I work for a large company, and the marketing division houses our product management team.
Do you consider the department in which your product management team is located to be the best option? Would it maybe be more beneficial in another department?
– Corey Amorin
Discussion
A] The optimal department for a product management team can vary depending on the company and industry, but generally, product management is typically considered to be a distinct function from marketing. While product management and marketing do have overlapping responsibilities, they have different objectives and approaches.
Product management is responsible for overseeing the development and strategy of a product or service, from ideation to launch and ongoing iteration. This involves working closely with cross-functional teams such as engineering, design, and sales to ensure that the product meets customer needs, business objectives, and market trends.
Marketing, on the other hand, is responsible for promoting and selling the product or service to the target audience. This involves developing marketing strategies and tactics, conducting market research, and executing campaigns to drive brand awareness and sales.
Given this distinction, it may be beneficial for your company to consider moving the product management team out of the marketing department and into a separate department that focuses specifically on product development and strategy. This could include a dedicated product department or a cross-functional team that includes product, engineering, and design.
Separating the product management team from marketing can help ensure that product development and strategy are given the appropriate focus and attention, without being conflated with marketing objectives. It can also help foster stronger collaboration between product management and other functional areas that are critical to the success of the product.
That being said, every company is unique, and there may be specific reasons why your company has organized product management within the marketing department. Ultimately, the most important factor is that the product management team has the necessary resources, support, and authority to effectively manage and develop products that meet customer needs and drive business growth.
– Anushka Garg
B] The size of the company doesn’t really matter here… it’s where they play.
A tech company (with an internet-based software service / platform, stand-alone software or an electronic hardware product) will likely have teams organised in the traditional product company pattern: anyone doing product development is lumped together (engineering, product, design, etc) and often each function within product development has its own leadership.
In other companies teams that work on software stuff might just get chucked into marketing or IT without really any care because they’re not making the core products. And in other companies yet, they’re essentially outsourcers or consultants that do this kind of work for fees rather than for exploiting their own products. These can be big or small companies but the size is kind of irrelevant vs the type
Like there’s a monumental difference between Amazon and Accenture even though they’re both massive.
– Dan Coelho
C] While you’re right that this sort of arrangement never ends well for product companies, it’s painting in extremely broad strokes to say that it doesn’t end well for companies either.
Not all businesses need to be (or can be) product led. What’s unfortunate in some of these places is when they insist on setting up a construct that mimics a product-led org, but in a half-assed way. Unfortunate for the figurehead PM that doesn’t have any real ownership.
A single-minded view that all things must be product led to be successful, and insisting on finding a product-led way to define a business is just as bad as pretending to be product-led for whatever reason, when you’re not.
My friend, who works in the product industry, had this startup idea. She requested my assistance in building the MVP and told me that it would take two months. According to what she told me, she wanted to create a working prototype – just to get the point across.
So basically, what is an MVP? What are the different types of MVPs? How can a SaaS based new startup implement and benefit from MVP?
– Anthony Smith
Discussion
A] Taking it further the different types of MVPs are as follows:
Concierge MVP: This MVP focuses on solving a specific problem for a specific customer segment. It involves manually performing tasks that the final product will automate.
Wizard of Oz MVP: This MVP simulates a product experience by using human intervention to perform tasks that will eventually be automated.
Landing page MVP: This MVP is a simple website or landing page that explains the product and allows users to sign up for a waiting list or pre-order the product.
Smoke test MVP: This MVP is a simple and cheap way to test the market’s interest in a product by creating a landing page with a sign-up form or a “Buy now” button.
Prototype MVP: This MVP is a working model of the product that demonstrates its core functionality. It can be used to gather feedback from users and investors.
Explainer video MVP: This MVP is a video that shows the product in action, how it works and how it solves a problem for the customer.
Crowdfunding MVP: This MVP is a funding campaign that allows customers to pre-order a product before it is built.
Each of these types of MVPs are suitable for different businesses and products, and the best one to use depends on the company’s goals, resources and the stage of development of the product.
– Matthew Shun
B] Building an MVP in 2 months is a tight deadline, but it is possible depending on the complexity of the product and the resources available. To help your friend build the MVP within 2 months, the following steps can be taken:
Define the scope of the MVP: Clearly define the scope of the MVP and what features are necessary to demonstrate the core functionality of the product. This will help to keep the development time on track and ensure that the MVP is delivered on time.
Prioritize the features: Prioritize the features to be included in the MVP. By focusing on the most important features, the MVP can be delivered in a shorter time frame while still addressing the problem that the product is meant to solve.
Build a prototype: A functional prototype can be a good way to demonstrate the core functionality of the product. Building a prototype can help to speed up the development process and make it easier to gather feedback from early adopters.
Use existing tools and technologies: Use existing tools and technologies to build the MVP, rather than starting from scratch. This can help to speed up the development process and save time.
Involve a small team: Involve a small, dedicated team with relevant skills and experience to work on the MVP. This can help to ensure that the MVP is delivered on time and to a high standard.
