasks with "invisible" results.
1. Focus, consolidation, communication.
Focus. A product manager should be focused on making a profit from his product. In other words, making money for the company. The drive to make a project profitable must be sane, not fanatical.
Consider fanaticism on the example of launching a new product on the market. The manager must understand: if his product is unstable and does not cover the basic needs of his market, then there can be no talk of any monetization. Why? Charging users to pay only for distinctive values, without covering their basic needs, is likely to screw up at the most critical moment.
Consolidation.The product manager must be the source of truth for the team. A product is like a sieve - it collects a ton of information, sifts it and transfers it to the team in the form of an understandable technical task.
As an example, consider working with sales managers or marketers at the stage of implementation or validation of a hypothesis. Before transferring a hypothesis to work in other departments, you must work through the information. On the one hand, you don't have to answer leading questions. On the other hand, you will set the strategic vector within which you will need to dig.
Communication. In my ideal world, the work of a product manager should be divided like this:
- 30%: their tasks;
- 40%: communication with the team;
- 30%: one-to-one meetings with employees.
As you can see, 70% of the time is communication, although the first 30% of tasks are also somehow connected with it.
Communication is establishing processes, solving internal problems in the team, meeting with representatives of other departments, including marketing, etc. Very often good soft skills help in product development, even if you are a beginner product.
One of the most important results of a product manager's work is well-built communication. This is one of the hardest parts of the job, because there is no result that you can “feel”.
2. Cooperation with the sales department (Business Development)
Most products sooner or later enter the monetization stage. Since a product manager's main job is to generate profit, communicating with the sales team will help to better understand the product and the market in general. Some companies do not always provide an opportunity to communicate with the Business Development department, but I was lucky.
Collaboration with business development managers creates conditions for a better sale of your product. Sales managers need to understand the product, strengths, weaknesses, and user pain points. Then they will upsell at the right time.
3. Organization of cross-team processes
If your company has enough resources to deploy multiple teams to solve a problem, you need to establish communication in order to coordinate actions. The process is routine, but you can't do without it. Take charge and create regular events for communication between different teams.
Yes, it's not fast. Yes, this is difficult communication. Yes, the probability of being ignored is high. But the attitude of colleagues and access to timely information are worth it. This case describes well the task of interaction in cross-teams.
4. Correct setting of goals and objectives for the team
Objectives. Each member of the product team must understand why we “do it” and where we are going. It doesn't matter what it is: updating the current feature, developing a new scenario or entering another market. It is good practice to take an interest in the team's vision of product goals in an informal setting.
Tasks. As a product manager, you need to make sure that you are understood as well as you understand yourself. Quite often, I've come across the fact that my expectations are not always obvious to the team. Therefore, before setting a task, it is worth making sure that everyone understands what should come out in the end, and why do this work at all. Such a definition of done, answering the question "what?" from the product side. The team will answer the question "how?"
5. Argumentation and imposition
In our team, any improvements go through the stage of argumentation. Even if the decision came "from above", the team must understand and share it. Understanding the tasks in general and diving into the details is an investment in the development of product thinking for all participants. If we invest in this time, we will get a very robust internal group of validators who will not let "any game" through to users. Otherwise, the team will be just an executor.
It suits some, but not for others. In my company, any of the team members is a full participant in product development and can criticize the proposed approaches or suggest their own.
6. Product team management
What matters is not a theoretical understanding of the development process, the presence of an Agile certificate from Coursera, but whether you are ready to organize a team and take responsibility for the effectiveness and result of its work.
It is important to feel at what moments you need to support team members, ask for help, and when - ask their opinion. This might sound like complete nonsense. But understanding the mood of your colleagues, knowing their rituals, you will get a ton of insights to build a cool team.
Product managers “shake” the proposed hypothesis to the last before adding a new feature or improving something that works: they check corner cases, look for strong arguments in favor of introducing the hypothesis into work. The product is also figuring out which KPIs will measure the result of the proposed changes, if the hypothesis is accepted, as well as for what purpose it will be tested.
6.1 The cost of the team and implemented solutions
Now, not about romance. In addition to the standard estimate, as a product manager, you must calculate the financial efficiency of the resource that you plan to spend. Understanding the cost of an hour of your team, you begin to look through the prism of financial efficiency at any proposal and hypothesis.
The cost of development and the expected profit from changes in functionality play an important role in decision making. I think that knowing the financial side of a team’s work strengthens the main skill of a product manager: the ability to say no.
6.2. Human Resources Performance
In some companies, the product manager participates in regular reviews of team members. For objective reasons, discussion of technical skills at the review level is outside the manager's zone of influence (unless you are, of course, not a Technical Product). But the assessment of personal effectiveness and its impact on teamwork is the very thing.
A product manager can and should influence the assessment of an employee's performance in a team. It sounds a little selfish, but the team is a resource that must work dedication and effectively for the good of the product.
The following approaches can be used to assess and discuss factors affecting employee performance:
- regular one-to-one meetings;
- supervision when resolving controversial issues;
- pre-release reaction;
- communication with colleagues from other teams.
“Don't create vibration. Create value ”©
6.3. Staff
recruitment , team expansion A product manager also affects the selection of employees for his team. In addition to technical skills and work experience, compatibility with the team and alignment with company values are important. Conducting interviews is a separate skill.
Better to get to know recruiters and learn about their tips and tricks. If you have no one to learn from, you can only learn from your mistakes. Hiring a person is a process: onboarding, adaptation, probation. For 2-3 months you need to make sure that this is the right person, because the responsibility is on ... well, you know who.
6.4. Dismissal
In some companies, the manager can remove a team member, and in others, only influence the dismissal. The essence does not change. Firing a person is probably one of the most difficult tasks of a manager in communication (at least for me). The main thing is to be sure of the reason, arm yourself with arguments, analyze the situation several times that led to the need to leave - and inform a colleague that he was fired.
7. Communication with top management (level C, executives, founders, investors)
For myself, I determined that this item was and is still the most difficult of the tasks of a product manager. The difficulty lies in thinking and making decisions at a very different level of abstraction. In agile terms, this is communication at the level of themes (themes) or initiatives (initiatives).
It's more about strategy than tactical action. Interaction with top management - solving problems with many unknown variables, which greatly takes you out of your comfort zone and broadens your view of much in the product and the company.
In short, all work comes down to market or niche research, search for insights, proofreading business reports, etc. All these actions are needed in order to back up a given level of abstraction with figures and facts. in order to transform it into tactical tasks in the future.
conclusions
The tasks of a product designer and product manager both overlap and differ greatly.
A designer, performing tasks that are within the competence of a product manager, does two things: he is
pumped in skills that he may lack;
removes some of the load from the product manager and enables him to more efficiently perform his tasks.
If you are thinking about the romance of product management, imagine yourself solving problems within one of the vectors described above. Have you presented? Forget now, because the product manager switches between these vectors very often throughout the day.
The case when you do one task at a specific time period without switching is a luxury. Is it good or bad? Difficult to answer. Most likely these are tasks of different types. If you immediately scrolled down the article, then I'll make a seed here so that you want to return to at least the second part.
Are you ready as a designer or any other specialist to change the context several times during the day? Are you ready for the fact that 70-80% of your time is communication? Are you ready for the fact that the results of your work are not always immediately visible and "felt"?
Then, if there is a goal, it is worth striving for. The main thing is to take into account all the nuances.