Why I wanted to be a Product Manager
I remember complaining during my Pilates class that I had wanted a Product role so much and tried so hard to get there on numerous occasions, I was unsettled. In fact, I’m certain there are many people I’ve known who might read this knowing first hand the desperate goal I had to move into Product. Possibly many managers I likely drove mad pushing to allow me time to train with others or specific project assignments that would give me more experience in Digital.
For most, it seemed exuberant. Compared to what I was doing, it wasn’t a higher paid role, or deemed a higher position, so why was I so hell bent on that particular role?!
A few years later I can gladly say, because I felt it was the right fit for me. Does this mean I’m amazing at it already? Certainly not. What it means is there isn’t any other role that exists today that personally I would want to be doing instead, despite any challenges faced.
I’m sharing this in the hope to inspire others. As a growing discipline it’s often a role that luck plays a part of you falling into, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make it happen if you like the sound of it — I see product management as an art form with a business focused twist. An interesting mix of creativity alongside analysis.
Just like a classic painting you might start off with a blank canvas, you know the theme or mood you’re trying to set, an idea in your mind (a vision), but you don’t know exactly how the finished painting will look. There’s no blue print to follow. You can’t anticipate what the future holds and plan that out in detail within product.
Industry's from all angles are being disrupted by innovative technology that wasn’t foreseen. So how can you have a detailed plan for what you will do in 5 years’ time, when it will be greatly impacted by things you can’t control? The thing is you can’t. You can focus on goals you’re trying to achieve in the short term or long term, a vison that guides you to somewhere ultimately. Whether that be success or failed lesson learnt.
That makes it sound a bit loose, as if to throw caution to the wind by launching piles of money into the air and hoping for the best. But sadly that’s not what I mean, there’s techniques to learn to reduce the risk by cutting ideas into bite size chunks to test with so you can identify success or failure early on. There’s also tracking statistics and trends, forecasting the outcome you’re trying to achieve and then measuring it.
This is all where the business twist comes into play, the money spent needs to return business benefit. There’s a million ways you can keep a customer happy by solving problems with fancy new functionality, but what will they want to pay for (or who will want to pay you to have them utilise it), how does this impact your business in line with it’s strategic goals. Often, the question is what is feasible for you to achieve while still maintaining a return on that investment?
To figure this spend question out you probably also need to put your empathy hat on. Investigate like a private eye to identify problems, engage with real customers to explore and test, and collaborate with others in fun workshops to help outline solutions (just like a giant jigsaw puzzle where everyone has a piece to add, except often it’s on a whiteboard with questionable drawing skills so add a bit of Pictionary in there).
But back to a serious note (and I’ve written it in this chopping / changing style because this is often how your day plays out) be ready to push hard for what’s right. Everyone has an idea; every idea is worth consideration. But not all at once and not always now. Congratulations the choice is yours! The catch is, so is the result… you own that, and you’ll be responsible to answer for it.
It’s not easy to tell all those others their ideas aren’t right to focus on right now, or another divisions method of delivery isn’t flexible enough for your organisation to keep inline with change, or tell an executive the big idea that was signed off by many stakeholders failed an A/B test. You’ll need courage, and to learn to become impervious since your role can’t always please everyone no matter how polite or considerate you are in delivering this news (hello biggest challenge). The purpose is always to focus on creating customer value that has measurable business benefits.
I hope that gives you a high level idea of what product management is about.
Finally, for me, the biggest reason I so desperately wanted to move into a product role is the adaptability. It’s one of the few roles where you play a major part in driving change forward, not only within your organisation, it could be change that impacts the world as we know it today. It has trajectory to take you anywhere.
It’s exciting, engrossing, frustrating and perplexing. Years of working in a more rigid discipline made the transition to a product mindset a journey in itself, and I still have so much more to learn. But I’m continuing to follow that yellow brick road.