Get feedback early: Get feedback from early adopters as early as possible in the development process. This will help to identify any issues or changes that need to be made, and allow the team to make necessary adjustments.
Work in iterations: Work in iterations, where you deliver small chunks of the MVP in every iteration. This will allow the team to test, learn and improve the MVP on the go.
Its important to keep in mind that MVP is a process and not a one-time project, so it’s important to have a plan for the next steps after MVP is launched.
– Gary Houston
C] A SaaS (Software as a Service) startup can benefit from implementing an MVP in the following ways:
Test the market: An MVP allows a SaaS startup to test the market and gather feedback from early adopters to determine if there is a need for the product. This can help the startup to validate its business idea and avoid building a product that no one wants to use.
Gather feedback: An MVP allows a SaaS startup to gather feedback from early adopters and make necessary adjustments to the product before it is fully developed. This can help the startup to develop a product that meets the needs of its target market.
Get early traction: An MVP can help a SaaS startup to get early traction and build a user base. This can be beneficial for a startup in terms of customer acquisition and validation.
Minimize costs: An MVP allows a SaaS startup to minimize costs by developing a minimal version of the product first. This can help the startup to save money and resources that can be used for further development.
Improve time to market: An MVP can help a SaaS startup to improve its time to market by launching a minimal version of the product quickly. This can help the startup to gain a competitive advantage and start generating revenue sooner.
Identify the key features : An MVP can help a startup to identify which features are important and which are not, this can help to focus on the key features and improve the overall user experience.
For a new product manager, what are the most critical abilities? What are the requirements to get started off on the right foot in the first few months of your product management example?
– Natalie Smith
Discussion
A] Having recently switched to a smaller company after working in product for around 6 years, “Knowing your stakeholders” has never been more of a lesson. Quality is always a priority in well-established goods and businesses, but my CEO just told me that the solutions are “obvious.” He is saying that excellence is a hopeful companion and that we must provide or perish.
That early on your stakeholders might care more about fitting a square peg into a round hole than having nothing at all for an extra month has been a difficult pill to swallow.
– Naomi Nwosu
B] The biggest problem, in my opinion—and this may vary depending on where you are—is managing stakeholders. Make one person happy, and four others will be unhappy. Making sure that your stakeholders understand that you hear them and that you understand, but also that there are good reasons not to take on what they consider to be most important, is the best approach to handle this. In most cases, it won’t be effective to simply provide them the facts in that discussion; instead, you must practice your people (soft) skills.
– Nathan Endicott
C] Communication, Discovery, Prioritization, Execution.
These are fundamental to your career, therefore as a first-year student:
Communication: be a fantastic listener, comprehend everyone’s objectives, and comprehend how they want to use the product. Additionally, be able to convince others of a notion in some format (deck, doc, etc.). In order to gain clarity and enable everyone to move forward more quickly, a lot of communications in PM include repetition and erring on the side of overcommunication.
Discover: Recognize the pertinent needs and pain areas of your users and clients (I adore “jobs to be done” for this). Even if you don’t have excellent customer dialogues (Mom Test), which is recommended, this will create a high threshold for suspicion regarding generalizations about your consumers. Get skilled at locating strong support for your or the product team’s assumptions, including data collection and engaging data visualization.
Prioritization begins to incorporate all of the aforementioned, but it also provides a framework for comparing various hypotheses, tests, and bets (I like RICE to start then review the stack rank with more nuanced eye after that). Be mindful that some businesses have established the ratio of “moonshots” to “roof shots” they want a team to work on. This is portfolio management and risk analysis.
Execution: the capacity to provide consistently. Maintain a forward motion drumbeat. Even though it comes last in the order of events, this is the muscle that needs to be developed first. Know what success means at all times for each feature, product, and your location. be able to develop effective KPIs. being able to define an idea’s or bet’s bounds What are we currently building and what are we not building? (Read Shape Up). Table stakes: be able to implement an organized system of shipping constantly if your company doesn’t use scrum. Your company probably uses scrum in some capacity. Iterate.
It may seem nostalgic or retro, but there was a time when we actually had to use roadmaps to get to places when driving. Especially when taking road trips. You’d have to unfold a massive map, find where you were, and then trace out the roads to get to your destination. No GPS or navigation, except for your co-pilot handling the map.
Are you confused about product strategy? As a product person, are you frequently unsure how to prioritize what to build with your team? Are you getting slammed from all sides internally, trying to figure out how to build out everything your internal stakeholders are asking for?
User experience (UX) plays a critical role in product management, as it is the overall experience of a person using a product or service. A positive UX can lead to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy, while a negative UX can drive customers away. As a product manager, it is important to prioritize UX in the development process and regularly gather feedback from customers to improve the UX of the product. This can involve conducting user research, usability testing, and analyzing user data to understand how customers are interacting with the product and identify areas for improvement. Additionally, product managers should work closely with UX designers to ensure that the product is easy to use, aesthetically pleasing, and meets the needs of the target audience.
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