The author is a passer-by of a front end turn product a ~ dedicate this article to the small partner that waits for pit, surprise at the end of article!!
In the Internet industry, product manager has become an indispensable position, more and more partners due to their adventures into this line.
Whether you are a product newbies, traditional IT people, or even other non-Internet people, if you want to get into the product manager industry but don’t know how to get started, please read this article for some help.
“Directory”
Why do you want to be a product manager
2. Routine workflow of product manager
Iii. Classification of product managers
Four, common tools
5. How to learn by yourself
Competencies required by product managers
7, attention points: 1) technical transfer advantage 2) what major is suitable for product manager 3) interview question
Why do you want to be a product manager
You might hear “product manager walks into CEO’s preschool” and wonder if the position is a little high and mighty. First, ask yourself these questions before taking on a new role:
(1) Why choose product manager? (Clear goals)
(2) Have you done any preparation for this position? (Come prepared)
(3) Have you thought about where you would be in three or five years? (Career Planning)
If you haven’t thought through these questions, don’t jump into a career choice because you’ll end up doubting yourself for the rest of your life.
Both men and women, we are afraid of getting into the wrong line, advised you to be extremely cautious.
2. Routine workflow of product manager
A product manager is someone who identifies problems, fixes them, and prevents them from recurring.
For colleagues in other positions on the Internet, they will deal with product managers more or less in their work, but for newcomers, it is not clear about their work content, post type, required quality and ability, and career development situation, etc.
The product manager workflow is generally divided into seven stages, but there is no single standard.
(1) Collecting requirements
At this stage, the product manager needs to capture requirements from various sources. To sum up, the requirements come from leaders, collaborative departments, user feedback, competitive product analysis, and possibly their own understanding and insight into the product.
(2) Demand screening and analysis
We collected so many requirements, not with our eyes closed to do any requirements, otherwise it would be a huge workload.
We need to prioritize requirements in terms of factors: which are the most urgent right now that will have the greatest impact? What requirements are not currently stressed and can be iterated in phase 2? Which requirements are false requirements, etc., need in-depth analysis.
(3) Prototype design and document writing
After confirming the requirements priority, the product manager will have various outputs at this stage, such as mind mapping, functional flow chart, business flow chart, product prototype, requirements document, etc.
(4) Project initiation (Demand review)
Before the requirement review, it is necessary to organize the development engineers, designers, test engineers and other personnel to participate in the meeting, at which the product manager introduces the project background, requirements and functions to let everyone know the situation of the whole project.
If the project is complex, a meeting should be held with the demander before this meeting to determine whether the overall plan meets their expectations.
After the final meeting, confirm the project schedule with the project team.
(5) Project development
Once the requirements review is complete, all parties are busy: designers writing UI drafts, test engineers writing test cases, front/back end engineers happily typing code.
In the process of project development, the product manager should keep communicating with all parties and pay attention to the key points and achievements of the project to ensure that the project is completed on time and in good quality.
(6) Online arrangement
This is the closest step to success, and the following points must be done well: the function should be advertised to all departments before launching; Product manager and designer to do a good job of project acceptance; The product manager will send the launch email to everyone before launch; Data configuration, notification of users, data detection after online work.
(7) Product iteration
After the project is safely launched, it does not mean the end of the project. According to its data performance and operation situation, we need to follow up and collect feedbacks from all parties, including the feedback from the company and users. Has the expected effect been achieved? Are there any bad operations? Finally, these requirements will be placed in the next version to optimize iterations as appropriate.
The above is the introduction of the daily work process of product manager, a few words, in fact, each link is a long discussion.
Iii. Classification of product managers
See this must be we have a good understanding of the position of product manager, in fact, product managers are also divided into different directions, the following according to the professional field, audience users, product form, market industry, post level dimensions to introduce product positions in different directions.
Of course, different types of product managers are responsible for different work content, professional skills, and ability requirements, but how do beginners figure out what a specific type of product manager is responsible for?
Here is a simple way to teach new recruits, to download a “BOSS zhipin” recruitment software, for example, I want to know what specific work e-commerce product manager is responsible for, so as long as a search on the APP, from the job responsibilities and job requirements, or directly ask Baidu.
Four, common tools
As the saying goes, to do a good job, you must sharpen your tools. Product managers often use various software tools in their work. Tool learning is not difficult. Practice makes perfect.
(1) Prototyping tools
Axure(axure.com), Mockplus.cn, Xiaopiu (Xiaopiu.com), ink knife (modao.cc), etc., are usually used by Axrue.
(2) Flowchart tool
All of the improved prototyping tools above can be used for flowcharts, but there are specialized tools: Visio, ProcessOn(processon.com), etc.
(3) Mind mapping tools
MindManager(MindManager. Cn), Naotu.baidu.com, Xmind(Xmind. Cn), etc.
