The core value of the product manager

There are so many people in the football field, fierce fight scraping their passing, their quick thinking quick vision, because the military strategists are often bloody splash spot, they are on the pitch engine, control the rhythm of the audience, They deploy the team's resources, the ball accurately sent to the most potential teammate at the foot of these people is midfielder, midfielder in Spain, the central figure, Harvey.

In today's Internet industry there is also a group of people who are called "product managers."

The Internet is not like the World Cup with 80 years of history, so the team division of labor and positioning is relatively vague. Especially in recent years, there have been product managers on the Internet in this category. More and more people have been involved in the discussion of the core skills, core functions and core values ​​of product managers.

Here, just to discuss the core values ​​of product managers, I think, as long as we recognize their own value, the other solved, or without any solution. No matter what method you use, whether or not you have the power, no matter if the black cat is as long as it catches the mouse.

With a lot of content to the product manager's core values ​​peel layer by layer.

First, sort out which phases of the product lifecycle on the Internet go through.

Demand collection, design planning, development, on-line, operation promotion or marketing, creating new demands in the market and operation process, designing, planning and developing new functions. "Product managers often have to go through the entire process of a product's life cycle." This is what many product managers now look for.

Ok, let's keep peeling. Break down each phase of your product to see what the product manager plays in this process. This is a very important step, so I will speak as much detail as possible.

First, demand analysis

At this step, many product managers spend a lot of energy to take the role of copywriting, this is a mistake! Because there are more important things need product manager to do at this time.

1, understand the company's strategic purpose

Maybe the word "strategy" is a little high-sounding, but the future of the product is closely linked with this step, so we can mention it at this height. In my experience, there are roughly four motivations for Internet companies to launch a product

A copy: see similar products on the market more successful, combined with its own resources that can be copied. For such products companies can only see the immediate benefits, the long-term uncertainty, you need to adjust while doing the majority of the ups and downs. For example, the recent fanatical buy.

B interference: shopping malls such as the battlefield, many companies will play Dongshengxi strategy, with some irrelevant products to attract competitors attention to deceive or interfere with competitors' attention to cover the steady development of their core business. Such products often become cannon fodder.

C market: For listed companies, in order to give the capital market a good response, often with some inexplicable products to fill charges, although the user and the industry does not make any difference, but allows shareholders and investors to see the company's industrial chain is Successful. Most of these products are pure consumables of the enterprise, because there is no actual profit model, so are other products in the possession of him, the result is no status.

D strategic products: Many Internet companies have started to enter the market from the mass market, which requires companies to dare to innovate, often accompanied by many innovations in the process of reform, companies will define a new market, develop new goals, the introduction of new Products, hoping to change the existing profit model and business framework, market structure. So there is the so-called strategic products, such as Tencent pat, Baidu has ah, Sina's blog, Alipay, some of them successful, and some are not yet clear, and this is exactly the characteristics of such products. The road to innovation and reform is extremely difficult. It is likely that this product conflicts with many existing businesses and is not in harmony with the interests of existing departments. And companies will not like the central government to engage in the Eleventh Five-year plan to give you five years, maybe you only six months, so this requires product managers have a strong control and perseverance.

Only as a product manager can understand these problems to anticipate problems that may arise in future work. It may be possible to gain the resources, potential energy, the size of the team that may be formed, the bottlenecks and bumps that may be encountered and plan ahead.

Therefore, it is not advisable to start designing a well-designed PPT, gorgeous demo, you should understand the company's purpose and motivation to do this product.

2, understand the market demand

There is also a misunderstanding here, and many product managers do something with so-called professional analytics such as swot and a lot of Baidu data, even if they cross one another. And seldom consider why to do market analysis, if we spend a lot of time each day do not know what to do and do, it will be easily eliminated.

I think there are three purposes

A, test their own ideas and the company's ideas whether there is deviation, the appropriate extension of the company's original idea, increase the company's interest in the product.

