What is the third career path for programmers?

Thousands of programmers have been puzzled about the "future of the programmer" and "How long the programmer can work". At present, it is more common to know that the programmer's career path has two steps. One is the technical route, that is, by programmers, senior programmers, system analysts, and architects. In this route, based on the transformation from business model to computer software model, it becomes a high-end software technology worker. The other is the management route, by the programmer, the development team leader, the project manager, and the top management in the enterprise. Programmers to strengthen their own management awareness of the training, more than the organizational point of view to analyze problems and solve problems, become excellent managers, and even professional managers.

In recent years, product management has become a more and more important management topic in the business situation of multiple products. Especially in the knowledge-based economy environment, such as the internet and software, creativity, media, such as modern new industrial chain, its almost negligible replication costs, competitive products and excellent product management has become the key to success. Based on the commercial operation of the product, in an increasingly convergent network era, flat management, grass-roots polymerization, precision marketing, through-train services and other new business environment often created a win-take-all situation, product-centric enterprise management gradually formed an independent product management system, by many enterprises concerned and adopted.

In software enterprises, with the rise of product management, it can be said that to the product, is the programmer in the technology and management of the third career path. More and more programmers are turning to product work, especially for those with entrepreneurial awareness, moving to a product is a way to go. Tencent's Ma and 360 of the Zhou, they are all started by programmers, and then create their own products and careers.

The rise of product management has produced a product work career direction centered on product manager. Product career direction can be viewed from two dimensions of the job and position of the product line. Duties, there is the chief Product Officer (CPO), product director, Product Manager, product specialist, product assistant, especially the Product manager position is the most center; post, there are product competition analysis and user demand management, product innovation and planning, product prototype design, product operation planning, product realization process tracking, product commercialization implementation, Product operation, product management results analysis and tracking, product upgrades and maintenance management, product management system and system building, product personnel skills training. These products based on the design of the position to effectively meet user needs as the center, it is different from other professional skills and functional efficiency as the center of the Division of labor generated by the job.

Product management in recent years with the rapid rise of it and the Internet has been the attention of various enterprises, and now the major institutions do not have product management-related professional, various types of training institutions are not similar to training courses, engaged in product work are mostly from different professions, different positions of transformation over. In comparison, programmers have the advantages of marketing, testing, customer service and other positions to the product. Some companies have even made regulations that require years of software development experience to engage in product work. The unique advantages of programmers in product work include the following:

First, programmers can better understand the product implementation plan, the planned product is more feasible. To do product planning work, perhaps lack of ideas or ideas, but an effective and feasible solution. Years of experience in the programmer, the software technology and software implementation of the decision, you can circumvent those unrestrained product ideas, work more effective. For example, in the collation of user needs, the programmer's early effective judgment and feasibility identification, will greatly improve the product planning quality and speed. Programmer-born product personnel can communicate with research and development personnel, using language and ideas that are more easily understood by researchers to interpret and follow up product solutions.

Second, the programmer's software development work is not so much code writing as the logical statement of the organization. Programmers generally have a rigorous logical thinking ability, which is a complex and messy demand analysis and product conceptual design of the necessary advantages, more conducive to the categorization of the relationship between the context, conversion to product function planning, products made into fine. For example, the need to write files to u disk, product personnel may only think of normal operation logic, but programmers may think of more unusual circumstances, such as: U disk damage, pull out of the transmission process, power, transmission of file damage, U disk write protection, duplicate files, focus location, space shortage and so on. Again, a good user experience of the product, in essence, is the product function of the logical display, or the user's Operation logic Guide.

Third, the programmer to the system analysis of the technical direction of development, in essence, with the direction of product planning is interlinked, all need to the real world essential relationship has a full understanding and grasp. An excellent programmer who can move to a system analyst is likely to become an excellent product planner. The difference is that the system analyst's work is geared toward programmers, computers, and product planning is user-oriented and market-oriented. Every programmer must be a user of a software PRODUCT development tool, has a deep experience in software PRODUCT use, and has the basis to express the problem from users.

Four, programmers generally have the ability to learn fast, to maintain the computer-related industry dynamics and technological innovation observation and thinking, which to a certain extent, will cultivate the industry and technology insights. Product planning and design work, the final success of the market, the test is this insight. Because product work is always around "solve what is the problem of what people" to carry out, that is, always around the "do the right thing." Only to the industry and technology insight people can stand in the user's perspective to understand and experience, inspire creativity, make good products.

Of course, programmers with these unique advantages, does not mean that the programmer to do product work, it will be able to succeed. To plan a good product, to become a good product manager, they also face a variety of challenges:

First, the conflict between innovation and structured thinking. Structured thinking can be said to be the typical symbol of the programmer, this mode of thinking is very important to do a good job, but it is often also a natural enemy of innovative thinking. Innovation is the soul of product work, programmers need to constantly break the routine to inspire the inspiration to do a good job, we must overcome the formation of the mind-set.

Second, the contradiction between teamwork and heroism. Programmers are often accustomed to working alone, advocating technical cattle, lack of teamwork awareness and communication skills. Product work requires a lot of communication and coordination, even the organization of leadership work, emphasizing the team fight. In the spirit of cooperation, programmers who want to turn to product work really need to be strengthened.

Third, business awareness and market operation knowledge is scarce. In particular, under the concept of comprehensive product management, product personnel need to have a strong marketing knowledge and commercial operation of the planning and analysis capabilities, only to make the product is not enough, sell out is the hard truth. Product planning, facing the marketing model, target users, channel selection, competition strategy, and other choices and design, which is placed in the technical background of the programmers in front of an important course.

Each enterprise, according to its own industry characteristics and the enterprise's resource advantages, to deploy different forms of product management mechanism. It is a professional direction that the programmer should pay attention to the characteristic of his character and ability, to grasp the flourishing career opportunity of product management, to develop the product and to train the ability model of the excellent product manager to plan the learning Road and the professional career.

(This article is published in the publication of the "China Software goes Overseas" Marketing Forum held in Beijing, CSDN (Programmer's Base) and Dr Company April 2011 16-17th. )