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Mercedes-Benz Is Building A New Software Development Center For The AMG Division

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Secure software development solutions

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AI in software development: Key opportunities + challenges

Zeda.io

zedaio

#HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your background. I am Prashant, a product manager by heart, and I have been doing it for the last 7 years. I feel lucky to have started my career as a PM, while most people I know have transitioned to product management from engineering, business, or other fields. As a PM, I have worked in countries worldwide, including India, Indonesia, USA, and have been a product consultant for a Japanese company. During my journey, I got the chance to build products and product teams from scratch. Not only that, but I was also able to help companies I worked for in acquiring more than 200 million users and over 100 million dollars in revenue through my products. Some of the products that I've worked on, like the Paytm QR code and Tokopedia, were covered as case studies at and . Harvard Google Frankly, I feel quite satisfied with my product journey, but I couldn't help but notice the gaps and inefficiencies in product management, such as lack of visibility on the product, data fragmentation, and the operation-heavy nature of the job. So, I started to solve these challenges for product managers across the world. Zeda.io What's your company called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do? Our company is called . It is a SaaS platform to make product management simpler and smarter. Product managers often spend most of their time in meetings, replying to email/slack, or managing documents, and still, no one has a complete picture of the products they're building. Zeda.io is the only platform a product manager would need to build with everyone by keeping stakeholders aligned, involving customers, and giving a complete picture of the product without fragmenting it. Zeda.io By bringing everything together with everything in one place, PMs can now focus more on strategic work and spend less time on operational work. Also, this allows us to build machine learning models that can help optimize the product and give contextual suggestions on your product management. #What is the origin story? After working as a product manager for different companies around the world, I realized that the way products are built inefficiently. To build the products of tomorrow, we need a better solution that's designed with product managers at heart. I brainstormed my idea for Zeda.io with PMs working in startups to big companies, associate product managers to top product leaders worldwide. No one was happy with the way product management was being done, be it in India, Japan, the USA, or Europe. We thought, why not improve it using community and machine learning. Over the last 25 years, people have moved from physical documents to Microsoft docs to Google docs and now Notion. But then again, these are all 2-dimensional documents that are tough to maintain, and no one gets the big picture by reading them. Not to mention, it's an outdated way of managing products. It's so bad that most product managers are doing project management in the name of product management. The tools which are available in the industry cater only to the project management side of things, but project management is only a small subset of product management. And this is not the right approach to building products. With Zeda.io, we are completely focused on product management. We want to centralize product data and help people ship better products faster by bringing centralizing the product in one place, making this one place integrated with the entire company stack, and building machine learning models on top of it. #What do you love about your team? It's tough to find people who will join your company for the vision and not just because they need a job. And I feel lucky to have a team that's in it for the vision. People who understand the problem, believe in it, and want to build an awesome product for people who build products. The best part is that we are all helping each other to achieve this vision. #If you weren’t working at your company, what would you be doing? If I wasn't building a company, I am sure I would still be a product manager, building products. So probably eating Sushi in a Japanese café because I had an offer from a Japanese company which I was almost going to accept. But happy with the way things have panned out. #At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics? I believe the value defines success for us we are creating for our end-users. How easily they're able to get on board and their overall satisfaction with the product. So, net promoter score and customer satisfaction score are top of our success metrics list. Along with these, employee engagement and our growth are also critical. If we are hitting these metrics, that means we're succeeding. #What’s most exciting about your company traction to date? In just 8 months, we have been able to grow from a team of just 2 to 20. Moreover, with that, we've also been able to get 5000 people on the waitlist and a readership of 3500 for our weekly . I think these are incredible numbers considering all of this growth was organic, and not a single penny was spent in paid marketing. newsletter #What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why? The technologies that I'm most excited about are blockchain and machine learning at the moment. Blockchain is here to decentralize the internet and empower creators. Machine learning will help us improve processes so that humanity can focus on the bigger problems instead of spending time on operational and redundant tasks. And the technology that I'm worried about is probably the use of AI and robots for warfare. While these are good technologies, they have the potential for misuse if fallen into the wrong hands. Another such tech is Deepfake. #What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform? I've been reading HackerNoon for over 7 years now. I love the quality of people here and that I get to read the latest news in technology from thought leaders and people who are on a similar journey as I am. We decided to get published on HackerNoon to open up possibilities for us to understand our customers better with more feedback and expand our user base. #What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself? Buy Bitcoin and hold. I did buy Bitcoin but sold it before it went to the moon. But that aside, I would tell my younger self to start financial management and investment early on. I only started proper financial management last year, and I feel I should have started earlier. #What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing? One thing which I realized is that most people are scared to start a startup. They feel that it's a scary and bad world out there. But during my short journey, I realized that there is more good than bad in this world, and people will actually go out of their way to help you out. I would say to anyone in a similar journey as me to take the leap of faith and seek help as you progress.

There Is More Good Than Bad in the Startup World: Prashant Mahajan, Zeda.io

Grand View Research that the market for product design and development services is currently valued at $9.3 billion and is projected to experience a compound annual growth rate of 12.8% until at least 2030. To create successful products, it is crucial to have a solid product discovery process in place. By having a clear understanding of what your product can achieve and what your customers want, the process of designing and developing products becomes much easier. reports With this in mind, let's delve into the essential elements and best practices of a product discovery process. These insights will enable you to create better products with tangible business value. What is product discovery? Product discovery is an important process that allows you to gain insight into the problems users face. By building a relationship with users and incorporating their input into the product design process, you can better understand their needs and create a product that solves real problems. During the product development stage of product discovery, teams test the assumptions associated with the product idea to ensure that it can help address user problems. The product manager and their team collaborate in the problem and solution space to bring the product idea to fruition, meeting the user's needs. At this stage, product teams collect and analyze user feedback and customer behavior to identify pain points. With this information, they develop practical solutions that are translated into essential features for the product. The teams also assess the feasibility, usability, and value risk to ensure the product meets the user's needs. Why is product discovery crucial for business success? Product discovery is crucial for business success because it helps companies understand their customers' needs and desires and the market landscape they are operating in. By conducting thorough product discovery, businesses can identify the right problems to solve, design solutions that meet their customers' needs, and create products that provide real value. This approach leads to higher customer satisfaction, increased revenue, and a more competitive position in the market. The cost of building the wrong products Building the wrong products can be costly for businesses in terms of time, resources, and revenue. It can lead to low adoption rates, negative customer feedback, and a damaged reputation. Additionally, it may require additional time and resources to pivot and build a new product, resulting in delays and missed opportunities. The value of customer feedback According to , customer feedback analysis is a great way to understand customer needs and improve products. Product discovery methods include working with customer interviews and surveys to determine how the product might resonate with a target audience. Such a customer-centric approach increases the chances the product will drive customer satisfaction by meeting customer needs. Forbes The role of product discovery in achieving business goals Product discovery processes are vital for aligning product development with broader business objectives. It is used to find new market opportunities, allocate resources effectively, and over others. In other words, product discovery efforts help choose the products with the most significant potential to succeed, which means a higher chance of creating business value. prioritize particular products Real-world examples of successful product discovery When it comes to some real-world successful product discovery samples, consider these: Apple's iPhone results from a great product discovery process offering a unique user experience by meeting the needs for connection, music and Internet surfing. Airbnb started when some people saw a hotel with no rooms available. To deal with this problem, they came up with the idea of renting out air mattresses in an apartment. Netflix started as a DVD rental service and later recognized the power of streaming content online. All the companies above discovered how to meet customer pain points and answer a changing market. They innovated and brought new ideas to life. Key elements of a successful product discovery process Here’s what you have to keep in mind if you want your product discovery to be successful: Make sure stakeholders see the value the product will bring while they also give a product team autonomy to alter the direction of the product discovery process. Understand critical user pain points and clearly articulate the solutions or product outcomes. When holding ideation sessions, focus on the most promising ideas that are achievable, measurable, and practical. Find a way of turning an idea into a realistic prototype that can be built without too many resources invested. Conduct experiments on prototypes to test the initial product discovery assessments and ideas. Refine validated ideas and prepare them for a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) development. Focusing on the elements above makes certain your product discovery process will come with a higher success rate. As you can see, it all revolves around having a clear user problem, letting your product team do the job, choosing among the dozens of potential solutions, and practically testing the ideas. Best practices for product discovery Knowing the key success elements of product discovery is not enough. You should also understand its best practices to ensure the top-notch build is ready for the product development journey. These are the practices we speak about: Make sure product discovery is not a one-time process and is adopted as an involving the input of a product manager, product designer, and tech lead. agile product roadmap Focus on describing the product in a sellable narrative that customers understand. Take notes of how users speak of their problems and try to capture to use the same narratives when presenting solutions. customer insight Have all the objectives clearly defined to ensure the product discovery process is seamless and follows the pre-established outline? Use wireframes and prototypes to gather feedback and test ideas. Having clickable elements offers greater insights than brainstorming and conventional user research. Prioritize features while considering factors like development effort, customer value, and business impact. Product discovery methods should emphasize features that can bring the most benefit. Use product discovery software like – an AI-powered product discovery tool that helps teams streamline the process of building products that align with their target audience. With its focus on customer insights and feature prioritization, Zeda.io can assist teams in achieving their objectives efficiently. Zeda.io The abovementioned best practices help take product discovery to the next level. These set the foundation for a great product development process. Conclusion Product discovery is crucial for product development. Knowing the customer's pain points lets you devise the best solutions. Besides, product discovery helps test those solutions and ensures no hiccups are faced during the development process. Use the best practices above to create customer and business value. Yet, if something still needs to be clarified, for our platform and let our team guide you through all the nuts and bolts of product discovery. There is a direct path to business value. Our expert teams have the experience and expertise to follow that path and make sure your product development will be more about gains than pains. sign up FAQs What is product discovery? Product discovery is a three-folded process that includes identifying customer needs, exploring new ideas, and validating potential solutions before a development team starts to develop a new product or improve an existing one. In a nutshell, the continuous discovery of a particular product relies on comprehensive market research, understanding user pain points, and testing data to ensure the product meets the client's needs and brings business value. What are the stages of product discovery? In short, initial product discovery includes seven key stages: Objectives definition Understanding the target audience and target customer Market research Customer interviews and feedback Ideation and brainstorming Prototyping and testing assumptions Refining and iteration What are the key elements of product discovery? When a product team deals with product discovery, they will face these elements: Clarity of a problem at hand vs. a given solution In-depth insight into the most crucial user pain points Collaborative ideation Prototyping Testing discovery efforts and assumptions Refining ideas after validation What is product discovery vs. product delivery? Product discovery deals with customer needs and solution validation to meet those needs. In turn, product delivery is a process of an actual team effort directed at developing and launching the product. Overall, the first focuses on choosing the right build, while the second focuses on implementing that build.

