Is product management industry specific?

Is product management industry specific?

 

After reorganizing the company's products, Liu Yu and I both clarified their work tasks. He was responsible for the product line of the company, and I was responsible for the V product line of the company, zhou Yang is responsible for the M product line temporarily. in name, Zhou Yang is also responsible for a product line. In fact, the M product line was set up by the company in December. Currently, there is no product, which is the kind of name-less product.

There is still one I product line. After many internal discussions, I agree that I should temporarily take charge of both experience, ability, and appearance, my God, I only heard that the higher the ability, the greater the responsibility, the better the appearance, and the more work.

Fortunately, I am only responsible for it temporarily, and there are not many online products for this product. I can hand it over only when appropriate people come in.

It is impossible for the company to let you start work after everything is ready, so we are doing and improving now.

Zhou Yang designed an internal workflow based on some ideas of product management I talked with him. Although it is relatively simple, we can see that Zhou Yang has made a lot of effort, especially for a person who only knows the name of product management and has no product management experience, it is not easy to develop such a decent process.

However, Liu Yu shook his head and said, "I think there is a problem with this process. The software industry or IT industry should not be like this. This is the product management process of the traditional industry ."

Liu Yu has nothing to say. If he doesn't say anything, he will be more uncomfortable than deducting his salary for a month.

Let's look at Zhou Yang again, and his face becomes red. Originally, according to his current understanding of product management, it's better to fool him than to be a layman, however, once talking to many people who have done some product management work, Zhou Yang cannot cope with such problems.

At this time, the deputy manager of the product department should be responsible for assisting the Department leaders in solving problems in the department.

Now that Zhou Yang has a problem, of course I need to help solve it.

"Liu Yu, this process was designed after Zhou Yang communicated with me. How do you think this process is not suitable for our software industry ?" I am eager to give Zhou Yang an answer, so that Liu Yu's doubts direct to me.

In fact, I understand what Liu yu means. He does not target Zhou Yang, but wants to tell us that there are industry differences in product management.

In fact, this is not the first time I have heard of this idea. Some enterprises are always used to evaluating other industries with their own industry standards. Therefore, it is concluded that product management is fundamentally different in different industries, this kind of understanding is transferred to the product manager through practical work. Therefore, many product managers have the following idea: product managers are very different because of different industries.

Without a doubt, Liu Yu also looks at Zhou Yang's design process based on this understanding.

"I think product managers need to be classified. product managers in traditional industries are more focused on the market, such as sales support, channel support, and promotion activities after products are listed, our software industry focuses on the development end, such as demand analysis, product planning, and product design. The root cause is that different industries have different product forms, this makes it necessary for enterprises to have different requirements for product managers. The product form in traditional industries is relatively simple, and the technical requirements are not high. More work must be done on product marketing, in the software industry, products have high technical requirements, and more work should be done on demand management and new product development. This will inevitably make product managers in different industries have different work objectives and processes."

After LIU Yu finished speaking, he certainly looked at Zhou Yang and me, meaning that he had already thought clearly about the problem.

"Liu Yu, you have made some sense, but I don't think you have any details ." With Zhou Yang's cover, I picked up the package and went up.

"Let's talk about it ." As you can see, Liu Yu began to build a bastion host and waited for me to rush forward.

"First, I think there is no distinction between a high-tech industry and a traditional industry in the eyes of product managers. It is hard to hear. In the so-called high-tech industry, I have to pay for my own face, it seems that I am playing with high technologies and have technical knowledge. Other industries are low in technology. In my eyes, there are only two types of products in the industry: profitable and non-profitable."

"That's too much. Can you explain it in detail ?" Liu Yu threw a grenade.

Zhou Yang also looked at me, meaning he could avoid it. Don't beat it.

I smiled and said, "What is the fundamental purpose of the product manager? It is to plan products with continuous profitability for enterprises, right ?"

I believe that Liu Yu will certainly agree, because which product manager will want the product he is responsible for not making any money?

Indeed, not only LIU Yu, but even xiaojuan agreed.

"Well, how can we plan a product with continuous profitability ?" I will give Liu yu a grenade.

"It's easy to plan products that can meet the market requirements for enterprises ." Liu Yu tried to hide, but unfortunately he only escaped half.

"Incomplete, planning products that can meet market needs is only the second step to achieve the goal ".

"How many steps are there ?" Xiao Juan began to give up neutral.

"Step 1: Find out what needs to be met in the market;

Step 2: Liu Yu said, planning products that can meet market needs;

Step 3: it is also the most critical step. We use the products provided by the enterprise to meet what we think needs to be met, realize the final value exchange, and complete the profit process ."

This cannot be refuted. No product manager will think that it is a normal phenomenon to put a product in his own house after hard work. A product is a value carrier used for market exchange, concepts mentioned in junior high school political textbooks.