B, hair to the relevant departments, especially the business team and operations team, they are selling hands or pushing the product may have a lot, your product market advantage where? They may not be able to get excited about it right away, but at least they should be given their attention or positive feedback.

C, self-grooming, the process of writing is the process of thinking, the process of thinking is a dialectical process, many ideas will burst out in the writing process.

Therefore, the market analysis can include the following: the value of the product for the industry, the potential living space for the product in the market development environment, the link of the product in the market value chain and the expected market return.

There is not much to say about user needs, there are many articles in this area.

Here, demand analysis phase is the end, in general, product manager at this stage the greatest significance is to create an ideology of products, a bit similar to the military before the sworn meeting, although very virtual, but for future work very well help.

Second, the design planning stage

At this stage, more and more real deliverables begin to emerge, such as product planning programs, product demos, requirement documents, and more.

1, product planning program

Regardless of whether the program is made by the product manager himself or herself, the product manager should ask for a few questions in the planning program:

(Why) Product Background and Requirements Description What to Do Function Description How to Implement Milestone and Time Plan (Return) Input to Output Ratio (How to Operate) Operational Strategy This is a very important transition from the virtual to the real , The product ideas before the hype through this program to tell you how to achieve, and there is a planned milestone in the implementation.

If the product manager as a gyro, this program BOSS clapper moment will become the gyro watershed, before the whip wrapped around the top gyro in power, the clapping of a loud whip, the product manager began crazy busy opened.

2, product demo

With demand, there is a natural function, a combination of functional modules produced functional modules, functional modules to build a framework for the product in the framework of this product under which system to provide support, and ultimately draw the product look like. So the functional modules, product framework, system architecture, low-fidelity prototype packaged to generate a product demo.

Product manager can hold the product demo to verify the. Listen to the opinions of interactive designers, listen to the opinions of visual designers, listen to the opinions of front-end engineers, listen to the opinions of development engineers, listen to the opinions of the business and the market, and listen to the opinions of users.

If you find this group of birds, before the silence, now suddenly crackling Paizhubang start, do not be surprised. Seeing the truth, we can only see the appearance of your product to express various opinions, and most of these comments are in the pull details. In the process of listening to opinions, the product manager will not be excused. If the thoughts turn around like a gyrocompass, if the opinions are adopted or not, the decision-making power lies in the product manager. Therefore, you should be able to identify the starting point of various opinions. Some people from a professional point of view, some people will use the method to achieve functional changes to reduce their workload, and some people will stand their own interests point of view, some people will stand pseudo-user point of view. If you can not cope, you can write down the opinions of everyone, go back and think well. If some problems have to be decided on the outcome, the first clear priorities, it is not possible to rest outside the airport for help. Gyro gyro turn efficiency now!

Need documents, this will not say it!

At this stage, the product manager, in addition to coordinating parties, should find ways to establish a communication mechanism that allows teams to work efficiently. In many Internet companies, the product is not an independent team, are the implementation of the line in various departments.

Third, the development stage

Development here is broad, including UI design, front-end production, programming, operation and maintenance support

Here are a few suggestions:

Design and development are not good to mess with the birds, either very personal, either lonely, or stubborn. In fact, this is related to the nature of their work. The idea needs time and space. It is suggested that product managers should try their best to satisfy them. Perhaps time is finalized by the company, but a good space for development is still available. In the above discussion of the broad development process, product managers often encounter many new needs, either directly BOSS speech, or the temporary rise of the market department, or product manager himself missed. How to do? Do you want to add? Measure it, if it is to affect the core functions can be added, if it is the marginalization of things proposed on the second edition plus, otherwise there is a new demand increase, the product is difficult in the original plan on-line, but also disrupted Developers play space, finally calm down to think, and suddenly a new demand to do, no one is willing, why? Understand each other a little less complained.