Effective Product Discovery: Process & Strategies for Success

Descubrimiento efectivo de productos: procesos y estrategias para el éxito

Découverte efficace de produits : processus et stratégies pour réussir

प्रभावी उत्पाद खोज: सफलता के लिए प्रक्रिया और रणनीतियाँ

効果的な製品発見: 成功のためのプロセスと戦略

Descoberta de produto eficaz: processo e estratégias para o sucesso

Khám phá sản phẩm hiệu quả: Quy trình & Chiến lược để thành công

有效的产品发现：成功的流程和策略

Product management has grown in popularity recently as businesses recognize the importance of developing products that meet customer needs and solve real-world problems. Product managers plan ahead of time and collaborate with cross-functional teams to oversee the entire product development process, from inception to building to launch and beyond. Product managers need an in-depth knowledge of the market, customers, business, and data in order to strategize effectively. As a product manager, you define the product vision, and roadmap, conduct research, launch the product, and continuously refine the product. You work with cross-functional teams, including engineering, , and sales, to create a unique, value-driven, and successful product. design There are different types of product managers, including Product Owners, Growth Product Managers, Technical Product Managers, and Platform Product Managers. Although their core responsibilities are the same, their roles differ in subtle ways. You will learn their distinct roles in this blog. The role of a product manager is complex, and your tasks and responsibilities overlap with other positions. On a daily basis, PMs handle a multitude of tasks. As a PM, you conduct daily meetings with the product team to address their concerns and discuss the progress of the ongoing projects. You talk to the users to understand their pain points and how the product is performing. You analyze data, prioritize features using various metrics, and create roadmaps to constantly refine the product. You strive to make the product better by staying aligned with the company's goals. This article will provide an in-depth insight into the roles and responsibilities of product managers. You will also understand what it takes to be a successful product manager. At the end of this article, you will find a few useful tips for aspiring product managers to help them succeed as product managers. What is a Product Manager? Product Managers oversee the product development process from its inception and ensure the growth and success of the product by collaborating with multiple stakeholders. PMs have a unique blend of technical skills, business savvy, and leadership ability to lead the way for the product team to craft the best product. In order to be successful, it is imperative that the Product Manager understands the product's purpose, target market, and value proposition. PMs articulate and communicate the vision of the product to the development team. In this way, they empower the product team and facilitate product growth. Product managers are often called the “CEO” of the product. However, as Marty Cagan has rightly mentioned in his book Inspired: PMs coordinate with cross-functional teams to ensure their efforts are aligned with the goals of the business and also cater to solving the real-life problems of customers. ‘even though they are called CEOs, they are not a boss to anyone.’ According to Marty Cagan, a product manager’s four key responsibilities include the following: Customer Market/Industry Data Business In other words, as a product manager, you should engage in extensive research to understand the marketing landscape, industry, customer requirements, and business viability to carefully strategize the product journey. The role of a product manager is complex, and many of their tasks and responsibilities overlap with other positions. Product managers have multiple roles and take care of various things like business cases, , communication with the business, decision makings, and so much more product roadmaps Types of Product Managers Product managers, as previously stated, are crucial to the success of any product. PMs are in high demand as more businesses recognize the value of product management. The responsibilities of a product manager would differ amongst companies.  Although all product managers and product teams do the same essential tasks, they slightly differ in terms of titles and job descriptions. Here, we will be discussing five types of product managers and their major responsibilities. Read on to understand how they are different from each other. Type Responsibilities Product Manager PMs oversee the entire product lifecycle from ideation to launch. PMs: define the product roadmap conduct market research launch the product continuously refine the product. They work with cross-functional teams such as engineering, design, and sales to bring the product to market. Product Owner The product owner is responsible for defining the product backlog and prioritizing the features for the development team. The product owner serves as the customer's voice and guarantees that the development team yields value-driven products. Growth Product Manager A growth product manager is responsible for owning up metrics like product revenue and user engagement. They identify opportunities for customer acquisition, retention, and upselling. Technical Product Manager They have a strong technical background. Technical product managers primarily work with the development team to curate products that fulfill user requirements. Platform Product Manager A platform product manager handles a platform that caters to different customers or products. They determine the roadmap for the platform, manage interactions with partners and clients, and guarantee the platform's scalability and security. Responsibilities of a Product Manager The stage of the firm has an impact on the roles and responsibilities of a PM. While mature companies have more defined PM roles, startups typically expect PMs to be in charge of "everything." Before accepting a PM position, it is recommended Product Managers study the company's philosophy, culture, and requirements to make sure they are a company fit. Day-to-Day tasks of a Product Manager with the Product Team The role of a PM demands a unique combination of technical knowledge, creativity, and business acumen. It is pretty obvious that each day is distinct for PMs. You are responsible for a vast array of tasks, and handling them all can be challenging. The following section will help you understand what do a product manager do on a day-to-day basis. Tasks Description Daily Standups PMs conduct regular meetings with the product team to analyze and understand the progress of ongoing projects. This helps them to address their concerns and to ensure the goals are met on time. Conduct Customer Interviews Conducting customer interviews helps them understand user requirements. This assists them in understanding the value that the customer receives from the product. Additionally, it aids in the refinement of products according to the needs of the users. Networking PMs frequently get ideas from their peers and constantly search for fresh and innovative approaches to product development. The improvement of the development process is facilitated by having effective communication with various stakeholders both inside and outside the firm. They motivate their team to go beyond their comfort zone by conceiving innovative ideas backed by compelling evidence. Roadmap Planning Defining roadmaps allows every stakeholder to be on the same page regarding product development. It ensures transparency in the product journey and keeps everyone informed and aligned toward achieving the larger goal. Curating a roadmap can be challenging. This is why software like is there to be a companion for PMs like you to create comprehensive roadmaps effortlessly. Zeda.io Data Analysis PMs have to analyze qualitative and quantitative data to measure the product's success and scalability. Data helps them prioritize feature requests and also to identify areas of improvement. In short, data analysis would help them to define success metrics. Framing PRD You have to develop PRD on a daily or weekly basis. A PRD has information on the product’s purpose, requirements, and user stories. PRD is important to keep the team focused on attaining the common goal. Cross functional Responsibilities of a Product Manager Product managers are responsible for creating products with customer and business value. Therefore, a PM is constantly in collaboration with customers, the product team, and key stakeholders of the company. As a PM, you should be able to find a balance between the needs of the customer and that of the company stakeholders. You are the facilitator of a cross-functional product group made up of experts from various