"Therefore, for the fundamental purpose of product managers, there is no difference between any industry and any enterprise. The common attribute of these products is that we are all commercial organizations, make money. You can't always say that you are a software engineer. If I am an internet engineer, isn't it for profit ?"

Liu Yu didn't answer the question. I was right. You thought about it. One day, you said to the boss: I planned a very good product that is very exquisite but not used to make money, boss, do not do it.

I think that as long as the boss has an IQ of over 80, he will let you go without hesitation. Don't look at the two sides, go out of the door of the company, and then go wherever it is cool.

I started to take the initiative, so I continued to throw the second grenade, heavy.

"So, how can we make a profit ?"

Liu Yu began to hide in the bunker and did not attack me directly.

"Two things are simple: Open Source and throttling. What is open source? More market contacts, more comprehensive thinking, more overall planning, what is throttling? It doesn't matter if you do less, it doesn't matter if you do less, or you do less self-righteous products. In fact, in the end, the goal is to enable the product manager to take good responsibilities for the resources your company has given you, this allows enterprises to increase their resource investment value, rather than depreciate their resources.

Open source allows product managers to make money for enterprises, while cost-saving allows product managers to save money. How enterprises make profits is nothing more than these two forms, which are undoubtedly the most important for product managers.

Therefore, in terms of the product manager's work content, any company in any industry is the same. Through the work of the product manager, it makes money for the company and saves money for the company, in this way, enterprises will make profits. Isn't there a sentence? The product manager is Qian shuzi, which means this ."

Liu Yu hid out of the bunker and started to attack me from the flank.

"However, I have heard many product managers in traditional industries say that their focus is on marketing. For example, demand analysis seems to have done very little. On the contrary, we have done a lot of front-end work and almost no backend involvement. Have you done this ?"

I must admit that what Liu Yu said is a reality. At least I understand the situation as a common phenomenon.

However, we all forget the principle of judging things: the universal consensus does not mean that it is correct, and the general view does not mean that it is a fact.

There have been too many cases of selling dog meat.

I feel that many companies have such definitions of product managers.

On the one hand, many companies tell product managers about the importance of product management and the value of product managers. On the other hand, they put product managers in awkward positions to do insignificant and dispensable work.

"Yes? I think you are right wrong. There are no companies that do not do requirement analysis, no companies that do not do target market segments, and no companies that do not do customer positioning, what kind of products does this enterprise provide? Where does it come from?

Even if there is such an enterprise, we can only say that there is a problem with the enterprise itself. What is the relationship with product management? According to my ideas, these enterprises do not deserve to set up a product management system. The purpose of product management is to allow enterprises to have better output. If the problem persists, they will quickly set up a product management system, this kind of enterprise is to be despised."

Zhou Yang saw that I was a little excited and quickly completed the round: "A bubble, you can rest assured that our company is not like that. What we want to set up is of course true, A product management system that truly brings value to the company."

I calmed down a little and smiled embarrassingly at Liu Yu, meaning I didn't mean anything about it. It was just a personal complaint. It was totally aimed at the confused enterprises in China.

Liu Yu also smiled. He could see that he didn't go to his heart. I really liked him. The discussion was a discussion. He was not afraid to pat the table and stare at his eyes, everything is controlled in the academic field.

Liu Yu still did not speak. I know that he is thinking about how to continue to refute my point of view.

"Well, I still have the last question. The fundamental goal and essential work content of the product management you mentioned, I admit that there is no industry difference,, why has this awareness become a common or even a correct one? The existence is reasonable, right ?"

Liu Yu began to commit vulgar crimes again. I hate people who abuse the Philosophical Viewpoint "what is actually reasonable" when they cannot justify a certain point of view.

There is no error. There must be some reason for its existence. But as I said just now, many times, what we see is not necessarily the truth, and what we agree on is not necessarily the truth. Likewise, what we already have is not necessarily what we need to stick.

"I think the reason for this is that, on the one hand, there is no analysis based on the fundamental goal and essential work content of product management, another reason is that many enterprises or individuals have come to this conclusion only by looking at the differences in the specific work of product management in different industries."

I paused for a moment, reviewed my thoughts, and continued:

"Let me give you an example. For example, we have a new product that is sold through OEM, physical stores, and digital distribution platforms. After a while, the company needs to evaluate the profitability of different channels as the basis for channel adjustment. As a product manager, what do you do?"

Zhou Yang may have been confused by the two sides. He asked me with a doubt: "I think this should not be done by the product manager ?"

Liu Yu nodded his head and agreed. He felt like he had to go back and forth.