No one is perfect. No product manager can think of 100% of the product in any aspect. Therefore, during the development process, developers will have many problems that need to be confirmed. The problem requirements document is omitted, so the product manager needs to have enough Of the time to the developer, if you are busy you also need to arrange a person responsible for coordination.

At this point, communication takes up less time than the product manager, so you can begin to spend time thinking about product-related copyrights. This is what I covered in my previous article, "Constructing well-established Internet product copywriting." The content of this system is as follows:

After the product goes online, it will be delayed. Maybe the copyrights do not have to be done by the product manager themselves, but you need to instill in your mind and understanding of the product. Not all products need these copyrights, I believe we can distinguish.

Fourth, the test phase

I believe there are many Internet companies do not have a dedicated test team (QA), or even ignore the test of this part, so more is the product manager asked to coordinate the division of labor in a short time to complete. The problem arises, there is no professional team so the results of the test may be omitted, the test cycle is very short so that some problems even if found also need to put the product on the line after the solution, these still need the product manager to coordinate and division of labor.

Do not complain, focus on solving the problem. Here are some suggestions:

A, let yourself professional: Before there is no professional test team, the product manager is the most professional testers, the only requirement of themselves, on-line products to be as perfect as possible.

Product testing includes three important aspects - functional testing, performance testing, user testing

There are many functional tests, once served in a group, the company launched an SNS community, of which a total of 7130 test cases, QA departments need to test at least 7130 function points. Friends may be very puzzled, think how there will be how many functional points need to test it? Here's a screenshot of how a professional test team is testing, especially for each test case.

Although professional, but still can not avoid the emergence of the problem, so Microsoft's team is constantly in the product patch. The purpose of mentioning this is, do not because of the test problems become a drag on product development. As a product manager only need to do the functional test in five areas is about the same:

A functional process: According to the previously defined functional modules, modules to share out, share to whom? The department will always be some mobility, if you can not find front-end or UI, to guide them in the test style and interface to show the time to function as a prerequisite. System flow is not much to say, a feature walked over from place to place.
B front-end and database response: In our influence, we will be able to find out the largest and most frequent data storage point of function, such as personal space log, album, video, signatures, friends, dynamic and so on. When the test needs to be done is only the user interface to see if the front-end page is timely response, if required before the synchronization, the test was found to be delayed for 5 minutes, indicating that the front of the data when there is a problem.
C browser compatible: evil browser, there is no better way, one by one test, you can give the front-end development to test, who want to make their own hard to see page users see it is deformed?
D System Rules and Mechanisms: There are many rules and mechanisms that are interspersed throughout the product design process, such as collation, maximum length of fields entered and displayed, user experience points, and more. Register a few accounts began to simulate the role of the user test it.
E Simulate User Roles: Users here are virtual, we only need to focus on whether they can achieve their goals, not to consider the process of experience.

Performance testing requires the product manager to predict the peak of a user and then let the developer do the evaluation to see if the system can run normally and reliably at this possible peak.

User testing is not detailed, there are many related articles online.

Dark storm in a month of late, the product on the line! Some people come to an end, and some people pocketed the project prize shopping pudding went, and some people travel on vacation, there is only one person, the product on-line just just for him, he needs to move from one battlefield to another Battlefield, this person is the product manager.

There was a second watershed here, and some product managers stopped here and turned back to another new product. For some other product managers, the KPIs that the company gives him are not just product launches, but also quantified data such as user volume, activity, volume of information, conversion rate, purchase rate, renewal rate and so on. So it has also become a product manager to discuss the issue. Because the product manager is subdivided

A, planning product manager: only responsible for pre-product planning, planning and then handed over to the needs department, finished! This type of product manager has a great ability to express, whether in language or text. However, because they can not participate in the design of the product core, they often become the spokesman for BOSS.

B, demand-type product manager: more responsible for the collection and processing of all aspects of demand, and from the design and development of the corner will demand into the document, finished! The coordination of such product managers is very strong, often can become the hub of product communication. However, because there is no in-depth product and business aspects of the market, so the weight of the demand arrangement will be very hesitant and painful, often become the culprit.