(4) Team collaboration tools
Team collaboration tools refer to work scenarios that help teams develop more efficiently, collaborate more quickly, connect tasks, communicate, document, etc. Common examples are Teambition(teambition.com), Tapd(tapd.cn), Feishu (feishu. Cn), Worktile(worktile.com), etc.
5. How to learn by yourself
Here comes the focus of this article, how to teach yourself the quick start product manager threshold. Here are several tasks for you to learn. There are two types of self-taught groups:
(1) Non-product personnel with experience in a certain industry, such as technical personnel in a certain field of Internet industry, traditional IT practitioners, etc.;
(2) Non-product personnel without any industry experience, such as recent graduates.
The difference between the two is also obvious: the former in the existing industry experience on the basis of learning the general skills of product managers; The latter, in addition to learning general skills, should ideally have a general understanding of an industry.
New people want to be engaged in product manager position but suffer from no one to take, this is also the pain point of most people, this situation should be how to effectively learn, improve their skills, secretly grow? Below is a list of self-study tasks that might help you.
Task 1: Read (pay attention to get some books)
Books are the best way to acquire knowledge. You can learn knowledge comprehensively and systematically. By reading books related to product managers, you can understand the work content, process, and details and key points of each work from shallow to deep.
Recommend a few introductory books: Everyone is a Product Manager, Product Manager’s Manual, Product Manager’s First Book, Revelation, User Experience Elements, etc., which are suitable for beginners. A send again according to the different dimensions of book order: www.processon.com/view/6059db…
(Part of my book list)
When reading, we should pay attention to reading and thinking, take notes when we meet good content, don’t pay attention to how fast we look, and strive to leave an impression after a time, so that we can quickly turn to the knowledge point.
(Notes on revelation)
Task 2: Video Tutorial (see below for details)
Reading will certainly be helpful to learning, but it will inevitably encounter knowledge points do not understand, at this time the need for products with the elderly is how happy things. However, I also had such doubts at the beginning. Later, I made up for this problem by watching the video. Now I share the video with you. The content structure of the video is as follows:
With a certain basis to go back to reading, it is a new world.
Task 3: Learn software tools (see below for details)
The software commonly used by product managers is also mentioned a lot above. Now I have a targeted chat about the software with high usage rate in my work.
(1) Office three pieces (Word, Excel and PPT)
Usually need to output a variety of documents, do function announcements and other PPT will still be used, the frequency is not low, I think it is not difficult for everyone.
(2) Axure RP(8.0+) prototyping tool
Product managers are either prototyping or thinking about the prototyping process. There are a lot of tools out there, but I like Axure and it can also be used to draw flow charts.
Prototypes can be divided into sketches, low fidelity, and high fidelity based on the level of fidelity of the page, and usually the ones we draw the most are the ones with the most fidelity. Often lo-fi Axure features rarely use, recommend B station learning address: www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Gx…
(3) Visio
Visio is a professional mapping software for flow diagrams, network diagrams, workflow diagrams, database model diagrams and software diagrams. And I used to draw business flow diagrams, function flow diagrams, swimlane diagrams, etc. (Drawing swimming lanes in Axure is a nightmare.)
Words are not as good as tables and tables are not as good as charts, which involve complex processing logic. No matter how many words and detailed design drawings are not as good as a flow chart.
(4) XMind
The mind map structure of XMind consists of a central theme from which the main branches radiate outward.
In addition to the basic Mind mapping structure, XMind also provides organizational charts, tree charts, logic charts, and more. These structures help the user play an important role in different usage scenarios, and some of the image examples in this article were made with XMind.
Competencies required by product managers
Bad product managers vary, and good product managers are not all the same. Let’s take a look at what skills a good product manager needs. The following skills include but are not limited to this.
(1) Communication skills
The workplace is a master communicator. Product managers face all kinds of people in different departments, and they have to conquer them with good reason.
(2) Learning ability
Internet update iteration, technology is constantly upgrading, a variety of new business models have sprung up like mushrooms, if you do not learn, a little do not pay attention to follow the trend was cut leek.
Recognizing the importance of Type T and type π people, do you think you can stay current without studying?
(3) empathy
Empathy determines whether the product manager can stand in the perspective of the user to think about the problem. Empathy can get a lot of unintended product details and opportunities, and see the essence through the phenomenon.
During the requirements gathering phase, put yourself in each scenario and you’ll get a lot of requirements/function points; Don’t be afraid. We’ve talked about prioritizing requirements before.
The most innovative product is the product manager’s deep empathy for the needs of the user.
(4) decision-making
Product manager is a natural decision maker, in the face of numerous information, how to make the best decision, it is a test of the ability of an excellent product manager.
Look at the same thing, everyone must have their own views, why you product manager to do so have to do, some people love to be obsessed. This is the need for product managers to overcome the discussion, make a good decision, tell us why to do so, to solve the user’s pain point? Why is this a priority? This requires that every feature we do needs to be justified, otherwise the rhythm is easy to be distracted by others.
