Three Misconceptions about product managers

1, Product manager is a team manager

Many people mistakenly believe that the product manager is the manager of the team and the manager in the traditional sense.

Actually, "Product manager is responsible for the management and operation of the product," manager "is responsible for the management and operation of an organization or team, the difference of the word for the employer may not matter, clear job responsibilities on the line, but as a candidate often because of this joke, even affect the work and career.

I have a classmate, there has been this misunderstanding, to a company to apply for Product manager, soon after the negotiations into the job, the first day of work, he was surprised to find that the company's operations are cross-sectoral, not the exclusive team, he is in the Product Management Center, everyone is the product manager. This makes him work and mentality can not adapt, feel cheated, not a few days to leave.

In fact, for companies with perfect departments and clear division of labor, this cross-sectoral approach is normal, and it seems to be a standard, they recruit product managers, not team managers.

So what are the differences between product management and team management?

Product Management (Product Manager): Responsible for the entire lifecycle of the product or product line being played. This cycle includes product planning, requirements/functions, product demo, product front-end presentation, usability, product testing, product packaging, product line, product management/integration, product tracking/diagnostics, product optimization, new requirements and features, new demo ... Keep iterating until your product exits the market. There are a lot of links in this cycle, don't be scared, the above mentioned departments perfect, clear division of the company, each link will have a special department to help complete, and product managers are more communication, coordination, excavation, time node, planning to let the responsible product or product line benign, planned development. As a product manager, although the product itself has great rights, you can intervene in all stages of the product lifecycle, but administratively, unlike the average manager, who has a lot of resources to work with, so how to do this role is tricky.

Team management (Manager): the department responsible for their own effective planning, the formulation of the corresponding strategic objectives and development plans, together with their subordinates, through practical and effective means, to the implementation of each step, gradually realized. I don't say much about this, we all know!

Do not because the product manager in the company does not have such a title and the top of the chagrin, a successful product manager absolutely have the style and ability of the general! Imagine that you can coordinate so many departments and people in the process of managing a product, and that these people's performance or economic interests are not directly related to you. So the transition to do team management, to do the middle level, the team's performance and economic benefits are in your control, you have nothing to worry about?

Remember the industry has a sentence: A successful product manager can not only guide the development of products, but also to guide the development of the company.

2, product Manager as long as responsible for product on-line

This is not only a misunderstanding of the problem, involved in the Product Manager career development in two directions.

One product manager is often a product on the line after the no matter, to start another product, I call it surrogacy, the other is responsible for the entire product lifecycle, until the product out of the market, I call the mother type.

Why is it that there are two directions of development? Let's start with the baby.

Now there is a career in the community called "surrogate", reminds me of another professional "prostitute". My association does not think that the career of surrogacy is frivolous, but because these two professions are similar, the former is to betray the uterus, the latter is to sell the vagina. In other words, surrogacy is a job for women under the age of 30 who have a uterus.

Good! Everybody knows what I mean. Anyone with a little Internet experience is easily transformed into a surrogate product manager. Such product managers are filled with a sense of crisis, the same work on the one hand, let them feel the emptiness of life and confused, on the one hand, but also feel very NB, complaining about the work boring and frequent job-hopping. Yun-Yu in the product planning the future of the hype, the final out of either deformity, or throw it to others to raise, or halfway aborted. Want to learn the same as a prostitute to eat young rice to earn a few years to go home to marry, but the one-month salary is not as good as a day's income prostitutes.

Maybe I'm a bit extreme, but the product manager of this category is 60%, maybe more. This is the existence of a branch of the product manager family.

And as the other branch--as the mother raised the child, the product managers who run the products are the groups that really embody this position. The greatness of women is not the breeding of offspring, the real great women are mothers, they are hard to raise their children, teaching them to talk, walk, educating children, in the fierce society to survive. This type of product manager through long-term accumulation and rich business experience, the market has a keen sense of smell, the development of the product has a strong ability to control, like the track and the Wind and sun work, to ensure that the train to the end of the orderly operation. They feel happy and happy, despite the hard work, the heavy pressure, the need to adjust the product strategy at any time, or the company's strategy to make sacrifices for the products. In the workplace, such product managers are hot, because they can often create value and even bring new life to the company.

To change the status of surrogacy:

A, from now on the initiative to consider the product on the line after the operation, do not fear difficulties, do not overestimate their identity, you have to do a good job in person to contact customers to sell your product preparation.

B, even if your product handover to other people responsible, but also should spare no effort to help take over the people, not stingy or psychological imbalance, since it is the company's decision, even if you leave, the birth of a child is not easy things!

C, product development encountered difficulties, do not easily abandon it, since the original to do this product, you should give yourself a little more confidence.

D, don't let go of any opportunity to advertise your product

E, pay more attention to similar products on the market, learn how they do, imitation can let you quickly on the road, once you are familiar with the path will be a lot of new ideas out.

3, Product manager is uncrowned

This is definitely a high-sounding rhetoric. "Uncrowned" has made many colleagues on the product manager this position is full of fantasy, it seems to engage in this position can be powerful, Jiangshan. Just like when I was a kid, I dreamed of becoming the head of the household, so I could buy whatever I wanted and eat whatever I wanted. But when I really married, I found that the "head of the family" is more of a responsibility.

So, the word "uncrowned" just looks beautiful. A real uncrowned product manager, need to have a lot of conditions, such as a wealth of industry experience, the boss of the characters, we all admire him; in the company and departments for a long time running-in your ability and your character is recognized;

In the process of managing a product, 90% of the work requires the product manager to coordinate themselves, the company will not be able to summon everyone or send an authorization notice. You have to face the other departments also have time to schedule, not you said to do can give you, this test your ability to plan, can be one months or even a quarter after the events are now planned to enter the other departments of the schedule. Sometimes even in the queue, can not sit, and so on, but also follow up, people are not machines, everyone has their own subjective will, let the other party to do a page, the effect may be the difference between the world, or your needs say to do a TV, the results will come out of the microwave oven.

A few days ago the company internal training, let several product manager said that the most important ability of the position is what, have the ability to communicate, have said time management ability, operation ability and so on. Finally, the projector emits two characters "active"

Oh, yes! Initiative is the essence of uncrowned!