Product Manager good and bad

I have probably met a great product manager. For example, Gong Yuan has designed the two heavyweight products Baidu Post Bar and Encyclopedia. Unfortunately, I did not personally see the design process of these products. Objectively speaking, I still don't know what a powerful product manager is.

Since my limited experience is not competent for reviewing product managers, let's talk about the types of product managers I like and hate. The right is what I call "good" or "bad.

Appreciated: Understanding the soul of the Product

I really appreciate the imaginative product manager of Baidu. mingyuan and dongbao can both be regarded as people with such characteristics. No matter what decision they make, they can give a lot of reasons, and I feel quite objective and essential. What they like most is that they can categorize the actions on a series of products, so that I can feel the logic and purpose of these things, and they are scattered. No matter how effective they are in practice, I really appreciate this kind of understanding of the product soul.

Appreciated: Stick to the goal of doing things

I realized that the goal of doing things was the basic requirement of the product. Then I was surprised to find that I was wrong. In the design process, the product is easily influenced by its own interests and is out of the proper direction. For example, to design a phase-2 function, if you want to develop a feature, you will forget the initial goal, it became the second phase for the second phase, or even for the taste of personal products. There are quite a few product managers who can achieve this in Baidu, and the short-term and long-term goals can all be done according to the pre-planned plan. Unfortunately, they will not see such a product manager after leaving Baidu.

Appreciated: thinking from the user's perspective

Product managers often cannot represent users, because the user's individual interests are too broad and not so easy to represent. However, if the product manager is the most enthusiastic user and has a keen sense of smell to find potential user needs, it is the best. This is the highest level of thinking from the user perspective. A slightly degraded product manager can understand the user's mood. They will understand the real needs through data and research. Although they are not as outstanding as the previous one, they are also reliable, at least the product is designed incorrectly.

Disgusted: unable to extricate themselves from details

Some product managers especially like to design some cool small details, not only for this pleasure, but also for these details unclear. The worst thing about this kind of product manager is that they don't care whether they live or not in this project. They prefer to lose watermelon and pick up sesame seeds to satisfy their personal interests. They are not conscious yet, keeping improving is the most valuable quality for product managers, so they despise all opponents.

Dislike: "This implementation is simple"

Some product managers may have been under pressure from product managers. After they become such roles, they always consider the difficulty of implementation for the technology in advance, and cut down or even mention the difficult requirements. I think this kind of product manager should be dismissed immediately. They have no advantages except to become the poison of the product. It is just a ghost to make things out of this idea that have a good user experience. Unfortunately, it seems that many product managers are both technical and have this problem. They also think they are doing a good thing to help technical personnel, I don't know if I made a junk product myself. This is the biggest harm to the hard work of technicians.

Dislike: over-believing in iterative trial and error

Internet products are short, fast, iterative, and error-free. Some product managers regard iteration and trial and error as the sword of Shang Fang, and use this as the reason to cut corners in the product design stage. Please, if you want to try it out, you must first think clearly about the direction and try again. The time and user resources of technical developers are not the mouse of everyone, in addition to wasting time and hurting users, too divergent thinking has any advantages. The most terrible thing is-some product managers will really ignore the next development of this product because of trial errors! Oh, my God, can I apply for such a person to be fired directly.

Dislike: Superstitious product feelings

Just as the Chinese doctor's pulse tells you what qi and blood are lacking by feeling, there is no way, and some are just concealed experiences and feelings. Product managers sometimes look like traditional Chinese medicine, just look at the appearance (what PV? absolute visitors), and then speculate on the problems, finally, we come to some conclusions to design some cool, unpleasant, or even harmful product improvements (just as most Chinese medicines are placebo and many have side effects ). They are often very proud of their own feelings, especially those who carefully analyze data, maybe they all boast of their own talents. The most annoying thing is their attitude. In the face of a layman like me, they will say "I should do this based on my feelings about the product", which makes me speechless. Wake up, talents.

Conclusion

The purpose of this article is to save product managers who do not see their own mistakes. I hope that my words will make them aware of their problems and develop in the right direction.