divisions, including engineering, product marketing, design, customer service, finance, legal, marketing, program and project management, sales, and support. For the delivery of the entire product experience, close collaboration with each of these areas is essential. This section will help you understand how this cross-functionality works. Engineering PMs work closely with the engineering team to develop and improve the product development process. By converting business requirements into technical specifications, they ensure that the developer team meets the company's objectives. Finance They work with the financial team to track metrics and maximize business growth to fulfill your responsibilities. They track all the expenditures and revenue that are involved in the business. Also, often, they work with them to decide on the pricing of the product. Sales PMs collaborate with the sales team to ensure that the product meets the needs of the customer, is competitive in the market, and meets revenue targets. They work together on customer feedback, market insights, sales enablement, revenue targets, and marketing strategies. Customer Support They work together to collect feedback from customers and identify and resolve issues. They collaborate to ensure customer retention and satisfaction. Legal The legal team ensures that the product complies with relevant regulations, is protected by intellectual property laws, and that contracts and agreements are in place to support the product's development and ongoing management. Marketing Product managers devise strategies for positioning the product in the market. Also, PM works with marketing teams for the management of product releases. Project Management The project management team collaborates with PMs to ensure that their initiatives are delivered on time and within budget. Skills, Traits, and Qualifications of a Product Manager A product manager ought to have certain skills, traits, and qualities to drive the growth and success of the product. product management Let us look at a few skills that a PM needs: Strong Communication Skills As a PM, you must communicate effectively with numerous internal and external stakeholders. You should be able to influence others, empower your team, and navigate situations using your communication skills. Product Managers need to be able to articulate clearly the business case of a given initiative or feature, so the product team understands why they building it. Problem-Solving Skills It is important that you have problem-solving skills as a PM because you would have to solve the issues of your team. You should be able to tactically surpass any challenges that come your way. Product Managers should have the superpower to deal with problems and make informed decisions. Leadership Leadership skills help collaborate with cross-functional teams and make sure that everyone is focused on the same objectives and moving in the same direction. It aids Product Managers in keeping the Product team motivated to perform better and empowers them to take ownership of their work. Technical Knowledge Although having a technical background is optional for a PM, it can be useful in understanding the product and the development process through a technical lens. Also, technical know-how would help you communicate better with the development team. Market Knowledge You must thoroughly understand the market and target audience to ensure that the product meets their needs. With this knowledge, Product Managers can devise ground-breaking strategies to differentiate themselves in the market and create a product that customers value. Data Analysis Data analysis is a major skill that a product manager has to master. You have to sift through loads of data; hence, Product Managers must be able to independently analyze it effectively and pull the most out of it. Creativity You need to be creative and think outside the box to develop innovative solutions to problems. Creativity is essential to differentiate your brand, product, or service from your competitors. Adaptability You must be able to adjust your approach and adapt rapidly because the nature of your job is dynamic. The job of a PM can be challenging; you have to brace yourself up to face challenges to learn, evolve and thrive. How to Succeed as a Product Manager? The success of any product manager relates to the success of the product they are working for. Here are some factors that a product manager needs to keep in mind to be successful. Understand Company Goals You must align the product vision with the overarching business objectives in order to ensure the product's success. This helps a Product Manager stay on task and prevents from straying from the business goals and outlook. Build Strong Relationships As a PM, you must constantly interact with multiple stakeholders for improved productivity and efficiency. It is you who transforms your team's vision into reality and paves the way for product growth. Hence, Product Managers have to build strong relationships with stakeholders and cross-functional teams to ensure that everyone is aligned and working together. Be Customer-Focused Ultimately, the goal of any product is to create viable features that customers will find valuable. You need to be customer-focused and make decisions based on customer needs and customer feedback. This ensures customer satisfaction and thereby increases the customer retention rate. Strive for Perfection To work effectively, you must stay on top of changing trends and keep upskilling yourself. Persevere to create something above the ordinary for your customers, and shouldn’t settle for anything other than the best. Tips for Aspiring Product Managers Acquire Relevant Experience: In order to lay a solid career foundation, acquire experience in product management, marketing, or a related industry through internships and working on different projects. Gain Relevant Knowledge: You can attend that are available online to learn well around about product management. Moreover, it is also important to learn the language of computing and the language of business. several courses Establish a Strong Network: To keep abreast of the most recent trends and advancements, establish a solid network of people in the product management sector and go to industry events. Learn from Mentors: Seek guidance and mentorship of seasoned product managers and benefit from their knowledge and experiences. Develop Strong Communication Skills: To effectively communicate with stakeholders and cross-functional teams, develop strong communication skills. Emotional Intelligence- EQ enables you to put yourself in the shoes of your customers, understand their emotions and motivations, and create products that meet their needs. PMs benefit from high EQ when it comes to communicating effectively, building strong relationships, and resolving conflicts. Wrap Up Long story short, product managers play a critical role in developing, planning, and marketing a product. They oversee cross-functional teams, conduct market and user research, and are in charge of the product's success. Product managers need to be effective communicators, strategic thinkers, experts in their fields, and capable leaders. In order to be a successful PM, one has to have an in-depth knowledge of the market, business, customer, and data. Moreover, they should know the product inside out to guide the product team to conceive the best output that aligns with the business objectives. Managing a multitude of tasks at the same time can be chaotic for a product manager. However, is there for your rescue as it brings order to chaos. Zeda.io FAQs Should PMs know how to code? It is not essential for a product manager to know how to code. However, learning the coding language would help them collaborate better with the developer team. How to become a PM with an MBA? Even though an MBA would give you a perspective on how businesses work, it is optional to have an MBA to be a product manager.In order to shine as a PM, you need to have a deep understanding of the market, business, customer, and data. What are the four critical skills of a product manager? Problem-Solving, strategic thinking, communication, and leadership are the four critical skills necessary for a product manager. It's critical to acquire appropriate expertise, develop a strong network, seek out mentors, and maintain a customer-focused attitude if you want to become a product manager.

What Are the Roles & Responsibilities of Product Managers?

¿Cuáles son las funciones y responsabilidades de los gerentes de producto?

Quels sont les rôles et responsabilités des chefs de produit ?

उत्पाद प्रबंधकों की भूमिकाएं और जिम्मेदारियां क्या हैं?

プロダクト マネージャーの役割と責任とは?

Quais são as funções e responsabilidades dos gerentes de produto?

Vai trò & Trách nhiệm của Người quản lý sản phẩm là gì?

