Remember the previous years, the product manager this word just rise at home, to the profession when there is no clear understanding, is the media to zero threshold high returns slogan to hype, make one by one, are engaged in the product manager, cause this line jumbly, impostors, Today the product manager position is still criticized, so we always have to ask ourselves, as a product manager, do we really understand the responsibilities and obligations of this career? Here, I would like to write down some of my knowledge and experience of product manager to discuss with you.
Making a product is like looking for a partner. Before looking for a partner, we should have our own standards for the other half in mind. Introverted? Or lively? Similarly, when we just got a product planning, don’t hurry to start, the first step to planning books or project docking man three point one goal set, three target populations, usage scenarios, business core, the goal is to point to to achieve what kind of the product, so that decide the aim of three point one what is the importance? In summary, there are the following two points:
1. Confirm whether the requirements given to us by the project side are reliable or not? Sometimes really can’t guarantee project to our really demand, at least I will often meet demand, the harm of some false demand is huge, is like a chain reaction, head for the wrong, no matter how well behind do doesn’t make any sense, this requires a product manager must have the ability to identify requirements for authenticity, Of course it takes some experience to develop this ability, but if you can identify the three-point goals of your product, you will be able to spot most bogus requirements.
2. Keep your team on the right development path. I met such a thing before, once I am in charge of a about college students’ back-to-school products, I will give to the prototype designer, and illustrates with her I need partial cartoon the UI interface of the wind, the results of design, UI interface style is too childish, everybody’s feeling is gives on the vision products, this is young children in desperation redo, after I summarize, I did say the style I wanted when I gave the prototype to the designer, but why the style I came up with was different from what I wanted. After careful consideration, I found that I did not clearly convey the three-point one goal of the product to the designer, which made the designer not have a very clear direction in the design process, thus causing this kind of problem. Therefore, product managers not only need to understand the three-point one goal, but also need to clearly convey the three-point one goal to each member of the team through various ways, so that we have a clear understanding of the product to be done.
Learn to be the leader of product meetings
Product requirements are not clear, and brainstorming sessions are often needed to produce good ideas. I remember the first time I attend the brainstorming session, I and my colleagues together for a long and intense discussions, but due to the lack of effective meeting organization and guidance, lead to the last also failed to produce a few good ideas, had this experience, I realized, would like to open a brainstorming session, a product manager need the role as meeting the helm, To purposefully guide team members, here’s what product managers should know when attending brainstorming sessions:
1. Inspire the team. First of all, it should be made clear that a brainstorming meeting is not really about a group of people rolling up their sleeves for a blind discussion. Brainstorming is also about methods. By using some scientific methods and means, team members can be more effectively inspired and better ideas can be produced. For instance I will be using at every time of brainstorming to guide team members to discuss business canvas, through commercial canvas from nine dimensions, customer segmentation, value proposition, channel distribution, customer relationship, source of income, core resources and key business, key partners, cost structure to guide team, greatly increase the quality of the meeting.
2. Prepare a backup plan. Once a satisfactory solution has been brainstorming, it is important not to stop there. It is important for product managers to go through meetings with alternatives ready, because there is no guarantee that the best solution will be foolproof, and alternatives will be available if problems arise to avoid increased time costs.
Third, do targeted competitive product analysis
We all know that competing goods analysis is an important means of demand for mining, competing goods analysis in different ways, I compare the commonly used method is the user experience five elements analysis, from a strategic framework, scope, structure layer, layer, presentation layer, five aspects to analyze product, how to do competing goods analysis, there are a lot of good article, you can go to learn, I will not go into details here. What I want to say today is that when we do analysis of competitive products, we should not pursue too big and comprehensive, and we should do it in a targeted way. In the product launch stage, a good and comprehensive analysis report of competitive products is indeed necessary. It is not practical to do a comprehensive analysis report within a limited time, which will eventually lead to a large and coarse result. What we need to do is to do the product in the iteration process with a targeted approach, grasp several key points in the iteration process, and do deep and thorough, which is the most scientific and effective means.
Need analysis, have you done this?
Demand analysis needs to solve two points, the first is where does the demand come from? And then how do you process demand?
How do you capture requirements?
