I’m enjoying Todd Birzer’s Becoming a More Strategic Product Manager. It is part of my learning journey to become a more business focused designer. Product management thinking is an essential skill set for anyone working in tech. For maximum impact there are seven key areas where product managers need to lean in:
- Customer analysis: Collect stories from users to get a deep understanding of what they need. Stories work best to ignite empathy for customers across teams.
- Competitive analysis: Have deep understanding of what your competitors are doing and where the next disruptions are likely to come from.
- Strategy: Have a bold vision that inspires the team. Be clear on where you want to play and how you are planning to win. Read Roger Martin’s Playing to win: How strategy really works for more on strategy.
- Prioritization and roadmapping: Roadmaps helps visualize and communicate strategy and prioritization helps teams focus on high impact features.
- Discovery and Delivery “Discovery and delivery is best driven by a small empowered team–typically a product manager, a user experience designer, and an engineering lead. Prototyping, experimentation, and rapid customer feedback are all part of this process.”
- Pricing “…intelligent price changes can be one of the fastest and most effective ways to increase margins.”
- Finding growth “Generating revenue, profit, and share growth is a central job of product management.”