产品经理的角色和职责是什么？

Teammates, not opponents. That’s how product managers and product designers are expected to work in product teams. Not necessarily the relationship needs to be a close-knitted one, but should definitely be healthy. Building a stellar SaaS business is not a one-person responsibility. The involvement of the best product-driven minds, i.e- the design team and product team, is what gets the job done. Even though the bigger picture for large SaaS companies remains the same, i.e- delivering a user-friendly and intuitive product. But behind the scenes, job responsibilities, and scope of work might look very different for both of these product-heavy roles. To make sure that every team member is working towards a shared goal and a long-term vision, product managers and product designers need to work as a team. How are product managers and product designers different (and similar) to each other? ​​ It’s true product managers and product designers have different responsibilities. But despite these differences, they work closely together to design, develop and test a product that’s loved by their target audience. But before we move on to the similarities and differences between these two roles, let’s look at what it is that both these roles entail. What does a product manager do? A product manager is obsessed with timely planning, shipping, and the closure of a product’s entire lifecycle. It involves a lot of heavy lifting from several departments you can think of. Product managers are always at the forefront when it comes to balancing conflicting goals such as priorities and budgets given to them by their clients in addition to meeting deadlines given by the designers and developers alike. Starting with customer research, identifying gaps and pain points of the ideal customers, product design, product marketing and finally getting the product on the road with aggressive beta testing and pilot programs. All of this, keeping the business goals and objectives always in account. The core responsibilities of a PM are as follows:- i) Carrying out a competitive analysis by monitoring the market trends ii) Aligning internal and external stakeholders around the goal of the product iii) Collaborate with internal product, engineering, and design teams for timely deliverables iv) Mapping out the entire product lifecycle while also prioritizing product features and updates v) Working on existing product features, product releases, and capabilities for continued success vi) Stepping in for troubleshooting, testing, and collaborating with respective teams for every minor and major issue in the product. vii) Working on creating and presenting extensive product reports on bugs, specs, defects, and improvements in cross-functional teams transparently. What does a product designer do? The groundwork for bringing an app idea to life or improving the existing user interface and user experience of a product begins here. A product designer could be on either side of the development process — from coming up with ideas for new products or improving the user interface to designing how an existing product works. They are the real product architects who do full hands-on work before you can even call your idea a legit product! In addition to this, they’re also responsible for aligning customer experience, business goals, and development timelines throughout their work. The core responsibilities of a Product Designer are as follows:- i) Strong attention to detail that comprises visual design skills (UI) and equally good functional design skills (UX). ii) Identifying and suggesting new product opportunities and improvements that enhance the existing user experience of the product. iii) Revamping or remodeling the current designs if required by the ever-changing user preferences backed by solid research. iv) Positive collaboration between product managers, engineers, and stakeholders on a day-to-day basis to deliver a well-rounded product for customers. v) Being vocal about the design changes implemented or removed to cross-functional teams, management, and stakeholders every once in a while. vi) Ability to synthesize both qualitative and quantitative data vii) Creative problem-spotting and problem-solving skills backed by user research, usability testing, and decoding complex heat maps of apps and websites. Now that we’ve seen the individual work responsibilities, this drives us to our next big question… Where does the intersection between product managers and product designers happen? Contrary to the popular belief that one role supersedes the other, it’s more of a team activity. The overlap between the product management team and product designers is no less than a strong chemical bond. Together, these two teams can bring the most pressing concerns of the users to the surface and start eliminating the pain points using effective design thinking. Here is how a positive collaboration between the two designations unifies for the greater good of the organization:- 1. Centralized Mission, Vision, and Goals Product and design teams are focused on making sure the end-user has an engaging product experience. This hits all the checkboxes of assuring everybody in the organizational hierarchy agrees. Because a centralized mission is already known by the teams, it helps individual employees sync their day-to-day work responsibilities accordingly. This also reduces the repetitiveness of a similar kind of work carried out by distinctive teams. 2. Customer First Approach For The Win Product managers and product designers are always supposed to agree with customer needs. Even though a successful product is an intersection of business, user, and technological aspects, adopting a customer-first approach makes the cut eventually. Product managers and product designers understand this, and so they map out and prioritize customer-oriented feature releases and product updates first, stakeholders and the management come second. This approach enables companies to create more satisfied and loyal users. 3. Elimination of Infinite Back and Forth Not just collaboration, effective collaboration. That’s exactly what the purpose of these two distinct roles is, to stick together from inception to launch. Starting from user research, making personas, brainstorming, creating workflows, and determining processes is a result of equal contributions from both teams. The lack of collaboration at the beginning can lead to poor decision-making and chaotic workflows, ultimately resulting in unsatisfactory results for users and the organization. 4. Prepared For Last Minute Surprises As you know, stakeholders are the hardest to bend and convince when conflict arises during the execution phase of a product timeline. But conflicts and escalations are a part of the progress. So how does one get a free pass? By doing damage control. Now is when product and design teams pitch in their unique solutions and come to a common ground to solve a particular challenge. Both teams align together and come up with a resolution effective to the case in front of management when things go upside down. This makes any and every challenge get resolved quickly, without wasting too much time on the issue. 5. Always Striving To Hit The Bull’s Eye Product success is often the result of a collaborative effort, with both product and design teams working in tandem, which leads to quick planning and faster execution. Every department in every company strives to achieve business goals. As we discussed previously, regardless of what the department or individual processes are like, the only metric that fits in the bigger picture is your product’s north-star metric. What do product managers really want from product designers (and vice versa)? Answers to the tough questions are what both product managers and designers should seek from each other. In design, every first step starts with a big why. Why this idea? Why this problem? Why this product? Why this feature? Why does this flow? Why this shape? Why this theme? Why this color? Why this typography? And the hundreds of why you can possibly think of… the list goes on. Best way to beat this: why loop? Communicate first, collaborate second. Don’t slide it under the rug! Communication is the first step in the process, which allows both parties the time to unwind, explore and brainstorm every design decision. Product designers should be proactive in showing the research they carried out, the insights they got from user interviews, the results of usability testing that rolled in, and any secondary data that supports their decision. This way, the product managers will be in a better position to validate your findings instead of shooting your ideas down with a whole other bunch of other questions. Up next, many designers try to come up with a solution that’s never been implemented or heard of before. The chances of it being shipped? Negligible. The idea is not to reinvent the wheel but to follow what others are already doing. Here, your competition. This isn’t to box you up from being creative. It’s simply praising the existing mental models of the users and going in that direction to save yourself time and give you the confidence that it’s bound to work! Being a product designer is not about turning into a scientist for every new challenge you come across. Rather, step in as an artist and embrace what’s already been done and give that a unique spin. So ultimately who wins the battle? Sadly, none. A product designer needs a product manager to stand by their side just as much as a manager needs a designer. It’s a partnership. The truth is, a successful product isn’t built in silos. It never will. Creating a product from the ground up has been a collaborative process. No role can stand alone until the very end. So, the prerequisite of even before getting started in any product team, you have got to be a team player. Maintaining a good relationship with your stakeholders is important for your success as a product manager — be it design, marketing or engineering. With , collaborating with your stakeholders is easier, faster and seamless. Zeda.io Zeda’s collaboration tools help you communicate faster with the team, and cut down on awkward and unnecessary daily stand ups. Become more efficient and build better products with . Zeda.io

Why Do Product Managers and Product Designers Need Each Other?

¿Por qué los gerentes de productos y los diseñadores de productos se necesitan mutuamente?

Pourquoi les chefs de produit et les concepteurs de produit ont-ils besoin les uns des autres ?

उत्पाद प्रबंधकों और उत्पाद डिजाइनरों को एक दूसरे की आवश्यकता क्यों है?

プロダクト マネージャーとプロダクト デザイナーがお互いを必要とするのはなぜですか?

Por que gerentes de produto e designers de produto precisam um do outro?

Tại sao người quản lý sản phẩm và nhà thiết kế sản phẩm cần nhau?

