As the question talks about explaning the activities of a Product Manager to someone(a family member) who doesn’t understand technology, I would explain the parallel using the example of Building Construction Contractor. So here is how it will go:
My work is similar to that of a Building Contractor except that I do not pay the bills of all the people who work with me. Just like a building contractor who builds houses based on people’s asks or builds houses on the feeling that people might want to buy them and live in them, I design software products for the online crowd. My work can be segregated into 4 major stages:
Stage 1 – Research & Planning
In this stage, just like a building contractor I try to foresee what people might be looking for and try to capture that for future product growth ideas. I try to do this by conducting market research to understand user demand & pain points that they have. Sometimes, I also look at the suggestions/complaints our existing customers provide and try to capture those as well for future enhancements. Then I prioritize those points captured- in terms of impact they are going to bring for our customers, revenue they can bring for us and the ease with which we can build them and create a plan for multiple delivery cycles. Then I try to bring these ideas up in front of my higher management and secure their budgetary and resource approvals before the work can begin.
Stage 2 – Design
This stage is similar to a building construction contractor explaining what the client wants in terms of number of rooms, amenities etc. and by when to his/her team and getting the designs ready and approved by clients. In this stage, I provide my design, engineering and quality teams a detailed walkthrough on the prioritized item that we plan to build and clarify any doubts that they might have. Based on the detailed information provided to the team, the team can suggest some modifications to the initial idea. Based on the final requirements, the design teams comes up with design ideas and I do work with them to finetune it before the team can build it. After the designs are are ready, I present it to stakeholders to get the requisite approvals before implementation can begin.
Stage 3 – Implement & Test
In this stage engineers build the product just like builders building the house. I do have a daily checkpoint with the engineers to understand what they have done the previous day, what their plan for the current day is and what is stopping them from completing their work. I do meet up with other team to remove any impediments in the engineers way so that they can complete their work on time. I also interact with our quality teams to finalize testing coverage so as to make sure we carry out internal testing as well as external testing, to iron out issues and make sure the product fits the initial plan that started off with.
Stage 4 – Release
This stage is similar to handing over a finished home to clients by the contractor and getting to know how satisfied they are with the end product. Prior to release, we create documents and educational videos to make sure the user understands what the changes are and how they can use them. In this stage, we release the product online and try to measure the satisfaction of our users. We also try to capture user feedbacks so as to use them for future enhancements to the product.
Usually while one product feature is in testing phase, we try to plan for the future enhancements and the research and planning stage begins for the next product feature. This is similar to the contractor looking for next projects and signing up for them so that he/she can begin work on that post the first product handover.
I believe explaining my work through the lens of a building constructor contractor would help them understand how PMs continue to work through multiple features one after another.
Adobe