Different products have different demand sources. Part of the demand may be directly given to us by the demand side, but in many cases, the demand needs to be mined by the product manager himself. The usual mining channels include user research, data analysis and analysis of competing products. These three pieces are very large modules if spread out. Product managers need to master a set of skilled methods through continuous learning and practice.
Review committee is required
After determining the demand, it is also necessary to carry out a refined processing of the demand. Usually, the most common way is to invite colleagues in charge of products in various departments to hold a demand review conference. The demand review conference needs to clarify the following points:
1. Prioritize requirements according to their urgency and importance. Depending on the need, you can even cut some requirements.
2. Is it necessary for other departments to cooperate? If so, a meeting should be held with the cooperating departments after the review meeting.
3. What are the risks and difficulties in technical aspects and what are the preventive measures? Whether existing functions can be reused to avoid repeated wheel building.
4. Determine the cycle of products and make a periodic table of products.
5. After the meeting, the confirmed content will be sent to the boss and all colleagues related to the product by email.
Five, draw your function module and function flow
Requirements after confirmation, it has become an important step, between the prototype and is the carding function module and function flow, this step is often ignored by many product managers, prototypes are often close to the user can see the finished product, many more are the details of the deep, showing the most likely to cause problems is the lack of function and the process is not perfect, in order to avoid these problems, Before painting archetype figure need to be aware of the comb out of your function module and function flow, by drawing out your function module and flow is a more effective means, I recommend using UML (unified modeling language), UML has a relatively mature system, and a set of internationally recognized norms, through drawing, Two things need to be sorted out. First, what are the functional modules of the product and how are the relationships between functional modules? The second point is whether the flow in each function module can run, and what branch flow and abnormal flow there are. You’ll discover a lot of things that you didn’t think about before, and you’ll be able to guarantee the rigor of your product.
6. Your job is not just to draw prototypes
I see that many people who need to get in touch with product managers are addicted to drawing prototypes, racking their brains in order to draw high-standard prototypes. Some of them even make prototypes that are comparable to online products, which is a great way to grab the job of interaction designers. Admittedly, drawing a good prototype is indeed a necessary skill for a product manager, especially in some small companies, where there may be no interaction position at all. Products often need to do interaction work, but this does not require us to pursue the lofty prototype too much. Prototype if can express a various modules of the product and the relationship between each module, and the main functions of each module in the interact, is a good prototype, if the product is relatively simple iteration, a static prototype directly with captions also enough, the product manager need to do a lot of things, a person’s energy is limited, Please don’t be too obsessed with “perfection”.
7. All speak with data
As a product manager must always remind ourselves that everything all want to speak in the data, data determines whether your product is successful, so the data analysis skills is indispensable to product a skill, data analysis, I divided into two parts, data index, data monitoring, each part need how to do, please listen to me outlining:
1. Formulation of data indicators. Before the launch of the product, the product manager needs to discuss with the data analyst to determine which data indicators to set for the product. How to set an excellent data indicator? Consider a few criteria:
1.1. Simplicity: Make sure that the metrics selected are quickly understood by the people involved in the project.
1.2 relevance: The selected indicators should be in line with business objectives (company output).
1.3 timeliness: Indicators must be timely. For the sake of timely quality, complexity and perfection of indicators can even be sacrificed.
1.4 immediate usefulness: when you quickly understand the indicator, you can immediately find the problem behind the indicator.
Here I would like to add that a product should not have too many key indicators, generally 3 indicators are enough to reflect the quality of the product.
2. Data monitoring. After the product is launched, the product manager needs to pay attention to the data trend of the specified indicators, adjust the product according to the feedback of the data, and prepare for iteration. Product managers need to be aware that there is no need to obsess over data accuracy. When you have 90% confidence in the data, you can make a decision.
Eight, learn some technology
Product managers need to understand technology has been more controversial, but how many still learn technology, at least some technical term you have to understand, with the development of the eldest brother, at least can reduce some obstacles, I have seen with development of the teacher to discuss, not even any backend two concepts and the background points clear of person, how much this let both sides will be embarrassed, again say, A little tech savvy and a little fake for the white guy, right?
The above is my product manager of some humble opinion, if there are shortcomings, but also hope you give advice. Finally, I wish you all better and better on the road of product manager.