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How to become a product manager and grow further



It is difficult to give a universal definition of the role and responsibilities of a product manager: each company has its own, so moving to this position can be a difficult task with unclear requirements.

Over the past year, I interviewed more than fifty candidates for the position of junior product manager and noticed that most of them have no idea what they don’t know . Applicants have big gaps in understanding the roles and responsibilities of the product manager. Despite their high interest in this position, they are usually unsure of where to start and where to focus.
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Therefore, below I give six areas of knowledge, which, in my opinion, are the most important for the product manager, and relevant sources. I hope these materials can dispel the fog and point the right way.

Translated to Alconost

1. Learn how startups work


The author of the Startup Method book, Eric Rhys, defines a startup as an institution designed to create a new product in conditions of extreme uncertainty.

The fundamental tasks and actions of the startup founder and the product manager at an early stage overlap to a large extent. Both strive to create the product people need, for which it is necessary 1) to launch the product (function), 2) communicate with customers - to understand whether the proposal meets their needs, 3) get feedback from them, 4) repeat the cycle.

The product manager must understand how successful startups create products, find their niche in the market, communicate with customers, prioritize potential functions and intentionally do things that don't scale.

Resources to help learn startups work methods:



Photos - Mario Gogh , Unsplash Playground

2. Understand why flexibility is important.


Product managers typically face tasks without ready-made solutions - and in an uncertain and ever-changing environment. In such circumstances, to make strict long-term plans is a doomed undertaking.

The planning and management of the software development process should correspond to such an environment - you need to act quickly and easily adapt to changes, run functions continuously, in small parts. The advantages of this approach:


It’s important for product managers to understand why flexibility in planning and work is important.

Resources to help you learn a flexible way to develop software:


3. Improve technical literacy


“Do I need to get a computer specialty?”
“Do I need to be able to program?”

Above are the two main questions that those who want to do product management are asking me.

The answer to these questions is “no”: product managers do not have to be able to program or have a computer specialty (at least in the case of 95% of the jobs on the market).

In this case, the product manager must develop its own technical literacy - so that:

Resources to help improve technical literacy:


4. Learn to make data-driven decisions


Product managers do not write a real product, but they play an important role in what significantly affects the work of the team - they make decisions .

Decisions can be insignificant (increasing the height of the text field), and serious (what should be the characteristics of the prototype of a new product).

In my experience, the simplest and most convenient solutions have always been based on the results of data analysis (both qualitative and quantitative). The data helps to determine the scale of the task, choose from various versions of design elements, make a decision about whether to save or remove a new function, monitor performance and much more.

In order to simplify your life and bring greater benefits to the product, it is important to consider fewer opinions (and prejudices) and more facts.

Resources to help you learn how to make decisions based on data:


5. Learn to distinguish good design


Product managers and designers work together to ensure the best user experience.

The product manager does not need to be engaged in design, but it is necessary to be able to distinguish good design from mediocre and due to this give useful feedback. It’s important to be able to go beyond suggestions like “make the logo bigger” and intervene when things start to get complicated and the design becomes redundant.



Resources to help you understand what good design is:


6. Read technical news


Songs, paintings, philosophical concepts ... new is always a combination of existing ideas. Steve Jobs did not invent a personal computer (the first were actually Xerox experts who simply could not find any use for it ), and Sony did not invent the first digital camera ( Kodak did it - which then killed her brainchild ). Famous companies reworked the existing ones, borrowed, used and adapted ideas already voiced - and this is a natural process of creating a new one.

To create is to connect many parts together. If you ask a creative person how he did something, he will feel a little guilty, because in his understanding he did not do anything, but simply saw a picture.
- Steve Jobs

Product managers need to constantly monitor the latest news, learn about fast-growing startups and failures, be the first to use advanced technologies, and listen to new trends. Without this, it will not be possible to maintain creative power and an innovative approach.

Resources for periodic reading, listening and viewing:


About the translator

The article was translated by Alconost.

Alconost localizes games , applications and sites in 70 languages. Native translators, linguistic testing, cloud platform with API, continuous localization, project managers 24/7, any format of string resources.

We also make advertising and educational videos - for sites that sell, image, advertising, educational, teasers, expliner, trailers for Google Play and the App Store.

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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/461425/

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