为什么产品经理和产品设计师需要彼此？

The success of many professions depends on how well they understand their customers and build products and services accordingly. Even Subway servers need to carefully listen to their customers to make the right sandwich for each of them. An extra onion and you’ll probably end up losing a customer. A career in Product Management is on top of the “professions where one needs to be user-focused” list. But before we dive into this further, let’s first understand the difference between being user-focused and user-led. According to Martin Eriksson, the co-founder of Mind the Product, “Being user-focused means ignoring or even going against explicit user wishes in order to better serve the user.” A great example of this would be 37signals, a famous computer software company, which ignores many of its users’ requests to add more features because the number one request they receive is asking them to keep the product simple. If the company were to grant every single one of their users’ requests, the product would get bloated, less user-friendly and ultimately less likely to meet users’ needs. Resource: https://www.mindtheproduct.com/be-user-centered-not-user-led/ To make the process simple, here are some easy-to-execute yet effective ways to stay user-focused as a Product Manager: Place users at the center of your process Although many of us say “we’re building this product for the users”, sometimes it so happens that we center the process of building the product around business needs. For instance, “How do we build this feature with the least assistance from the development team?”, “How do we execute this launch with the least amount of stress?” “How can we build something that leadership would love?” Every decision and process that goes on should be undertaken by standing in your customers’ shoes. This happens only when you talk to your customers on a regular basis, and understand their use case and pain points and that’s when you’ll see your business grow. Resource: https://www.userzoom.com/blog/expert-opinions-on-user-centered-product-management/ Let’s be honest Another quality of being user-focused is that you don’t have to ship out every feature that was requested. If a feature is likely to ruin your product’s unique selling point or cause many customers to leave, then you can confidently say no to such requests. Decisions about if a feature is going to be part of the product roadmap and if so, then the timeline for the same should be communicated with your users. This can be done either by having a public roadmap which most companies have today, through slack groups, or in-app widgets which can be used to collect customer feedback and suggestions. Some companies even go to the extent of helping customers understand why they’re not prioritizing their suggestions over other things. Being this open and transparent means your customers feel that they are being valued which in turn entices them to give even better and more useful feedback. Understand the user’s journey To understand your user’s pain points with your product, you need to first understand their experience with your product. And there’s only one sure-shot way to do this, by talking to them and asking the right questions. But this doesn’t mean you talk to them once a month because to understand their experience and emotions, you have to be consistent with communication. By listening to several users describe their experiences and pain points, you can create a composite user journey that represents the typical customer experience. These pain points are areas your product can make a difference. Here are some examples of the types of questions that usually prove fruitful: When did you last encounter a problem with this technology? Can you describe exactly what happened? What attempts have you made to solve the problem? What further issues have stemmed from the initial problem? Here are some questions to avoid: Would you buy a product with this new feature? What is your opinion on this novel idea? Would you use something like this? These questions are clearly product-based and not user-based which will only give you the answers you are craving. The point of understanding your users’ experience is to give you answers and perspectives you didn’t know existed before. Resource: https://www.productmanagementexercises.com/blog/what-is-customer-focused-product-management/ Validate different assumptions When considering building a new product or feature, it’s quite natural for many of us to let our assumptions about the market affect our decisions. After all, the initial idea for the product probably came from your own experience or could be derived from something you witnessed in the market. But before deciding to go ahead with it, you should validate your product with the actual market and not your perceived one. This can be done by talking to users and leaving your assumptions and biases aside. With enough data and information about your user’s needs, you can form different valid assumptions with which your product can be built, and these different assumptions will help you envision different features that will likely make your product more successful in the market. Shift the focus “What is your most valuable contribution to your team?” PM 1: "Helping my dev team plan and deliver work within a sprint". PM 2: "Keeping my team focused on delivering the highest priority features”. *Incoming request* Customer: “It would be great if you could add a integration.” Zeda.io PM: “Sure, I will add it to the backlog.” While these are good things to be doing, they’re not exactly the answers of a customer-focused PM. The PMs here are more focused on the team and deliverables than on the user. Efforts to align your team on their priorities and delivering features should not be a PM’s #1 priority but a bi-product of good product management. The words that PMs use with their team, stakeholders and customers dictate the focus of the conversation. When having product conversations outside of your team, try to avoid discussions around words like "code", "dependencies", "deployment", "roadmap", etc. These all focus on the actual work being done, and not the value you are delivering to the user. Try to change the words you use to "value", "problem", "customer", "user", "experience", "journey", "workflow", etc. This will help you to change the focus of the conversation to the users' needs and perspectives. This also changes how a customer-focused Product Manager would respond to incoming requests. When a customer requests a feature, PMs should ideally respond with something like "that's a great idea, how are you solving the [associated problem] right now?", or "we hadn't thought of that, what would [proposed solution] help you accomplish?" These questions help the Product Manager get down to the root of the problem before deciding to add it to the backlog. Resource: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/customer-focused-product-management-kooper-barton/ Co-create with your users Your customers’ valuable feedback helped you understand the principal pain points they were facing during the user journey, and you’re ready to start developing your product. But that doesn’t mean you do it in isolation. You have to keep testing and retesting the prototype of your product with your users at every stage of development. While customers told you about the issues they faced, now it’s time to test if the solution you developed is the X that will solve this algebraic equation your users gave you. You can then fine-tune the prototypes by following their responses. PMs should also be mindful that some users can give you false feedback just for the sake of giving a positive response. Define success in users’ words Kristin Zibell, Director of Product Management at Akili Interactive Labs, talks about how at the beginning of any project she asks her team to define what success means in their user’s words. She has been using this technique for many years to keep her team and herself focused on the user at every step of the project. They create a success statement for each user persona which helps them establish a strong user-centered foundation at the start of a project that’s carried all the way through to reviews. During discovery, you can assess the validity of this statement with real users, and ask what information or actions they’d need to achieve success. To review each design and build, Zibell then asks her team this one question “Can a user achieve this stated success from here?” The answer to this will tell you which pieces of information and actions are necessary—and which are irrelevant. Resource: https://www.userzoom.com/blog/expert-opinions-on-user-centered-product-management/ Level up your user-focus game with Zeda.io✨ With features like Product Research, In-app widgets, Automated Insights and more, you can be sure that the product or feature you’re building will be made for the user and by the user. We’ve got a lot more! A superapp made for product teams, check out the rest of ’s features that’ll help you manage your entire product lifecycle from “should we build this feature” to “this feature is finally live!💡 Zeda.io

