Product Management
Topic Expert is the home of Product Management. We cover everything about product management comprehensively, from the 101 kind of topics to all the advanced “how-tos”. The lead expert for this topic is Asher Saeed, a global product leader who has spent over 20 years building digital products in startup and scale-up businesses.
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Product Management Responsibilities
Understand how the best performing product organisations are structured, how they think and operationalise their success.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a product manager do?
A product manager is like the captain of a ship for a product. Their job is to make sure the product is awesome and customers love it. They decide what features the product should have and work with a team to build it.
They’re always thinking about what the customers need and how to make the product better. They also keep an eye on how the product is doing in the market, and if something’s not working, they figure out how to fix it. It’s like they’re the bridge between the customers who use the product, the team who builds it, and the business goals of the company. They’re always planning, problem-solving, and making sure everyone is working towards making the product great.
What are the 3 major areas of product management?
Product management mainly focuses on three areas: Discovery, Planning, and Development.
- Discovery: This is the detective work part. The product manager explores what customers need and want. They ask questions, study the market, and gather information. Their goal is to understand the problems that need solving and find opportunities for new products or features.
- Planning: After figuring out what to build, it’s time to plan how to do it. The product manager sets clear goals and decides the steps to reach them. They make a roadmap of what features to build and when. It’s like drawing a map for a journey, showing the path from an idea to a real product.
- Development: Now, it’s time to build. The product manager works with engineers and designers to turn plans into a working product. They make sure everyone understands the vision and stays on track. They solve problems that come up and keep the team focused on making a product that customers will love.
What are the 5Ps of product management?
The 5 P’s of product management are a set of key areas that product managers focus on. They are product, price, promotion, place and quite importantly people.
- Product: This is what you’re making or selling. The product manager needs to know everything about the product: what it does, who it’s for, and how it’s different from other products. They make sure the product meets the needs of the customers and stands out in the market.
- Price: How much the product costs is super important. The product manager thinks about the right price so that customers will buy it, but the company still makes money. They have to balance making the product affordable for customers and profitable for the business.
- Promotion: This is all about how to tell people about the product. The product manager works on advertising, social media, and other ways to get the word out. They want to create excitement and interest so that people want to buy the product.
- Place: This means where and how the product is sold. The product manager decides whether it’s in stores, online, or both. They also think about how to make it easy for customers to find and buy the product.
- People: The product manager also focuses on the people involved with the product. This includes the team making the product and the customers using it. They work to understand customer needs and make sure the team is happy and working well together.
- These 5 P’s help the product manager in making sure the product is successful in the market and loved by customers.