I smiled and said, "I think you will definitely ask this question. Yes, from the channel perspective, this job should be done by the channel department, but we need to know that, what is the purpose of the company's work? For the channel department, it is to optimize the channel, improve the product delivery rate and channel profitability. For the product manager, it is to know the channels from which users get products, and this is definitely a requirement. Once we know this, we know how to adjust the marketing plan and adjust the marketing plan, in this way, enterprises can increase the utilization efficiency of investment, and improve the utilization efficiency. In fact, the cost is reduced for enterprises, and the cost is reduced, which means the enterprise's profit increases.

Therefore, from the channel itself, it is a matter of the channel department. From the perspective of product management, this is the scope of demand. channels in our industry may be simpler, there is no need for product managers to do too much work. Therefore, product managers in the software industry will feel that they have not done too much in this respect, while in other industries, those industries that rely heavily on channels, their product manager's work in this area is simply unimaginable.

But in the final analysis, channels are also a specific part of the market demand. Do we not need to pay attention to them?

Therefore:

1) in any industry, the fundamental purpose of the product manager is the same: to plan products with sustainable profitability for the enterprise.

2) in any industry, product managers share the same essential work content: both to make money for the enterprise and to save money for the enterprise.

3) regardless of the industry, the product manager's workflow is the same: you must first know what the market wants and then plan products that can meet the market needs, then we can use this product to satisfy the market and realize value exchange. Simply put, all market factors are requirements in the eyes of product managers. The work of product managers is carried out around requirements, and the work flow of product managers is the process of demand development ."

"Ah bubble, you have not answered my questions positively ." Liu Yu reminded me that Jedi would fight back.

Negligence and negligence, just thinking about the example, did not answer LIU Yu's question from the front, so He hurriedly said:

"The reason for such a general understanding is that it is mainly caused by three reasons:

1) insufficient understanding of product management. In fact, many Chinese enterprises do not know what product management is and what it can bring to them. For example, in the IT industry, many enterprises believe that product managers should focus on technology, however, the risk is that the product manager and the market are separated. If you don't believe it, ask most product managers how much time they spend each year communicating with customers. Some people say that there are too many users of our products and it is impossible to communicate with each other. Is that true? There are not many FMCG users. What are the product managers of these products doing every day? You 'd better know about it.

2) Influence of personal thinking inertia of product managers: we must admit that many product managers are half-handed, some are technical, and some are marketing, however, these are only a specific part of business operations. After the transformation, if we focus on our products and our vision is limited to the thinking we used to work in the past, it will certainly be the result of a blind person's understanding.

3) Lack of necessary system guidance for Chinese enterprises: Are foreign things good? Good, but this kind of good is based on the practice of Foreign Enterprises. What is the relationship with our Chinese enterprises? We need to know that product management is the product of pure marketization, and the domestic market environment and enterprise types are complicated. Chinese enterprises in the transitional period may only experience the real market impact, it is possible to provide a better foundation for the development of product management in China.

Now, to find a proper product management model, Chinese enterprises must start from their own reality. Only in this way can Chinese enterprises realize the value brought by product management."

Liu Yu got up and left the meeting room and went back to his seat. I know that he just retreated and rested. It does not mean that he will not attack again. In fact, everything has changed, both parties need to understand in practice.

Of course, I never thought that this discussion would allow us to reach an agreement on this understanding. I just hope to expand our ideas through communication, especially for Zhou Yang.

I smiled and said to Zhou Yang, "If I want to improve the process for you, you can rest assured that I will do well ."

Zhou Yang said, "We have a P application. The key is that we don't agree with the above. It's just a white match ."

I understood this, but it was too late. Zhou Yang put the printed flowchart in my hand and said with great enthusiasm: "In this case, modify the flowchart, tomorrow!"

 

Apao say:

If the product management industry is special, it cannot be said that this kind of management philosophy is universal. If it is not universal, how does it become popular in the world?

This is a simple logic, just as we have never heard of over-industry project management, industry-specific financial management, and industry-specific MBA.

So why do many of my friends think that product management has special characteristics in the industry?

The reason is the three points mentioned in the text:

1) insufficient understanding of enterprises; 2) inertia of personal thinking; 3) lack of systematic guidance.

In the end, enterprises and individuals are all using the visual thinking to understand product management. They always think that what they are doing is the work of product management, in addition, there is a lack of necessary communication between industries, so that we cannot find common product management in different industries.

If common things cannot be found, they will naturally think that there is a special nature of the industry.

As mentioned in the text, product management is basically the same for any industry.

1) in any industry, product managers have the same fundamental purpose;

2) the product manager's essential work content is the same in any industry;

3) the product manager's workflow is the same in any industry.

This is from a realistic perspective. from a historical perspective, if you study the market, enterprise, and product environment created by P & G's product management model, you will find that, we not only have deviations in understanding, but also deviate from the essence of product management in practice.

All of this gives us the same understanding as the frog at the bottom.

This article is from yes! Product Manager.

Book details: http://blog.csdn.net/broadview2006/article/details/6873929