How to Stay User-Focused as a Product Manager? 👥

“Build this feature”, ”Where is this integration?”, ”Our competitor is doing it, why aren’t we?” etc etc etc. And to make things worse, all these requests are probably coming in from 10 different platforms. As a Product Manager, your days are filled with incessant requests from internal and external stakeholders. And when you’re already working on your current roadmap and on your 5th cup of coffee for the day, it can be hard to get your thoughts around all these never-ending incoming requests. I mean, c’mon, we’re still human after all. And amidst all this, we’re supposed to solve issues at hand, look at the big picture by understanding the real problem in a product and evaluate if the problem/opportunity is worth solving. But how do we do all of this without letting it be a daunting experience? That’s where structured thinking comes to the rescue! Let’s take a look at some best practices to ensure structural thinking as a PM: 1. Prioritize time better According to Jasper Curry, Product Managers often suffer from decision fatigue. Why? Simply because 90% of our work is about making the right decisions. Which feature to build? When to build it? … and more. That’s why it’s okay to not be super aggressive with every decision we make. Resource: Structured Thinking in Product Management by Jasper Curry These are some pointers to keep in mind before making a decision: If a decision is reversible, it’s okay not to think too hard about it. Jeff Bezos famously uses this technique to make his decisions as well. He says, “Many decisions are reversible, two-way doors. Those decisions can use a light-weighted process”. Think of the worst-case scenario. If the consequences of a wrong decision are limited, then it’s best not to spend too much time on it. For example, let’s take the decision to change the “Sign up” link to a button. Now, even if the consequences of this decision are negative, it can easily be undone. This means you don’t have to waste too much time thinking about this. On the other hand, let’s take the decision to change the company logo. First of all, it takes a lot of resources to execute and the impact on the company could be huge. Just like how when Uber changed its logo and no one could recognize the app anymore. Decisions like this should be thought out properly. Resource: Making good decisions as a Product Manager by Brandon Chu 2. Follow the three C’s Madhur Chadha, a PM at Google, uses the three C’s namely: Creation, Curation, and Consumption to stay organized and structured in his PM journey. Any problem can be segregated into these buckets. For instance, if you wanted to improve WhatsApp as a platform, what would you do? These are some things you might want to do to improve WhatsApp: Creation: – how to get more people to join WhatsApp
– how to get more people to use WhatsApp Pay Curation would include how to achieve the steps under creation.
– Turn on/off blue tick chat option Curation: – Encrypted messages
– Integration with other payment apps – More emojis, stickers and gifs
– Custom stickers and gifs within WhatsApp And consumption would be how your users consume these features and the different distribution channels. Consumption: – payment for businesses, mobile recharge and others – different devices and surfaces – group chats and broadcast This is a simple yet effective way of breaking down what needs to be done and how it needs to be done, so you can focus your attention where it’s needed and not feel overwhelmed. Resource: Structuring your thoughts by Madhur Chadha 3. Frame the problem Before blindly diving into the problem, Product Managers must understand that framing the problem is more important than finding the solution. You may ask questions about the problem from your perspective, but the solution to the problem should fit all your customers’ use cases, which simply means that you need to have different frames of your problem to understand it from different perspectives. How do we do that? Explain the overview of the issue or problem to different cross-functional stakeholders and instead of asking them to come up with solutions, ask them to come up with different questions about the issue. For example: Back in 2008, YouTube was the #2 search engine after Google. It was soon realised that users were searching for content that didn’t exist on YouTube. So, the question was: “If a user searches for something, and we knew that we don't have the best result, should we "link out" to a third-party website?” Half the company suggested adding third-party links to the searched content, while the other half was against it, arguing that it would be difficult to license content natively if they drove traffic away from the site. Instead of framing the problem as “Should we add third-party links or not”, an alternative frame was created, which was a choice between “consistency vs. comprehensiveness”. They studied many companies and found that customers loved consistency over comprehensiveness, and agreed to go with the same for this issue as well. They decided not to add third-party links. Not linking outside of YouTube became one of their core principles and framed a set of other difficult decisions. For example, they removed the ability for creators to opt content out of different devices and removed all third-party embedded players. Resource: The art of framing problems Another challenge is that with so many questions about the same problem, it can be hard to find solutions to each one of them. Another trick to do this is, from the list of questions you have collected, select the top 2 most important questions whose answers would effectively solve the problem. This will enable you to focus and think deeply into questions that really matter. Now find the solution to these questions. You’ll often find that the solutions to these two questions will answer the other questions as well. 4. Focus on that problem statement “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” Albert Einstein. Problem statements help you focus on the key issue at hand, but while doing this we get tempted to include potential solutions as well. It’s important to refrain from doing this because the idea is not to find the solution but to put yourself in the shoes of your target users and think of the problem from their perspective. Here is a simple formula to follow to find your problem statement: Standard formula: (describe a person using empathetic language) needs a way to (needs are verbs) because (describe what you’ve learned about the stakeholder and his/her need) For example: Patty from XYZ & co who likes using our product management platform needs to export some selected customer feedback to an excel sheet so she can send it over to the engineering teams to discuss different use cases for the same feature. Resource: Product Management toolkit 5. Interview, interview, interview This may be time-consuming – scheduling interviews when it’s most convenient for your users, taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to them, but there’s no one better to give you your user’s perspectives than your users themselves. That’s why it’s an investment that’s absolutely necessary. You cannot just assume that your users use your product/feature to get a specific task done without validating it. For instance, you might be building the product so your users can get tasks A, B and C done, but the user probably wants to use your product to get task D done. Resource: Jobs to be done by Alan Klement The 5-whys technique was developed by Japanese Industrialist Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota Industries. By repeatedly asking “why” 5 times, you’ll discover a lot and reach the core root of the problem. After your users tell you the description of the problem, ask yourself why. Now that you have an answer for the “why”, ask “why” again. Keep doing this until your answer to the last “why” explains the root cause of the problem. Resource: The five whys technique by Thaisa Fernandes Some everyday focus hacks These are some tips and tricks that some PMs follow religiously on a daily basis to set apart some time for themselves to get work done. No matter how pre-scheduled your day looks, PMs can easily get pulled into last-minute meetings and discussions, leaving no room to focus on priority tasks. Daily highlight: Pick one important task that you need to complete everyday. No matter how busy you get, and how many unscheduled meetings you get pulled into, your goal is to get that one task done before you log off for the day. 2-minute/5-minute tasks: Any task in your task board that you think will not take more than 5 minutes, should not be on your task board at all. This simply means that such tasks should be completed before you attend your first call for the day. For example: Small tasks like following up on a meeting, scheduling a meeting, sending an email etc. Calendar blocking: Block one hour every day, so you can focus uninterrupted to get your work done. Reject any meetings that your team want to schedule with you during this time. Meet : your go-to product management tool Zeda.io Getting through all these tasks can be a daunting experience especially when you have 100 things on your task board, stakeholders repeatedly giving feedback on different platforms, your engineering teams wanting to know what they should work on, and so on. Zeda.io, is an all-in-one l that helps declutter all your everyday PM struggles, brings together all your stakeholders and their requests in one place and helps you nail that roadmap with perfection! And the best part? With no credit card, you can start your one-month free trial today! product management too

How To Develop Structured Thinking As A Product Manager?

¿Cómo desarrollar el pensamiento estructurado como gerente de producto?

Comment développer une pensée structurée en tant que chef de produit ?

उत्पाद प्रबंधक के रूप में संरचित सोच कैसे विकसित करें?

プロダクトマネージャーとして構造化された思考を開発するには?

Como desenvolver o pensamento estruturado como gerente de produto?

Làm thế nào để phát triển tư duy có cấu trúc với tư cách là Giám đốc sản phẩm?

产品经理如何培养结构化思维？

According to the by Product Plan, communication is ranked as the most essential skill for Product Management. Fifth Annual product management report Mastering this soft skill is an important key to success! Acting as a Product Manager requires cross-communication with many teams. Therefore, the Product Manager spends a significant amount of time communicating ideas, plans, designs, and assigning tasks to the teams, which involves sending many emails and having daily meetings. Effective communication is important for understanding who your consumer is and what they need or want. Every step of the way, whether you're managing stakeholders or just want to get a project out the door, good communication is essential to creating great products. Having Effective Communication Communication is not a skill that everyone is born with. Still, with a few simple tips, Product Managers can better get their messages across and make others feel understood. 1. Show Empathy The best communicators can put themselves in other people's shoes to understand their situation from the other person's perspective. By walking a mile in somebody else's shoes, Product Managers can practice empathy and build trust for their products. 2. Define your Message Clearly Product Managers need to be sure and know what they want to say and be respectful and consider different points of view when developing an understanding of the goals of the entire product cycle. 3. Be patient and don't assume anything. While communicating with other people, Product Managers need to keep people in the loop by asking questions as often as possible to ensure they continue to understand what the manager is saying. 4. Be clear with your intent. The manager's tone of voice and gestures should focus on making their point rather than bragging or putting somebody down. Why is communication vital for Product Managers? As Product Managers, you spend a significant amount of time communicating. It is hard to prove the value generated while speaking. The quality of the job is not measured by the number of stories done during a specific sprint. Instead, it is to make the team ship the right product at the right time, ultimately making the users succeed. Three streams of communications PM communicates through various streams depending on the people's positions with whom they share. And all the interactions are different. However, the majority of professional communications fall into three categories. 1. Horizontal Communication streams As a Product Manager, horizontal communication is the lifeblood you need to function. Being a Product Manager, you spend most of your time communicating with those involved in implementation and execution, including cross-functional team members. Therefore, you have to know what needs to be done to produce an effective project. 2. Vertical Communication Streams As a Product Manager, you reside in an unusual strata within the organization. You need to communicate with the top-level executives to follow up on the plans and strategies. You also need to communicate with low-level executives to bring out the products per company requirements. 3. External Communications streams Finally, sometimes you might find yourself communicating outside the company as a product manager. You'll be speaking with your customer base, potential users, partners, media, and analysts about what's happening behind your project's scenes. These people have different interests, shifting from internal to external concerns as they move from working on specific features to launching the application after developing it. Consumers' primary concern is simply what's in store for them regarding your project and when they can get their hands on it. Three Principles for effective communication for Product Managers Just communicating is never enough. Product Managers need to have effective and efficient communication. To do that, you should follow the three principles of effective communication. - Communication is a reciprocal process. Product Managers need to reciprocate and form back-and-forth communication between both parties. You need to ensure dialogue and not just one-way communication. This leads to the enhancement of ideas and better creativity among the executives and product developers. 1. Reciprocity - Product Managers must ensure that the message and communication are not lost during the transmission. Many of the mediums the teams communicate are fraught with opportunities for confusion. As a Product Manager, you need to create a bridge to fill the gaps with technologies and better communication channels. 2. Medium - Context is another critical factor that needs to be considered once the product manager initiates the communication. Product managers need to have empathy for the current political, social, and company environment and should encourage effective communication. 3. Context How to deliver a significant impact while communicating? Communicating without adding value or delivering a significant impact is of no use. Product Managers have to make the most of the communications they undergo. You must provide a big impact while communicating, and you can follow the following tips to have effective communication. Create a meeting agenda and stick to it Meetings are an endless component of Product Manager life all around the world. Product Managers worldwide can control how effective their meetings will be through a clear agenda. A clear plan helps guide and even push forward your teams. In this way, you can save time from your busy days and remind everyone what the important points of any meeting should be in order not to get distracted or sidetracked from the most significant impact. Use road mapping software For Product Managers, knowing how to communicate their strategy is quite important. As a Product Manager, you must be able to state the process clearly. Furthermore, it's vital to have the right tools, like dedicated Product Road Mapping tools. Road Mapping software (like zeda.io) is crucial for the project over tools like Microsoft products (Powerpoint, Excel), which are more used for business presentations and data-sharing than the needs of product teams and their unique challenges. Click here to join the waitlist for this product which is, to date, one of the best road mapping tools in the market. Communication: the savior for product managers A good conversation can be the best way to learn something new. So effective communication is vital when building a process that gets everyone on the same page and ensures everyone is working toward a similar goal. Knowing your audience through communicating with them will ensure that you have the right people taking care of different aspects of your project; for example, send surveys, get feedback and adjust your roadmap accordingly.

