Get started with your product management journey

In the past, the product management function grew out of the tremendous efforts of companies, particularly in the IT sector, in “building the product right”.

Today, more organisations are realising that the right product that can adapt to changing consumer behaviour and market patterns is the cornerstone of a business.

It does not matter whether the organisation is building a state-of-the-art technology product or conceptualising a chain of restaurants.

Having a strong project management team led by an expert product manager now plays a pivotal role.

Often known as the ‘Mini CEO’, a product manager acts as the link connecting different cross functional teams and ensures that collective efforts coalesce into products that users love.

Many of the successful CEOs of today like Susan Wojcicki (YouTube), Stewart Butterfield (Slack), and Sundar Pichai (Google and Alphabet) embarked on their entrepreneurial journey as product managers.

A recent survey by a leading authority on product management estimated that a competent Product Manager could increase company profits by over 34%.

Given its popularity — there are more than 16,000 vacant product management positions in India on job portals like LinkedIn — there is still a dearth of awareness and understanding of the skills needed to secure a product management position.

So how do we kick-start a career in product management?

You don’t need to be a specialist in every facet of product development to become a product manager. But you must have the pulse of the consumer.

It is the product manager’s dharma to represent the voice of the customer while making key decisions throughout the product life cycle. They must also ensure that the implementation does not deviate from the core vision of the product — it is a vehicle that solves customer’s problems.

Further, a fundamental understanding of product design, development, marketing, and sales is important to be successful. As a product manager, you’ll have the opportunity to work with various teams, which can be hard but allows you to learn new things constantly.

Let us take a look at the top three competencies this role requires.

Consumer experience: In order to be a successful product manager, one needs to have a deep understanding of consumer behaviour and an eye for detail to help curate an exceptional User Experience (UX).

UX encompasses all aspects of the consumers’ experience of the product, and eventually the brand, and therefore falls under the purview of the product manager.

Leadership & relation management: Product managers must have excellent interpersonal skills. In order to develop bridges between numerous stakeholders, a product manager needs to have empathy and build genuine relationships.

In addition to managing a cross-functional team, the product manager must facilitate communication between stakeholders, customers and various departments.

Understanding technology & analytical skills: They need not be engineers themselves, but a basic understanding of technology and engineering processes will enable product managers to communicate effectively with development teams.

In order to understand consumer needs and behaviour, identify problems correctly and pinpoint necessary solutions, a product manager must have strong analytical skills.

Mastering product management is part science and part art.

The “science” part of it deals with areas like Ideation, Innovation, Implementation, Industrialisation and continuous Improvement of the product. This is called 5i framework of product management.

However, the “art” side requires one to go through as many end-to-end complete product life cycles as possible in one’s career.

Some common job titles in this domain are — Associate Product Managers, Senior Product Managers, IT Product Managers, R&D Managers, Product Analysts & Consultants, Product Marketing Managers, Product Designers, Product Owners & Category Heads.

Pursuing a formal learning programme in this domain will help you get started as a product management professional or fast-track your career to become a product leader (if you’re already in this field).

This is a very challenging and hands-on field, and you can hone your skills by going through as many and as diverse product life cycles as possible.

All said and done, many people can vouch for one thing — other than being rewarding, the professional life of a product manager is never boring.

(The author is the head of programs at an e-learning platform in Bengaluru)