What should be the first product managers to enter?

As an introductory product manager, most of the time we are only responsible for a product line, or just a module of the product, how can we improve ourselves? How to become a good Internet product manager?

The following is know the user @ Huang Zanzhi answer, I hope everyone gets inspired.

1, the overall concept

Of course, as an introductory product manager, most of the time we are only responsible for a certain product line, or just a module of the product, so does not force us to have the so-called global view. And the global view of this kind of thing itself also need time to accumulate to develop, no such a global view of the time of entry is actually very normal.

However, if you can not see the whole situation, do not know where the most needs to be solved, it is easy to grab some detail. Admittedly, there is room for improvement in many things, but from a resource point of view, their priorities are not necessarily high, and they do not necessarily have to be solved at this time. Very often, when you think you've found a way to improve your product and improve your experience, you're told "Does not affect usage." "Few users influence." "Do not be too concerned with these details." Confidence often frustrates, and may even Complain, your idea is clearly right, but can not do according to your ideas.

At this time, you need to communicate with your Leader to understand why he said so, and more importantly, to try to think from a standpoint and height. You are not required to be able to reach the same height as your Leader when thinking about the problem, but as a product manager, you have to be able to jump out of your own perspective to see the problem. To persuade a person, you have to know what he cares about, what.

In addition, if you think your ideas are correct, then you should insist, but you should also respect the company's resource arrangements, the demand into their own timetable, rather than blindly pursue the resources to solve this problem.

2, independent thinking

Different from the above one, we often need to follow the arrangement and instructions of Leader when we are working, but this is based on our own independent thinking. Do products need to have their own some understanding and thinking, some product predecessors experience and experience can learn from, but not directly applied, any design and method can not be divorced from the specific application scenarios. See some design you think is not reasonable, should think about why the original design, whether they are operating, SEO needs, or to say, this is left over from the history of the problem, when the main changes, did not take into account this One, or that this is a failure of the design.

When communicating needs with others, we can not directly say that competing products do just that. Instead, they should tell them why competing products should do so and whether we can do better or not. What to do. This is done by competing products, only to show that this solution is technically feasible, but this is not why we want to do this. Your thinking is more important than what you see.

Now the product circle has a word called "trial and error", for product managers, the same need to constantly trial and error, for the new product manager, this is even more so. The trial and error method is to constantly think, constantly put forward their own ideas and ideas, and discuss with others, in the process of exploration, constantly adjust and deepen their own views on a particular issue. At the same time, it needs to be made clear that even if your current thinking is correct, it can not be guaranteed that it will always be correct. The world is constantly changing. The Internet is constantly changing. We need to try to deny some of our deep-seated ideas.

3, cross-sectoral communication and collaboration

Communication Collaboration is basically a product manager's routine, a large part of our daily work content is to Leader or developer to convey our product concept, to promote the progress of the project. For some small teams, this kind of communication and collaboration is often said in the office a few times, or at noon meal to explore. However, if you are in a large company and you do not know enough about the organizational structure of the company, you probably only know which department should take charge of the problem, who do not know who to talk to, and sometimes you do not even Know which department should be responsible for this problem. In such a situation where no one can find a solution to the problem, improper communication often occurs. It is possible that the problem is sent to a large mailing list so that unrelated people can see the problem and may also send it You and people or departments that have nothing to do with this issue eventually pass the ball and you are more likely to face a problem that has not been solved. You have suffered many criticisms.

Every company should have its own internal means of communication, possibly mail, possibly RTX, or possibly other IM, and mail should be a very important communication method for most companies.

First of all, you should know some basic etiquette and requirements of e-mail, do not use inappropriate words and expressions in the work of e-mail. Of course, etiquette this is too large, not here to talk about.

Second, you should be sure that this issue does not require your own Leader to know and follow up. While conducting important inter-departmental communications, I advocate copying the Leader on both sides so that Leader can grasp the progress of his project and the problems encountered in the process. However, it is also necessary to discuss the situation. If you ask someone to do something to be denied, copying these emails to each other's Leader may arouse people's resentment and is not conducive to further cooperation in the future.