The Unsung Superpower for Product Managers in 2022

“Your Product Strategy can build a competitive advantage through your product’s user experience - how people feel, what they think, and how they connect with others while using your product.” Customer Interaction is witnessing a fundamental shift, seeking a flawless and clutter-free experience at every digital touchpoint. Capturing countless interactions with customers is a well-known battleground for every product brand globally. Businesses that overemphasize marketing and sales tend to forget the very essence of the product they are trying to market; it’s where the user experience comes into play. A good User Experience supports the marketing and affects the entire delivery and the go-to-market strategy. Companies are constantly struggling to stay competitive and outperform their competitors. It also depends upon how customers interact with the brand and perceive the product/service they intend to purchase. Traditionally, the design was more about beauty and aesthetics, but in the recent past decades, the design aspect of the product and service has moved towards a better customer experience. Therefore, User Experience plays an essential role in defining the product strategy and creating differentiation among the competitors. What is Product Differentiation? Product differentiation is the creation of unique products or services from those of your competitors. It is a crucial aspect of any marketing strategy and is used to attract new customers and grow market share. The key is to find a differentiation strategy that works for your business and your customers. Various factors that affect product differentiation are: Quality Pricing Service and Interactions Design Features and Functionality Customization Importance of User Experience in Product Differentiation It’s no secret that the key to success as a Product Company is keeping up with emerging trends. Today’s fast-paced, technology-driven marketplace means you can’t simply work in a bubble; instead, you must face your competition head-on and develop better features and provide better experiences than they do. User experience is critical to the success of any application because users are wary of applications that do not provide them with a good experience. Users are also naturally reluctant to adopt applications that fail to deliver their functionality. An application product that does not consider its user’s need is likely to be doomed. Benefits of better User Experience in product differentiation 1. UX Design investment remarkably reduces the cost Nowadays, multi-faceted and tycoon industry-leading companies have started to witness the potential of UX design investment. Designing a Digital Experience that fits the customer’s expectations and simultaneously meets the business needs involves excellent effort and time. Research has shown that the companies that invest in UX/UI design see a lower cost of customer acquisition, lower support cost, increased customer retention, and increased market share. Research suggests that every dollar invested in UX Design returns about 100 dollars. Source 2. Development of Customer Base Unpleasant user experiences cause failure for digital products, and customers who get many choices tend to be immune to negative interactions. Companies that provide a positive user experience with high value retain more customers simply because customers like doing business with them. Customers who are satisfied with the company’s products are likely to stay loyal for the long term. As a result, it helps in developing the customer base. 3. Customer Pull — The Advantage Great design means that the product is visually appealing, but it also means solving problems and enhancing usability and accessibility. Good design helps users find what they are looking for using simple, straightforward language and composition. Designing a product for your target market increases sales, and the products become appealing to the customers. The quality design also allows the Product Managers to expand into new markets by tailoring the work to maintain high-quality standards in building the products. 4. Differentiator For Your Brand The differentiated design gives users a reason to buy from you rather than your competition. It is an essential source of differentiation because a well-designed product stands out from the crowd. Suppose a user is looking for something visually appealing and practical. In that case, the design adds value and motivates them to pay more for these products that can provide higher usability, enhanced functionality, and aesthetics. Impact of User Experience Design Let us look at the impact of the excellent user experience on product differentiation. 1. Impression of the Product A lousy UX design can lead to creating poor reviews about the brand. Positive word of mouth will often create a positive cycle for the company and its products, resulting in loyalty from new clients. 2. Support After-sales support often makes up a significant portion of a business’s budget, so to help save on costs, your UX and UI must be intuitive, efficient, and useful. 3. Development Cost and Time Time and money are significant for a project. If one doesn’t prioritize the UX aspect of their project, they might mess things up by incorrectly identifying all the requirements. Your Ultimate Way to Product Differentiation To summarize, end-users do not want to work with poor applications or products. Efficient user experience design is essential for products as it differentiates your business from the competitors by building a positive impact in the customers’ minds. A good user design helps create an experience that exceeds customers’ expectations and makes sure that your company is always remembered for creating an excellent experience for its users. Originally Published Here

The Importance of User Experience in Product Differentiation

Have you ever been to a school function? There will be a bunch of kids dancing, some will be into sports, and others doing a mime show or playing their favorite instruments. Imagine how it would be like if you expect everyone to do ballet or play cricket? The kids will go crazy, right? This is how your users will feel when you put all of them in one bucket. And that's why User segmentation plays an important role in building and maintaining a successful product. In this article, we’ll dive deep into what you should do and shouldn’t when it comes to user segmentation. What is User segmentation? User segmentation as the name suggests is the process of grouping users into different segments based on their behavior and interests. Just like Michael LeBoeuf said, a satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all time. User segmentation helps you understand your users better and design a more satisfying user experience. Why is user segmentation important? Without user segmentation, you are just praying and spraying that your users will like the product. However, user segmentation paves a way for you to learn better about your user needs, their behaviors and build products that adds value to them. Everything a user requires from a product is that it solves their pain points in the easiest and most efficient way. Likewise, all you need for your business are loyal customers. When you understand your users better, you’d be able to tailor personalized experiences, which is obviously a win-win for both of you. Just like the example, we discussed in the beginning, How asking a kid interested in dance to play cricket will disappoint them, forcing something on your user that’s built keeping in mind someone else will disappoint them. Not just disappoint them, but will fail your product. User segmentation: Do’s Segment users based on goals While segmenting users based on a variety of factors such as age and interests is one way to go about it, segmenting users based on the end goal you want them to achieve inside your product is a great way. If the goal for users is to reach the checkout page, you can segment users based on who has reached the page, and who has not. Similarly, if you want the users to make a purchase, the users will be segmented based on that. Iterate, Iterate, Iterate You will not treat all the segments the same. So, make sure you go back time and again to each segment and understand what is working and what is not. If you see a particular pattern/change is bringing in more impact, then deploy the changes across the segments. But for you to be able to do that effectively, you need to consistently experiment and measure. We’ll talk about this in detail in the next section. Analytics How do you know whether something is working or not? You can’t manage what you don’t track, and here’s where numbers come into play. Analyze the different user segments to see how each segment affects the key metrics. Engagement, Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), Conversions, and Churn rate are some of the key metrics that’ll help you do that. Choose the right model You can choose to segment your users under different categories such as based on demographic data, behavioral data, psychographic, and technographic data. While these are conventional ways of segmenting your users, you don’t want to miss out on taking into account the other important data such as whether it’s a paid user or on a free trial, the product usage say how often they use the product, are they dropping off without completing the specific action, etc., So, make sure to evaluate the necessary product data before designing the user segments. User Segmentation: Dont’s Avoid pre-defined segments User segmentation is not a one-size-fits-all. What works for someone else might not work for you. So avoid the pre-defined user segments and design user segments after researching your target audience. Don’t limit product function While user segmentation is significant to build a sticky product, you need to ensure all the functions inside the organization understand the different user segments and why behind those. This way, Marketing, Sales, and Customer success can customize their efforts in order to provide a better experience for the users at all touchpoints. Don’t discard ideas Never ever ignore an idea just because it doesn’t fit into the pre-defined segments. There are always ways to optimize your idea by either conducting a user survey, fine-tuning the messaging, and much more. Pre-defined segments are just to give you an idea and not to restrict you from experimenting with new things. Be it the segmentation model, or the strategy, use it as an inspiration and do your part of research about the user needs, and the market well before kick-starting with your user segmentation efforts. Final thoughts Be it improving your customer experience or identifying new opportunities for your product, User Segmentation is crucial in deciding the success of your product. So, make sure you work out the end goals before segmenting your users into specific groups. For the best outcomes, follow the same messaging across your marketing, sales, and customer success efforts.

