Product Manager's past and present (Career Planning)

 

 

Based on my personal understanding of Internet product managers (hereinafter referred to as PM), I drew the above sketch and wanted to express the following content:

1. The blue arrow points to the object that PM will be exposed to during work.
2. The blue arrow is PM-centered and points to the surrounding departments, indicating that PM plays an active role in communication and coordination.
3. green arrows indicate the types of work most often changed by PM in Internet enterprises.
4. The entire figure is a person's shape, with the head, right arm, feet, and heart.

The diagram I made is representative and not universal, because different enterprises, different departments and organizations, and different management modes determine that PM varies in the work process. Today, I just want to use this picture to discuss the starting point, pivot, and Growth Point of PM in my career.

I. Starting Point of Product Manager

The figure shows three Green dotted lines pointing to pm respectively, indicating that the three departments or the three types of jobs are most likely to develop as PM, they are responsible for product marketing, product operation, and product implementation.

The Department responsible for product marketing has the most contact with the market and will gradually gain a better understanding of the market demand. The starting point of a product lies in the market demand. So as long as the market needs can be expressed and implemented by the product Implementation Department, this is already the starting point of PM. The PM from the market has a clear personality, strong communication skills, strong expression ability, and strong adaptability. However, after all, it is still in the transitional stage, and the direction to learn is product management and management, for example, design product features, make a preliminary prototype of the product, and describe the product logic.

The Department responsible for product operation can be said to have a wealth of industry resources. They have BD, PR, customer service and other types of work. They know about the industry and the history, status quo, and even small changes of similar products. Using the online gaming industry as an example, Shanda is a typical game operator. Maybe they do not need to develop their own games, but they only need to operate the game products that others have prepared, however, once they decide to develop an online game, they can implement it quickly, because they have accumulated a lot of product experience and market experience while operating the product. Therefore, jobs in this department are easily converted to PM.

Department responsible for product implementation. This is the Whampoa Military Academy of PM now. It can be said that 80% of PM came out of this department. This department is familiar with the functions, usage logic, data structure, and information structure of the product. They grasp the product shape ". In addition, many companies now call pm the project manager responsible for development and the product design responsible for product demo.

Another special phenomenon is that many bosses or CEOs of enterprises are holding the position of PM.

Do you belong to the above departments for the type of work you hold in the Enterprise? If yes, you can try to develop towards PM.

Ii. fulcrum of Product Manager

If you want to develop towards pm, or now you have gradually entered the PM role, what pivot should you have to support the development of the position?

1) The face must be thick.

ArticleIn the beginning, the Blue Arrow is PM-centered and points to different departments. It indicates that it plays an active role in the communication and coordination process.

Have all men followed girls? What is the premise of being proactive? If you think about losing face if you are rejected before the appointment, consider whether the appointment will make the other party angry, consider whether the other party simply ignores himself, and finally get scared by himself, decided to give up.

PM also works in the same way. There will be a lot of Unplanned things, such as page adjustment, demand changes, and temporary topics tailored to market needs. It is impossible for all things to be done within the planning of each department. So how can PM implement things out of the schedule of others? Are you looking for leaders to coordinate? If everything works like this, what else does PM need to do? Then you will have a thick face and an open-minded number. They are all emotional animals, and nothing can be coordinated. If you lose some face, it will be too much trouble if you miss something.

In addition, PM may encounter a lot of temporary communication during product management and operation, and cannot guarantee that PM can understand every communication. Remember that PM needs to ask more questions and learn more, if the PM's posture is too high, it is likely that the problem may occur due to not paying attention to it.

As for the skills that other pivot points or PM should possess, some articles are very comprehensive, including communication, unauthorized leadership, learning, business sensitivity, product passion, attention to details, and daily product management capabilities 《Capabilities of product managers"

As a successful pm, in addition to these capabilities, there is also a necessary pivot, that is, mentality. Working for 1-5 years is to train a person's abilities, over the past 5-10 years, I have been exercising my mind. I will discuss this issue with you later.

3. Product Manager Growth Point

Over the past three years as a pm, I was deeply fascinated by this position. For me, PM is not just a job, but also a way of life. Of course, I am also worried that there will be "Aesthetic Fatigue" for a long time, so I often think about how long PM can do, where it will develop, and how it will keep fascinated.

First of all: in an enterprise, PM has the widest field of contact, so it has to learn the most. It does not need to be a professional talent, but at least it must be a general talent. Therefore, PM is a continuously accumulated profession. Even if you lose this position one day, other people will not be able to take the accumulated things.

Secondly: PM is actually the CEO of this product. After pm, you can start your own business at least quickly and avoid detours.

Third: Since the PM is bundled with the product, the product market should also be related to the PM. The product performance should also be part of the PM assessment, and the product should sell well, PM receives a lot of salary and deducts PM salary if it fails to meet market expectations. PM can actually be a well-paid position.

Fourth: no matter the Internet industry or traditional industry, PM is the same, and cross-industry is not difficult.