Product Management - Making Everyone's Day Better

I've been in a product management role for the last nine months and it has been a paradigm-shifting experience. Due to an unrelated opportunity I'll be moving on from this role, but someone who was interested in potentially replacing me, asked me what I did. This is how I, as someone who is still figuring it out myself, described it to him. A seasoned Product Manager would probably tear it to pieces, but I can only describe what I've managed to gather in a short 9-month stint.

The Work

The analogy I like use is to take a 600ml bottle of Coke. It is by no means a perfect analogy, but it helps create an initial picture.

The Product Manager's job is to weave between the following activities in any order at any time:

• Work out if the client truly wants Coke

Assuming they do

• Work out if 600ml is the optimal size (for client satisfaction, frequency of purchase, profitablilty, etc. All sorts of factors could help define "optimal")

Assuming the above are both true

• Work with the marketing team to make sure the advertising material says "600ml Coke"
• Work with the delivery (manufacturing) team to make sure the label says "600ml Coke"
• Work with the delivery team to make sure the bottle is in-fact 600ml
• Work with the delivery team to make sure the bottle is in-fact filled with Coke (few people want 800ml of Fanta, if they're expecting 600ml of Coke) 

Then

• Work out if the client still wants Coke. If yes, rinse and repeat above. 😊

If client wants "Fanta" or even just "Vanilla Coke"

This is an area I didn't get too much into, but we'd then start looking at

• Work out whether we should run the products side-by-side
• If not, work out plans for sunsetting the old product and bringing new ones online 

I think there are so many more intricate pieces to each of these items, and probably some major items missing from this list, but these are the things I had the privilege to work on.

Purpose

The purpose of all of the work above is to optimise the client experience, that is just make it awesome for them. That leads to repeat business, referrals, improved relationships, increased profitability, and so on. Ultimately, our work tends to improve the experience of everyone involved, which is potent motivation.

• The finance team find things easier to bill, as everything is well set up within the billing system.
• The sales teams find things easier to sell, as they have collateral, they know what they're selling (and what they're not), and how we can address out-of-product queries quickly and easily. Their customers are happier and therefore like them more.
• The delivery teams find things easier to deliver, as they know what is expected, what tools are available, what's included, what is not, where and how to find additional support.
• The leadership team's job is easier as they have more engaged, more satisfied staff to manage.
• Execs and owners are happier as more efficiently delivered products are more profitable (assuming we have priced right!), and staff are happier and more productive.

So you are a highly appreciated team member, which is an intense buzz.

Approach

So this is going to sound super lazy, but I found the key to the product management role was to try to do as little of "the work" as possible. This maybe more of a goal than a reality.

Your role is to inspire, delegate, excite, support. You're managing people that you have no authority over, which is a thought-provoking challenge. However, people find what you're doing so helpful that they are almost clamouring to assist. You need to get teams to own their part of the bigger picture, as much as possible. For example, technical teams need to keep technical wikis and processes up to date, the marketing team has to create the collateral, and the sales team have to engage with what has been developed to keep up to speed with what the organisation can deliver. All the while, you tie it together using various tools such as Product wikis, presentations, communications, reinforcement of consistent language, and more.

You're a conductor. A coordinator. A consultant. A facilitator.

Summary

So make the customer's experience excellent, by inspiring teams of people to make their individual pieces the best they can be in service of that goal.