"20 required courses for product managers"

1. Starting from user needs

Any product that wants to be used by users must be designed to meet the needs of users.

The American-based psychologist Maslow divides people's diverse needs into eight broad categories: physical needs, security needs, attribution to love, respect for needs, cognitive needs, aesthetic needs, self-fulfilment, and exceeding demand.

Let the core function of the product meet people's basic needs, in order to obtain the greatest effect of the market.

2. Build product competitiveness around user needs

Two common and effective strategies for creating product value around user needs:

• Meet the core needs of users in a disruptive way.

• Focus on satisfying a few of the user's desired needs.

3. Why our products always fail

Nine characters: The user is not interested in it.

4. Simple, make the product more sharp

"Simplicity is more difficult than complexity because you have to work hard to clear your brain and make it simple, but this effort is ultimately proven to be valuable because once you enter that realm, you can shake the mountain," Jobs said.

Users like simple products, because laziness is human nature, people in the use of products, do not want to be disturbed, do not want to do too much thinking, do not want to carry out complex operations, they just want their own needs easily to be satisfied.

To make a product simple enough, follow these guidelines:

Rejecting unimportant features, leading the user in a progressive manner, and making the product smarter.

5. Using operation to build production depends on product competition barrier

Product competitiveness of the main product function in line with the requirements of the target user level, but with the development of Internet technology, product features more and more easily imitated, all functional competitive advantage is often difficult to maintain long-term. While the advantages of the operation is not the same, the content and users have to rely on time to accumulate, once your product re-content and the user to establish an absolute leading edge, the product's competitors want to in a short period of time to constitute a substantial threat to you is very difficult.

6. Internet Product Strategy

• The tactics in the Internet war

• Seeking for potential-taking into account the global development

• Overbearing attack-seizing Internet channels

• Benevolent defense-creating extraordinary product features and content

7. Internet Product Team

In the Internet company, the product team is the core team of the company. Product team's good or bad not only determines the product update frequency, but also to a large extent to solve the product quality and product results.

The key roles of the product team include product managers, designers, development engineers, project managers, testers, operations engineers, and QA personnel.

8. Job responsibilities of the product manager

The job responsibilities of a product manager can be divided into 5 areas:

Product strategy Development, user demand analysis, product function planning, product function development, and others.

9. User Needs Analysis

How to conduct user needs analysis, mining the most valuable user needs:

• Before the user needs analysis, we need to obtain user needs (user feedback), through the mailbox, QQ, forum, questionnaire and so on.

• Product managers in the acquisition of user feedback, the need for in-depth analysis of user feedback behind the relevant information, user feedback to resolve the user needs.

• Filtering the value of worthless user needs, whether it is the target user's needs, is not the target user's general needs, whether and product positioning in line with the criteria to determine if there is value.

10. Product demand Management

Product Manager According to user requirements to plan product features, these to achieve product functionality for the product is the product requirements.

To facilitate the recording, evaluation and tracking of product requirements, product managers are required to create and maintain a list of product requirements that are systematically managed for the product requirements of the product in which they are responsible.

11. Flowchart Production

There are 2 main ways to make a flowchart:

• Help product Manager to comb and perfect user operation process.

• Effectively reduce the communication costs between team members.

Common flowchart Software are: Visio, Ominigraffle, and so on.

12. Product prototype production

Product prototypes are used to express product functionality and content. Covers 3 elements: elements, interfaces, interactions.

Common tools are: Axure, Photoshop, etc., in addition to the MAC environment strongly recommended "sketch".

13. Business Requirements Document (BRD) writing

BRD (bussiness requirement document) refers to the content of the product requirements described in terms of business value, and its core use is as a high-level company

The main basis for decision-making evaluation of product projects.

The main content should include: User value, business value, target market, market size, competition pattern, market timing, product target, function outline, implementation plan, product positioning, product vision, product cost, product risk.

14. Product Requirement document (PRD) writing

PRD (product requirement document) is a production requirements documentation that is used to fully describe the product requirements and to clarify the function and performance of the product to the research and development department.

Common content: Revision history, Project overview, project value, project background, scenario description, feature summary, business flowchart, user interface, feature description, non-functional requirements, appendix.

15. Major steps in Project management

• Develop a project plan

• Track and control the execution of project plans

16. How to improve project management efficiency

• Strict control of product range, minimizing demand notconsistent times

• Building good communication mechanisms and channels

• Constantly inspire team combat effectiveness

• Strengthen project Risk Management

• Make a good summary of each project

17. Structured Divergent thinking

Divergent thinking means to get rid of the old experience, old consciousness, break the conventional shackles and put forward creative ideas, viewpoints and programs when thinking about the problem.

18. Product Innovation capability

For Internet companies, innovation ability directly related to their core competitiveness, and even survival.

Companies that have long-standing leadership have a common feature, which is the ability to innovate continuously.

19. Effective communication Skills

An excellent product manager must be a good communicator and have good communication skills.

Common means of communication: face-to-head communication, conference communication, telephone communication, IM communication, e-mail communication.

20. Data analysis capability

As a qualified product manager, to be very sensitive to data, good at data analysis from a large number of data mining useful information, to guide and improve their own and other people's work, improve the efficiency of work, create new value.

The process of data analysis is generally divided into the following steps: Determining objectives, collecting data, collating data, analyzing data, drawing conclusions and making infographic.

"20 required courses for product managers"