Everyone has a different answer to what a product manager should do every day. This is also a completely open question, because the tasks vary from day to day, and it’s hard to use standardization to define what a product manager actually does.
However, after communicating with several product managers and combining with my own product practical work experience, I have some answers.
The daily work of product manager can be divided into strategic work, periodical work and daily work according to the time span of work content.
1) Strategic work
This type of work spans the entire life cycle of a product and includes the following.
1. Establish long-term strategic layout for products. What role does this product play in the company, in the whole Internet, in what industry, in the industry chain upstream or downstream? How to find their own advantages in many similar products? You need to take a strategic look at where your product is and understand product trends and information changes in your industry. Only in this way can we timely and effectively control the development trajectory of the product.
2. Identify new product opportunities. Product managers need to be context-aware, and no matter what scenario you’re in, think of better ways to make things or scenarios more efficient and better experiences. It’s like Steve Jobs on his deathbed wondering if he could have made the iv stand a little more scientific. Once you are product-conscious, you will be able to identify product opportunities as a regular user.
3. Provide suggestions for product evolution, enhancement and improvement. The product manager should be the most sensitive person to user needs, and should pay close attention to industry trends and user concerns, update products in time, give products a stronger vitality, and put forward more high-quality product suggestions.
2) Phased work
This type of work has a clear start time and how long it will take to complete the work. It mainly includes the following items.
1. Participate in the development of new products. In the process of new product development, as a product manager, I need to collect market opinions, put forward product concepts, refine requirements, output product prototypes, product requirements documents, requirements review, follow up the implementation of UI, development and interaction, and conduct product testing and acceptance.
2. Participate in developing business plans. The ultimate goal of any company-level product is to make a profit. Therefore, it is best to determine the final profit method of the product in the early stage of the product, in order to better build the underlying framework of the product. Toutiao, for example, decided to monetize with advertising from the very beginning, so their advertising system developed steadily and synchronously while their users grew rapidly. To create a business plan, you need to set financial goals, predict how much it will cost to achieve them and how much revenue you will receive in the next few years. Of course, you need to break down your financial goals into product modules.
3. Use internal and external resources to carry out marketing activities. In Microsoft, there are two roles: product manager and product marketing manager. Product manager is responsible for product research and development. Product marketing manager is responsible for product promotion. There are very few characters of genius who can play two roles at once. But as product managers we must consciously cultivate their own marketing thinking. As the owner of the product, we need to consider how to promote the product so that more users can use it. Only a product that occupies a certain market share can survive, and the realization of your product is the best measure of the product manager’s ability.
4. Anticipate competitors’ actions and develop countermeasures. With mass entrepreneurship and innovation. Basically, there are homogenous products in every segmented industry. How to stand out from them and become the top two should be considered by product managers. When competitors come up with new ideas, should they follow suit? Or a better solution? Should we wait and see or follow up when our competitors are spending money like crazy?
5. Timely update products and cultivate users’ sense of belonging. Collect users’ feedback and communicate with them to understand their feelings about using the product. Refine user suggestions into feasible requirements, and then update the product in time. This can form a positive cycle, let users use more and more cool, but also let the product more and more understand users.
6. Reduce costs and increase MAUs. The greatest value for the product is in the number of users, the greatest risk lies in the cost. When your cost is lower than others, you can live longer than others. When you have more MAU, you can build your own walls and live a better life.
7. Redesign your product line. Product managers need to constantly review and review their product lines. Is there enough focus? Did you deviate from your original goals? Are you keeping up with the market? If the storm has passed, should we continue to do this product?
3) Routine work, which is performed on a daily basis, mainly includes the following items.
1. Collect market information. Market information here, including competitive intelligence, is not only for competitors, but also for oneself. Including daily operational data comparisons, competitor trends, industry trends and opportunities. All these are the basis for strategic and phased work. When you have enough information, you can make the best judgment.
2. Coordinated development, UI, operation, customer service, sales and other resources to ensure the normal operation of products. Product managers take ownership of the product, and you’re the one leading it. So you have to pay attention to the state of the product every day and use all your resources to achieve the goals of the product every day.
3. Execute plans and focus on goals. If the product is not online, we need to pay attention to the progress of daily development. Is there any delay? What’s the cause of the delay? Is your product documentation completed as planned? If the product is live, look at the business plan. Is the product growing as planned? What causes MAU fluctuations? Is the data analysis completed? If the product is already in the realization stage, it is more important to split the daily income into modules, think about the causes of fluctuations every day, and constantly optimize until the target is reached.
Ideally, strategic work accounts for 15-25% of a product manager’s total work time. Stage work accounts for about 20-30%. Routine work is the foundation, accounting for about 40-55% of the time. This does not include dealing with unexpected bugs or operational incidents. If you don’t know what to do, think about how you spend your time.