If the product manager from the software industry to the Internet industry, the feasibility of how many?

On the http://www.zhihu.com/question/20092718 I have seen a problem: Product managers from the software industry to the Internet industry, is it feasible? Do you have any suggestions or share?

Here is a simple answer, only for the needs of friends for reference or discussion

Although the answer to this question is obvious, I believe many students will have similar problems. At the same time, the problem is extended, whether from one industry jump to another industry (such as doctors to do basketball players) or from one career to another career (from sales to do programmers), in fact, we need to face the first is the cognitive problems in psychology. In other words, I think you need to know more about:

What are the similarities and differences between the software industry and the internet industry?

What is the difference between the focus of product managers in different industries or different fields?

As far as the first question is concerned, compared with the doctors and basketball players, the similarities and differences between the software industry and the Internet industry are obvious.

Common: It field, to provide users with information technology products or services. By helping users to improve efficiency, reduce costs, access to information and other ways to create value for users.

Similarities and differences: In product performance, we can simply understand the software products and Internet products as C/s structure and b/s structure difference. Of course, the two have been converging, but whether it's SaaS, mobile internet or cloud computing, we can all understand the evolution based on both of these basic structures.

The second problem is that we can analyze the core functions of the product manager.

Define strategy: The real Product manager first needs to clear user needs and company goals, the two systems are summarized and analyzed. The product manager is no different from the IT field or the traditional entity consumer product. If you have to say similarities and differences, then different industries face different user needs, different companies face different goals. As a product manager, we need to have a set of own strategic thinking and the methodology to guide the completion of the strategy construction. The foundation is solid, can quo. But the vast majority of students with this problem, the fundamental reason is that the "Product manager" and "Product design Manager" equivalent to cognition, this has not jumped out of the "designer" or "demand analyst" category.

Define scope: "What do you do?" Is the problem that most competent product managers must focus on. Usually we have limited time and limited resources, in order to ensure that the first step is not wrong, the scope can be said to be the most important product managers work, not one. In the software industry, because users are usually enterprise-class users, the role of product managers is often replaced by "pre-sales engineers", "project Managers", and pre-sales engineers (big Customer sales) determine revenue, and project managers control costs and implement projects. I've learned that the product managers of software companies are either more like "pre-sales engineers" or just aftermarket demand analysts. If you are the former, go to the Internet industry product Manager will be a duck, if you are the latter, suggest from the "Interactive design" or "User experience" post.

Design structure and framework: This is the basic skill of the product manager, and it is the core work scope of the product designer or the interaction designer. As a product manager, whether it is the software industry or the internet industry, a solid design capability is very important. In other consumer goods industry, product managers can not understand the design, but focus on the strategic market, operations, but in the IT field, do not understand the design equivalent to the project manager does not understand the code. The real difference between software design and Internet product design is the depth and breadth of your product experience. For example, Internet product design, need to consider SEO, but the SOFTWARE product almost does not exist this problem.

Product Lifecycle: This is the biggest difference between software products and Internet products. Software is usually sold after the basic can be paid, maintenance period is usually not more than 1 years, but also based on the product itself to adjust and modify the bug, but the Internet products need to be based on user behavior for continuous optimization and improvement, product operation. Therefore, if you move from the software industry to the Internet industry, the biggest challenge is change. You need to build a system based on user performance and user action data, combined with traffic analysis, to find out the needs of the next iteration through data mining, and then react quickly. Internet product managers need to be more agile and efficient when the strategy is no problem. Don't be alarmed, however, because for most companies and startups, the question is "what to do" and "how to design and develop it," which means that you can integrate your existing design experience into these companies. If you choose a large company, you can start with the designer.

If you have a clear understanding of the above issues, the next step is to make a choice. The systematic way of choice should be based on the first law of psychological will strength:

The strength of will is proportional to the logarithm of the high difference in the value of the activity.

In other words, you need to analyze two questions:

What are the benefits of transferring from a software Product manager to an Internet Product manager?

How much cost do I have to pay?

When the value of the benefit/cost can meet or exceed your expectations, you can change your career decisively. Of course, it is very difficult to analyze these two issues because the future is unknown, especially if you have just had the idea of a career change. You can rationally and deeply understand and learn to help yourself to choose, or you can make emotional choices based on your own personality, experience, and so on, because the subconscious reflection of the brain determines your will and behavior.

However, in any case, you need to keep in mind that the reason for success will always be achieved with enough effort and determination. This has nothing to do with choice, you just have to beat yourself.