Furthermore, if you do not know who to feed the problem, you can consult your Leader. If the level of the problem is high, you can let Leader follow it up. One less-than-desirable way is to send an indiscriminate mailing list because the mailing group may interface with the problem with just one or two people, which can cost you time to check your emails, and possibly some The important mistakes and mistakes that have been made public to all people are not necessarily everyone's willingness to see although they are conducive to the rapid advancement and resolution of the issue.

Finally, the methods and techniques of communication, some professional issues should avoid the reciprocal discussion of the mail, but should find a place to communicate directly and directly. Do not let the other party feel that you are seeking him to do business, do not let each other feel that you will kick the ball to him. To make each other understand that your goals are the same, that is, for the benefit of the company. At the same time, we must follow up the issue constantly, coordinate other resources when necessary, and work with him to solve the problem. Methods and techniques are also a big deal, and they are not covered here.

4, understanding of the product

Although you may not be familiar with the company's products, you must know enough about what part of the product you are responsible for. What is the location of the page, which will be how many second-level pages, so many pages are organized with what structure, a specific link, click the button, what will come out.

More importantly, the understanding of the data and control, PV, UV, dwell time, bounce rate, 404 rate, etc., e-commerce sites, you also need to pay attention to the corresponding conversion rate, through which data to help sort out their location or What content is often clicked on the user to view, each part of the content will affect how many users, which features count as the core functions of the product, which problems need to be addressed, the priority of these problems is.

5, emphasis on user feedback

Before users give feedback and suggestions, certainly after a certain amount of thinking, so we need to spend some time to listen to the user's feedback.

Admittedly, most users do not think so many product staff, many users feedback, we have noticed, and has been improving, there are some user suggestions, we did not adopt before the various trade-offs. Because of this, many product personnel do not take user feedback seriously.

Actually, what I call "paying attention to user feedback" here is not a methodology, but an attitude. The users who will give feedback to the product can not say that it must be a senior user or a deep user, but it must be a user who is looking forward to the product. We need to listen to this part of the user, not just listen to their feedback, but also listen to them They have some perceptions and uses of the product, staying in touch when necessary, inviting them to experience the product as it comes online or closed-beta, and giving some thought to the product.

This part of the user is actually well satisfied, just let them feel their opinions and ideas are valued. The face of a normal user, and even a new user Tucao, properly handled, often able to turn this user into their own core users.

We do not superstitious user feedback, but we need to cherish every one who has the expectation of us.

6, time management

To do the product, often there will be many tasks in hand, need to be multi-threaded to deal with all aspects of the problem, but for an incoming product manager, because responsible for not enough, so often suddenly fall into a sudden Do not know why, so time management is very important. Time management is also a big topic, do not go into details here.

Speaking of time management, it is necessary to pull about the relationship between work and study.

Product managers need to keep up with developments in the industry. As a new product manager, they also need to continuously learn various product skills and learn some basic methodology of products. But let's make it clear that work is the reason why you're sitting in this office because the company paid you to do it. Learning to grow should be placed behind the job, or be integrated into the work, rather than lost in so-called learning and entertainment. In fact, to do a good job in your own work is one of the fastest-growing and most rapidly growing methods.

7, to prove the value of their work

I need to analyze my own work and think about what my work is, and how to prove the effectiveness of my work. This may be more utilitarian, but it is also something every workplace must face - how we can convince our Leader to prove to them the value of their work.

It is a very simple matter for product people to ask for something. The difficult thing is to ask for a credit. Therefore, product personnel should avoid asking for demand in order to make themselves look busy. It does not make the product improve. Of course, the demand for reliable information is itself a very vague concept. Therefore, we need to prove that our demand is relatively reliable through some methods and means and prove that our work is of some value.

In many cases, we will say that we have optimized the user experience or made the interface more concise and easy to use, but this is often just a very subjective idea. There is no way to directly convince your Leader or even a higher boss. Different levels of people value things are not the same, for the boss, he does not need to know what happened to the user experience changes, he needs to know is the data changes. So, I mentioned earlier, to do the product, you must understand the relevant product line data, learn to use data to speak, but also to understand the reasons behind the analysis of data changes. To use data to prove their work, not just use the UI, users experience this kind of thing to flicker others.

Finally, with all product managers and interested students in products encouraged!