User Segmentation: Do’s and Dont’s

As a project manager, you might have encountered various frameworks. How many do you employ when faced with a new product? Despite the abundance of management frameworks available, only 28% of product managers find it feasible to optimize development processes. only 28% of product managers only 28% of product managers It is a big deal, and you might be sleeping on a 34.2% increase in returns if your management process remains under-optimized. Despite the many talks against AI taking over jobs, using AI can still immensely benefit any product management workflow. 34.2% increase in returns 34.2% increase in returns So, the earlier you integrate AI into your systems, the more efficient your work becomes. Read on to learn how you can manage projects better with AI. AI Tools for Product Management First, you want to be sure of the right tools and how they affect your product management cycle. Here are some of the most impactful AI-powered solutions available for product managers that I have come across: OpenAI's ChatGPT and Claude: Summarize feedback, generate reports, and prompt it to assist in ideation. Whether you choose ChatGPT or Claude largely depends on your team's needs.
Jasper AI: Jasper AI is built to assist with marketing. Use it to create high-quality content, including product documentation, blogs, etc.
Notion AI: Notion AI helps you automate meeting notes, summarizations, and content generation.
Julius AI: Think of it has having Excel, Python, and ChatGPT in one tool. Julius AI allows you to visualize, clean, merge, and sort out your data. It also allows you to ask questions based on the insights it gathers.
ChatPRD: This AI tool helps you streamline the process of writing your product requirements documents. It covers core aspects from brainstorming to drafting and even providing feedback.
Kadoa: With Kadoa, you can collect data from the web faster while automating the extraction and validation process.
Zeda.io: Imagine being able to tailor your next products to your consumers' exact needs. Zeda let's you do that by automating the collection and analysis of customer feedback. OpenAI's ChatGPT and Claude: Summarize feedback, generate reports, and prompt it to assist in ideation. Whether you choose ChatGPT or Claude largely depends on your team's needs. Jasper AI: Jasper AI is built to assist with marketing. Use it to create high-quality content, including product documentation, blogs, etc. Notion AI: Notion AI helps you automate meeting notes, summarizations, and content generation. Julius AI: Think of it has having Excel, Python, and ChatGPT in one tool. Julius AI allows you to visualize, clean, merge, and sort out your data. It also allows you to ask questions based on the insights it gathers. ChatPRD: This AI tool helps you streamline the process of writing your product requirements documents. It covers core aspects from brainstorming to drafting and even providing feedback. Kadoa: With Kadoa, you can collect data from the web faster while automating the extraction and validation process. Zeda.io: Imagine being able to tailor your next products to your consumers' exact needs. Zeda let's you do that by automating the collection and analysis of customer feedback. Text Automation Tools AI allows you to automate several tasks, leading to a more efficient product management process. Some tools for automation are: OpenAI's ChatGPT and Claude: Summarize feedback, generate reports, and prompt it to assist in ideation. Whether you choose ChatGPT or Claude largely depends on your team's needs.
Jasper AI: Jasper AI is built to assist with marketing. Use it to create high-quality content, including product documentation, blogs, etc.
Notion AI: Notion AI helps you automate meeting notes, summarizations, and content generation. OpenAI's ChatGPT and Claude: Summarize feedback, generate reports, and prompt it to assist in ideation. Whether you choose ChatGPT or Claude largely depends on your team's needs. Jasper AI: Jasper AI is built to assist with marketing. Use it to create high-quality content, including product documentation, blogs, etc. Notion AI: Notion AI helps you automate meeting notes, summarizations, and content generation. How Can AI Influence Your Product Management? AI is not just another tool in the product manager's toolkit, and 92% of product managers already know it. Unsurprisingly, the way products are built, optimized, and scaled is changing. Some core areas of product management that will be impacted in the future include: 92% of product managers already know it 92% of product managers already know it AI-Powered Decision-making At the moment, product managers use user surveys, feedback, and analytics to collect information on customer needs. However, soon, AI will go a few steps further to analyze the collected data at scale. With this, it’ll detect and show you patterns that would've been hard to uncover through traditional means. This, in turn, will help you and your team predict user behavior, churn, etc. and then adjust features based on their discoveries in real time. Hyper-Personalization More than ever before, there is an increase in demand for personalization. According to a McKinsey study, 71% of consumers actively want companies to integrate personalized experiences into their services. If they can't, they'll go elsewhere. It's no news that hyper-personalization is how big companies like Netflix, Amazon, and Spotify keep you glued to their platforms. And as the product management industry evolves, we'll see more AI tools for integrating hyper-personalization into your products, giving users the tailored experience they want. 71% of consumers actively want companies to integrate personalized experiences into their services 71% of consumers actively want companies to integrate personalized experiences into their services Automation The average product manager spends most of his time researching users and competitors. They also exhaust most of their time and effort on backlog prioritization. However, if they automate the bulk of this work using AI, they can focus more on other aspects of the job. Right now, certain tools like Kadoa allow you to do this to an extent. However, it won't be long before we welcome more sophisticated use of AI in refining product strategy, creating more innovative solutions, and automating these processes. A/B Testing and Experimentation A/B testing is one of the oldest ways to collect insights on what works for your customers, and how your products can better serve them. However, traditional A/B testing requires manual setup and keen analysis, which is overly time-consuming. AI has the potential to improve experimentation processes by running multiple tests and analyzing results faster. How Can Project Teams Adapt to AI? Despite its many advantages, AI poses challenges and limitations for product managers. This includes a slower learning curve, ethical concerns and biases, and even over-reliance on automation. However, some ways we can adapt to it while limiting these barriers include: Take AI Courses You don't need a background in AI or data science to be AI-literate. As a product manager, you only need to understand how AI works, its capabilities, and its limitations. And all these are possible by taking a few online courses and staying updated on AI trends. Integrate AI incrementally Many organizations make the mistake of trying to integrate AI into their processes all at once. This complicates the entire process and makes it hard for teams to adapt. Instead, encourage your team to take a step-by-step approach. Balance AI Usage with The Human Touch The end goal of adopting AI is not to replace your capability as a product manager. It is to deliver value to consumers efficiently, and this can greatly benefit from the human touch. Constantly Review AI Performance AI models need continuous monitoring to remain effective. While adapting to AI, product managers must look for biases or errors and refine models based on them. Final Thoughts As with every industry, AI's entry comes with a series of questions, and one of the most pressing ones in product management is: What does the future hold? As AI advances, it's not unlikely that we'll notice a shift towards AI-driven roadmaps. AI already suggests actions based on user behavior, so suggesting features based on user predictive behavior doesn't seem so far away. AI also has the potential to determine with increased accuracy and speed whether a product will meet market needs before it is released. While these are interesting takes, product managers must still strive to balance AI adoption with human expertise. That's where the real beauty lies.

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