WHAT IS PRODUCT MANAGEMENT?
Project management is defined as a function that helps to discover every step of a product's lifecycle. It involves processes from development to positioning and pricing of the product. For building and delivering the best possible product, the product manager advocates for customers within the organization. It will help the production team to build better designs and high-quality products.
AIM OF PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
There are three fundamental aims of product management which include:
Build once, sell multiple times
Be an expert on the market as well as the product
Lead the business
PROJECT MANAGEMENT LIFECYCLE
The project management life cycle involves activities in different stages which are carried out by different employees who are working in the different parts of the organization. The steps include:
Innovation: In this stage, the team will generate new ideas keeping customer’s expectations in mind. They prioritize the more interesting ideas. It is known as the phase of ‘discovery’. If the team agrees that the idea can become successful, a decision is made so that the other team will investigate it further.
Analysis: This stage is about validating, if there is a market need the team will write the high-level requirements and justify the investments. In many big organizations, the output of the work must be signed off by the senior management before any development begins.
Development: In this stage, the product is designed, built, and tested. It is a repetitive process that is done by Agile software development. There may be many sprints that are preceded by more analysis before releasing the product to the customers.
Go-to-Market: In this stage, the company prepares for launch and makes sure that they are ready to sell the product. If the company is building high-risk products such as health and aerospace, then the launching might take many months. If the company is making online web-based products, it can be done in minutes.
Once the product is launched, all the focus shifts towards selling, tracking performance, and fixing any issues. This phase is known as In-life. When the product is no longer needed, it is withdrawn in the End-of-life stage.
When this whole process is going on, the product manager needs to track what is happening in the market and respond to the changes.
BENEFITS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project management is one function that targets the market’s needs and delivers measurable and lasting benefits for the organization. It includes:
Build-up collaboration between internal teams
The product management team is responsible for creating a structure on which all other teams should work on. They work together regularly with several groups of individuals who are from different professional backgrounds. They help different teams to collaborate so that work can become easy. Product management collaborates with sales to ensure that they are not targeting the wrong customers. After that, both product management and sales collaborate with the marketing team to make sure that their marketing activities are aligned with the product sales.
Decrease the risk of product failure
Nobody can prevent failure but a full-proof brief business case can decrease the risk. The product management team will work on a set of assumptions and scan the market which will help them to reduce the risk of product failure. Product management should have to compile a business case that includes customer requirements, market trends, size of the market, the competitive landscape, etc. This business case is enough to convince the company that their investment in the project has minimum risk.
Align market needs
It is the responsibility of the product manager to ensure that the product launching in the market provides value to customers and solves market problems. This type of research is essential when releasing a new product because it should solve critical problems of the market. To align market needs, product managers must understand the intentions of the customers in terms of their behavior, goals, functional and emotional needs.
Act as a translator
A typical business development professional is not fluent in systems layout because he doesn’t have that skill. A set of skills is vital to design, develop and market a product. Here the product manager comes in the frame. They act as a translator between processes which helps the employees to develop the skills set and serve their customers efficiently.
Clearly defines everything
Product managers are in a unique position. They communicate with all parts of their organization and construct a system in which each process is informed by and helps another. They ensure the success of the long-term product roadmap. They make sure that all parties are working together and speaking the same language. They are also aware of all changes in the markets and know the effect of these changes on their products.
Bottom Line
Product management is necessary for any organization because they update processes, strengthen the team, and build-up collaboration within the company.
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