Key Product Manager Skills

 
Goals are an important part of running a successful business and necessary for maintaining relevance in a diverse market. An effective product manager will identify consumer needs and align the correct departments to help achieve these business objectives.

This role can be dynamic and adaptable, as it evolves to meet the changing needs of the company and its customers. Talking through what success looks like and defining high standards will guide the work and ensure alignment and organization.

Here are key responsibilities you should clearly define for your product manager to ensure their success.

1. Market Research

Without insights on your market and customers, there is a risk you could be developing the wrong product. A product manager can help avoid this by setting research objectives, planning research, conducting interviews, assessing findings, and communicating insights that will help you shape a successful product. 

There are three types of market research a product manager must be strong at delivering: 

• Market Segmentation - This involves dividing the market into distinct segments based on characteristics that are relevant to your business. 
• Competitive Analysis - Manufacturers should regularly assess their competitors to understand market share, trends, potential threats and opportunities. 
• Product Development Research - Before launching a new product, manufacturers should learn customers needs, preferences, and feedback on prototypes. There are multiple research methods to accomplish this goal, so learning which one will meet your business objectives is important. 

2. Product Strategy
A well defined product strategy helps guide your company’s  efforts to create and market products that meet your customers’ needs and achieve your business objectives.

Your product manager will create a product strategy and execute it. This includes careful review of products already released in the market and any development projects. Ask your product manager these three questions as they define their product strategy.

1. What products are we offering and what features are included?
• They will look at each product’s position on the product life cycle and analyze the whole product and service portfolio. 
2. What channels are the products sold through? 
• They will evaluate the channels the products are sold through and the performance of each one to determine what is working and where improvements need to be made. 
3. What is our competitive advantage and market differentiation? 
• They will determine value propositions for products to effectively position and communicate a unique advantage. 

3. Product Development

For R&D projects, your product manager ensures your product being released is what customers want. Customer feedback throughout the process is essential. Turn to your product manager for these three areas of expertise:

Unmet Needs 
Products that meet an unmet need have a greater chance of being successful versus “me too” products. The product manager can help identify and prioritize the unmet needs of your customer. This input will guide better concept development.

Minimal Viable Product
Accelerate your learning with a Minimal Viable Product (MVP). It will bring the idea to life and show the benefits of the concept. It can take the form of a simple prototype that allows customers to understand the idea and tell you if it meets their needs.

Usability Validation
Making a product intuitive and simple to use boosts adoption and loyalty. Usability testing throughout the product development process will help you make sure that your design and engineering teams are learning how customers want to use the product. 

4. Product Launch
You’ve invested a lot of capital into developing this product–and now it’s time to see your return. A successful product launch meets business expectations. If your product manager created a strong go-to-market strategy your product is that much more likely to succeed. But work must also be down within the organization too:

• Prepare Marketing 
• Your product manager will communicate the value proposition to the marketing team to help communications differentiate the product in the market. A strong marketing campaign promotes more awareness of your new product to existing customers and new prospects.  
• Enable sales channel
• An informed sales channel will have confidence in bringing the new product to customers and answering their questions. Continually training your sales team with a stream of information will the confidence in their own knowledge. 
• Train internal team
• Remember that the first point of contact after a sale may be customer service or a technical team to help your customers troubleshoot. By training this team on the new product, they will be ready to effectively work with customers and deliver a positive experience. 

5. Customer Satisfaction
Once the product is launched, your product manager will follow up with your customers to learn about their level of satisfaction. Your organization can constantly learn and grow closer to your customer. A product manager brings the voice of the customer into the organization. Here are three ways to build a strong connection with customers once a product has launched:

• Sales Channel Feedback
• Seek feedback from your sales channel on reactions from prospects and customers. This is the team that is responsible for converting interested customers into purchasing the new product. Listen to the objections that the sales team hears on the new product and what works to overcome them.

• Customer satisfaction survey
  • A simple customer survey will allow you to learn feedback from a large quantity of customers fast. 
• Customer Interviews
• Travel to visit with customers to learn about their experience with the new product.  Seeing your new product being used in the actual application will allow you to see things that need to be improved. 

By mastering these five areas, your product manager will gain traction within your organization and build trust with internal stakeholders. At the same time, your customers will find in you portfolio relevant products that meet their needs. In return, you’ll win their loyalty–and their recommendations to others.

Want to know more about the skills product management can bring to the table? Here are ways I can help.

Posted in Integrating Product Management  | Tagged Communication, Leadership, Presentation

RELATED ARTICLES: