Everyone can be a project manager.
Hello habrazhiteli!
Throughout the application's life cycle, people who are called {project managers | product managers | product manager | product managers} play an important role. Habr is a place where people share their thoughts and experiences, so we decided to discuss this topic and invited our product manager to share our own experiences.
')
Over 10 years of development, UC Browser has become a daily assistant for hundreds of millions of people from more than 110 countries of the world, and we hope that our experience regarding the development and advancement in the field of mobile Internet will be of interest to you.
This article consists of several parts. To begin with, we will examine the origin of the word "Product Manager". Then we will try to find out what requirements are imposed on them, as well as the difference between the old and the new concept. Let's analyze 5 main factors:
An important point : in this article we view project managers from the Internet industry and software development as something similar, because today Internet development is becoming more and more complex and more and more similar to software development, while software development is all more often connected to the Internet. There is no doubt that soon there will be no differences between these things.
The concept of “product manager” first appeared around the 30s of the last century thanks to the company Procter and Gamble. One of the managers of P & G at that time, Neil McElroy, was responsible for promoting Camey soap, a brand that was inferior to the company's leading brand, Ivory soap. Neil came up with the idea that if the sales manager focused on both products: Camay and Ivory, he could never sell well. Fortunately, his idea was supported, and since then, each brand in P & G has become positioned as a separate business, which had its own production team and sales department. It was very important to make them compete with each other. This idea showed itself very well and P & G soon restructured the company in accordance with the new management system. This approach brought the company a great success and was soon introduced by the majority of consumer goods manufacturers of that time.
At that time, the main responsibility of the product manager was to plan the product life cycle, develop its launch strategy, pricing strategy, sales strategy, and so on. The product manager was, for the most part, responsible for the marketing and business components.
Let's take a look at the requirements for a product manager from Google to illustrate the differences between a manager in the IT industry.
“The project manager team works closely with our engineers to control all stages of product development from concept to launch. As a member of the team, you will be a connecting element between the technical and business components, since you know better than anyone that our customers love. You will work with Googlers from the development department, sales, marketing and finance. ”
Google today, in fact, is a trend in the Internet industry. A product manager should think more about creating a great product, building and optimizing processes, than working with an existing product. Thus, the product manager is more involved in the research of user needs: what functions the product should perform, what design will be better perceived by the target audience.
You may ask why there is such a difference between a traditional product manager and his colleague from an IT company? What is the difference between their areas of responsibility and what skills should they have? We highlight five main points:
After hundreds of years of research, the market in traditional industries can be considered mature (developed), and the product is more or less stable. Sometimes, of course, small changes occur, but real breakthroughs are rare. On the other hand, users become more predictable, they are already familiar with the product and gradually begin to develop a “consumption habit”. Therefore, for this type of market and its users, the company will work more to develop the brand, the marketing component, which undoubtedly is the responsibility of the product manager.
In turn, the IT industry is an emerging market that is full of small and big changes, innovations, rapid ups and downs. Users are always open to new products, and the novelty itself can be a breakthrough, even without marketing and advertising. A product must always have something new to increase its chances of success.
Thus, in the IT industry, the project manager pays more attention to the planning of the product itself, which requires the manager to have a clear understanding of the market, development trends, the desire for innovation, the ability to analyze and draw conclusions, to constantly improve the product, to understand the business itself and create a product. that would meet the requirements of the user.
A product in a traditional industry is usually a material object that is directly related to such things as purchasing, warehousing, logistics, etc. After production, there is still a huge amount of production costs that cause the product manager to worry about how to optimize the supply system, how to distribute, promote, etc. On the other hand, the IT product is virtual, which means the company will be "easier", since the whole team will be more focused on the development of the product itself.
An ordinary product in the Internet industry can be developed and easily managed by a team of several people, but it can be used by hundreds of millions of people, which is unimaginable in traditional industry. The cost of reproduction in this case is minimal, which is why we direct all available resources to the product itself. Thus, for the manager, the demand analysis is especially important, since the slightest changes in the product can lead to an increase (or decrease) in the number of users hundreds and thousands of times.
A development cycle in a traditional industry typically lasts several years or even longer and involves hundreds of complex processes. For example, in the automotive industry there are more than 300 evaluation criteria when creating a new car. However, the IT product development cycle can be only a few months, so it is much easier to manage the development process, where there can be only 10 criteria.
Speed ​​is one of the most important parameters in the Internet industry for success. When a problem occurs or a bug is detected, it is very important to respond quickly and fix it as soon as possible, but in the traditional industry you can only recall the defective product, which is quite problematic. Thus, managing the production process of a product in IT is much less complex than in traditional industry. A project manager can maintain a balance between development time and product quality.
Profit in the traditional industry usually comes from selling the product and is based on the value of the product itself. However, some of the services and programs in IT are free and even for them there are many ways to monetize, for example, profit from advertising.
Differences in the monetization model means that the product is made for different types of people. Traditional industry produces for people who are willing to pay them. But, as a rule, buyers from the manufacturer are a few large distributors, not those who actually use the products.
In the IT industry, most Internet products are designed for real users, of whom there is a huge amount. Profit comes from a huge user base. Therefore, the project manager in the Internet industry care more about the needs of users. He is responsible for market research, understanding the needs and their implementation.
Consumers understand that the price of a product in traditional industries depends on its quality. And for a low-quality product, they expect to get a low price. But in the IT industry - the situation is completely different - people are not embarrassed that the product has some minor flaws, because it is still free.
So a project manager in IT cares more about user experience, respectively, he is involved in the creation, visual design, usability, copywriting, etc. For example, how to place two buttons so that the user is comfortable using the product - “at the top or bottom of the screen, left or right?” The project manager should think that “The user is God” and he should do his best to make a free product , with perfect interface and usability.
To become a successful project manager in the IT industry, you need to analyze a lot, study user behavior, record all data and draw conclusions taking into account current market trends. In traditional areas, such analyzes are extremely difficult to conduct.
All these five factors explain the difference between a traditional product manager and a product manager in the IT industry.
To be continued...
And what do you think about such a position as a project manager?
Throughout the application's life cycle, people who are called {project managers | product managers | product manager | product managers} play an important role. Habr is a place where people share their thoughts and experiences, so we decided to discuss this topic and invited our product manager to share our own experiences.
')
Over 10 years of development, UC Browser has become a daily assistant for hundreds of millions of people from more than 110 countries of the world, and we hope that our experience regarding the development and advancement in the field of mobile Internet will be of interest to you.
This article consists of several parts. To begin with, we will examine the origin of the word "Product Manager". Then we will try to find out what requirements are imposed on them, as well as the difference between the old and the new concept. Let's analyze 5 main factors:
- Different phases of markets: developing and developed;
- Various forms of products: material and virtual;
- Various life cycles: several years and several months;
- Different models of monetization: profits from the sale and a complex model that includes different methods;
- Different user mentality: paid and free products.
An important point : in this article we view project managers from the Internet industry and software development as something similar, because today Internet development is becoming more and more complex and more and more similar to software development, while software development is all more often connected to the Internet. There is no doubt that soon there will be no differences between these things.
The concept of “product manager” first appeared around the 30s of the last century thanks to the company Procter and Gamble. One of the managers of P & G at that time, Neil McElroy, was responsible for promoting Camey soap, a brand that was inferior to the company's leading brand, Ivory soap. Neil came up with the idea that if the sales manager focused on both products: Camay and Ivory, he could never sell well. Fortunately, his idea was supported, and since then, each brand in P & G has become positioned as a separate business, which had its own production team and sales department. It was very important to make them compete with each other. This idea showed itself very well and P & G soon restructured the company in accordance with the new management system. This approach brought the company a great success and was soon introduced by the majority of consumer goods manufacturers of that time.
At that time, the main responsibility of the product manager was to plan the product life cycle, develop its launch strategy, pricing strategy, sales strategy, and so on. The product manager was, for the most part, responsible for the marketing and business components.
Let's take a look at the requirements for a product manager from Google to illustrate the differences between a manager in the IT industry.
“The project manager team works closely with our engineers to control all stages of product development from concept to launch. As a member of the team, you will be a connecting element between the technical and business components, since you know better than anyone that our customers love. You will work with Googlers from the development department, sales, marketing and finance. ”
Google today, in fact, is a trend in the Internet industry. A product manager should think more about creating a great product, building and optimizing processes, than working with an existing product. Thus, the product manager is more involved in the research of user needs: what functions the product should perform, what design will be better perceived by the target audience.
You may ask why there is such a difference between a traditional product manager and his colleague from an IT company? What is the difference between their areas of responsibility and what skills should they have? We highlight five main points:
1. Different phases of market development: existing and developing
After hundreds of years of research, the market in traditional industries can be considered mature (developed), and the product is more or less stable. Sometimes, of course, small changes occur, but real breakthroughs are rare. On the other hand, users become more predictable, they are already familiar with the product and gradually begin to develop a “consumption habit”. Therefore, for this type of market and its users, the company will work more to develop the brand, the marketing component, which undoubtedly is the responsibility of the product manager.
In turn, the IT industry is an emerging market that is full of small and big changes, innovations, rapid ups and downs. Users are always open to new products, and the novelty itself can be a breakthrough, even without marketing and advertising. A product must always have something new to increase its chances of success.
Thus, in the IT industry, the project manager pays more attention to the planning of the product itself, which requires the manager to have a clear understanding of the market, development trends, the desire for innovation, the ability to analyze and draw conclusions, to constantly improve the product, to understand the business itself and create a product. that would meet the requirements of the user.
2. Various forms of products: material and virtual
A product in a traditional industry is usually a material object that is directly related to such things as purchasing, warehousing, logistics, etc. After production, there is still a huge amount of production costs that cause the product manager to worry about how to optimize the supply system, how to distribute, promote, etc. On the other hand, the IT product is virtual, which means the company will be "easier", since the whole team will be more focused on the development of the product itself.
An ordinary product in the Internet industry can be developed and easily managed by a team of several people, but it can be used by hundreds of millions of people, which is unimaginable in traditional industry. The cost of reproduction in this case is minimal, which is why we direct all available resources to the product itself. Thus, for the manager, the demand analysis is especially important, since the slightest changes in the product can lead to an increase (or decrease) in the number of users hundreds and thousands of times.
3. Different life cycles: several years and several months
A development cycle in a traditional industry typically lasts several years or even longer and involves hundreds of complex processes. For example, in the automotive industry there are more than 300 evaluation criteria when creating a new car. However, the IT product development cycle can be only a few months, so it is much easier to manage the development process, where there can be only 10 criteria.
Speed ​​is one of the most important parameters in the Internet industry for success. When a problem occurs or a bug is detected, it is very important to respond quickly and fix it as soon as possible, but in the traditional industry you can only recall the defective product, which is quite problematic. Thus, managing the production process of a product in IT is much less complex than in traditional industry. A project manager can maintain a balance between development time and product quality.
4. Different monetization models: profit from sale and an integrated model
Profit in the traditional industry usually comes from selling the product and is based on the value of the product itself. However, some of the services and programs in IT are free and even for them there are many ways to monetize, for example, profit from advertising.
Differences in the monetization model means that the product is made for different types of people. Traditional industry produces for people who are willing to pay them. But, as a rule, buyers from the manufacturer are a few large distributors, not those who actually use the products.
In the IT industry, most Internet products are designed for real users, of whom there is a huge amount. Profit comes from a huge user base. Therefore, the project manager in the Internet industry care more about the needs of users. He is responsible for market research, understanding the needs and their implementation.
5. Different user mentality: paid and free products
Consumers understand that the price of a product in traditional industries depends on its quality. And for a low-quality product, they expect to get a low price. But in the IT industry - the situation is completely different - people are not embarrassed that the product has some minor flaws, because it is still free.
So a project manager in IT cares more about user experience, respectively, he is involved in the creation, visual design, usability, copywriting, etc. For example, how to place two buttons so that the user is comfortable using the product - “at the top or bottom of the screen, left or right?” The project manager should think that “The user is God” and he should do his best to make a free product , with perfect interface and usability.
To become a successful project manager in the IT industry, you need to analyze a lot, study user behavior, record all data and draw conclusions taking into account current market trends. In traditional areas, such analyzes are extremely difficult to conduct.
All these five factors explain the difference between a traditional product manager and a product manager in the IT industry.
To be continued...
And what do you think about such a position as a project manager?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/241607/
All Articles