C, design product manager: more responsible for the visual design of products, such as product demo, interactive design or even UI design, etc., finished! Such product managers are good at grasping the details, but also active thinking. However, often too much attention to detail and perfection has led to many ideas being suppressed by strong business and marketing teams, many of which are unrealizable, painful and frustrating.

D, market-based product manager: The main product responsible for the operation of the market environment, bear a large number of market indicators. Such product managers have a strong market sense of smell, and the market is rich in resources, the product delivered to their care line. However, since such product managers seldom participate in product design and planning in the early days, their product ideas, selling points and product intentions may deviate, and there will be situations with interests first, which will affect the long-term development of the products. If such product managers control ability is not strong, it is easy to frequent product adjustment direction, eventually being merged by other businesses or by the company shelved.

From the product manager's classification point of view, to find the product manager accurate positioning and definition, and give it the core value is really not an easy thing, not to mention each business has its own characteristics and organizational structure.

We pull our mind back. After the product on the line to the fifth stage

Five: operation and marketing

I often divide my operations into four sections:

A, product packaging: products to the market, you need to do the packaging, for example, to build an online booth (Product Topics) Ali's 263 E-mail pass Tencent Kids channel. In addition to these there are promotional materials (promotional color pages, posters, Yi Labao) and PR soft.

B, Foreign cooperation: including promotion and cooperation, data docking, functional integration, distribution of benefits

C, PR promotion: media exchange, looking for G points (excitement of the market)

D, planning activities: conference marketing, Internet users offline activities

These efforts may not require the product manager to implement, but must be proposed by the product manager, and assist the implementation of the specific person to complete.

Not all products are marketed, as some products are more focused on supporting core business developments such as forums, in-house OA, statistical systems, CMS systems, etc. However, for products whose business is to be sold out of the market, the market Sales manager of this section of product is very important, there are many things worth doing.

A, implant business system: Many business systems do not just sell this product, so if the interests are not dealt with properly, it is easy to sell good products are prone to no phenomenon. For example: the company to the sales staff assessment 300,000 per month, maybe your product pricing 5000 and belongs to the annual fee, while the salesman selling an advertisement selling price of 100,000, then for them to complete this month's performance is to storm 3 An advertisement or sell 60 your product? The answer is obvious. Therefore, product managers must work hard to promote the final product into the business system to go, adjust the product commission Ye Hao, bundle worth mentioning, in short, good products are sold out, but by no means designed.

B, collaborative operations: together with the business system to find the selling point of the product, including some of the words in the product sales process, easy to encounter problems, customer excitement of the product, you need to find the product manager, and strive to achieve Reproducibility.

C, involved in the development of product pricing: the price of the product can not be based on different types of customer sub-file, sub-file based on what is? How to distinguish function?

D, the establishment of market demand feedback channel: the market demand for feedback channel it? Smooth it? How to deal with these needs? Is it regular communication with sales staff or market behavior? How to identify what is the customer's needs, which is the salesperson's needs starting from their own interests?

Gyro gyro turn ah!

For the core value of the product manager, at this level we strip a lot of content, whether friends vaguely felt the core value of the product manager? If you still not sure we continue to peel.

Finished several stages of the product life cycle, now referred to the product manager in this cycle to communicate the object, I am in this regard, "Product Manager's Past and Present," a more detailed description of the article. Here only a diagram to illustrate

The blue lines represent the product manager needs to communicate with. This is also part of the core value of the product manager.

Now let us recall that product managers actually do two things throughout the life of a product.

The first thing is "co-occurrence": the performance of collecting ideas, needs, resources, work content and nodes from all aspects

The second thing is "points": the product may involve the departments and corners of the product manager through this catheter accurate and smooth transmission, the object of transmission can be all departments, markets, users, partners, etc.

Do not tangle the picture below

Source: http://www.pmday.com/archives/300