Seven, pay attention to the interview
Now all you need is a resume to impress. For starters who don’t know how to write a resume, don’t worry about getting a template at the end of the article. The guidelines for product managers when writing a resume are: Keep it simple, easy to understand, and use data.
There is also a question: the product position such as [product manager classification] subdivision is so fine, which direction is suitable for me? Since it is an entry point, it must be to choose what you are good at and have advantages, so that the success rate is high. If you do not know what each post is responsible for, you can inquire according to the method mentioned before, or through the browser, or ask the product veteran.
Insert a: technology transfer advantage
Among the technical partners I have contacted, there are a lot of people who are transferred to be product managers. The technology here includes front-end development, back-end development, testing personnel, etc. It is very advantageous for technical personnel to be transformed into product managers.
Technical staff logical thinking and abstraction ability is often very strong, in the product design process is very useful, usually responsible technology often think of details are not necessarily less than product managers.
Because of their technical background, they can consider the cost and difficulty of technology implementation when considering requirements, and will not put forward unrealistic requirements. Product managers with technical experience are able to refute the difficulties encountered by technical staff when they are put off by requirements implementation.
But on a daily basis, we try to think from a business perspective first, not a technical one. There are no special circumstances, never use “their own technical experience” to teach the technical staff to do things, you know!
Finally, it is suggested that if technical partners want to change positions, it is best to start from the direction they are familiar with. For example, I am engaged in the field of e-commerce, and I am certainly familiar with the business logic of e-commerce, so it is best to start from e-commerce products and become familiar with them.
Operation or marketing products also have advantages: can directly contact with users, personally experience the real needs of users, good at user research and other work.
There are also traditional IT professionals with solid basic knowledge and rich experience in professional fields, which also have great advantages.
Insert 2: What major is suitable for product manager
First of all, it should be noted that there is no major called product manager in the university, but we can find out which major is relatively suitable from the workflow and daily work content of product manager.
(1) Psychology related majors
C-end product managers should study the analysis and mining of user needs, and the mining of demand is based on your deep understanding of users. And if you have knowledge of psychology, especially user psychology and behavioral psychology, it will be more helpful to understand the motivation behind user behavior, and more likely to help you dig out the real needs, so you should have a certain psychological foundation.
(2) Major in industrial design or related
In the product design stage, product managers will spend a lot of time studying human-computer interaction. Besides, product design is inseparable from interaction design (excluding positions such as strategic products of interaction design). It is a good direction to choose industrial design if you want to learn knowledge related to interaction design.
Have a lot of product managers have the professional background of industrial design including world famous product manager – jobs, as the creator of the iphone on the hardware and software of the appearance of product design are from his hand, it is recognized all over the world, so engaged in industrial design relevant professional friends able to apply the advantages of good in the product post work.
(3) Computer related major
University students majored in computer is many knows the logic, business logic and the development of technology for product manager duty is simply can not make the advantage of the ability, the product with technical background is not only can communicate and internal technical personnel flow can even play a leading role of project management, it has a very strong voice.
(4) Major in mathematics or related
We know that product managers do a lot of data analysis in their actual work. Data analysis is needed to verify the rationality of requirements; After the launch of the product, it is necessary to do data analysis to see whether the expected goal is achieved; The problem is that you need data analysis to figure out why and so on. Therefore, students majoring in mathematics have an advantage in data analysis.
(5) Economics or related majors
At present the Internet has entered the stage of fine operation. Refined operation needs the support of various strategies, and the evaluation of strategic effect needs to calculate various input-output ratios. A knowledge of economics will give you an advantage in the second half of the Internet.
Every student who wants to be a product manager should know about the specific job content of product manager in these industries in advance and see if they like it.
If you want to be an education product manager, a major related to education may be a better choice.
If you want to be a financial product manager, a major related to finance may be a better choice.
If you want to be a pharmaceutical product manager, pharmaceutical related majors may be a better choice.
If you want to work as a supply chain management system, warehouse management, transportation management, etc. product manager may be a better choice.
(” what major is fit to be product manager “part comes from: zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/265458288)
Of course, students of other majors should not lose heart. During the internship, they should try their best to find Internet companies to practice and pave the way for themselves. Being a major isn’t a problem, and I’ve seen a lot of people (like me) become product managers with completely different majors.
Common recruitment software: BOSS direct hire, pull hook net, practice monk, street net, etc
The interview questions
For recent graduates, the most likely questions are as follows:
(1) Why do you become a product manager?
(2) Do you have any internship experience? What was your main responsibility during this period?
(3) What difficulties did I meet during the internship and how did I solve them?
(4)…
The above content involves a lot of directions, and it has made some sharing for people who want to prepare for new products. Maybe the content introduced above is not comprehensive. If you have questions and want to know a certain point in depth, you can come to me (Wuyi4973).
Need software, video teaching, resume template information, can first pay attention to the public account, and then leave a message: software, video 0125, resume acquisition (not at the end of the message).
In the end, I hope your hard work will bring you success and joy.
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Hello, I am Dao 3, public account: Pmdamiji
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