Conceptualization
Product management is a holistic function that begins with the conceptualization of a product, guides its development, and continues with the market positioning and management of the product. But at the foundation of it all, product management is customer-centric.
Through active social listening, analysis of existing product data, and research of unmet customer needs, a product manager figures out the product concept that needs to be developed. Along with conceptualizing the product design, product management also entails defining the business opportunity and scope for the product.
Strategy
Once the product concept is developed, its successful development and launch need the formulation of a strategic roadmap. As part of managing the product, you need to define broad goals, resources to be deployed, stakeholders to be involved, and target markets of the product.
This strategic activity allows you to plan and visualize all the strengths and opportunities that your product will have. It also helps you determine potential risks and threats which the product may face and prepare to mitigate them.
Communication
With the product strategy ready, you now need to communicate your vision to various stakeholders across the organization. From investors to executives and all the product development team members, everyone needs to be on the same plane with the product knowledge.
It can’t be a one-time activity either. You must communicate critical milestones and main objectives to all stakeholders from time to time. If needed, while managing a product, you may also have to communicate with early customers to understand whether their expectations are being met or not. These inputs can then be used to modify the product for optimum product-market fit.
Development
The actual product development process also comes under the purview of product management. While the concept defines what the product is supposed to be and the strategy dictates how to make it like that, actual product development is still a multi-step process.
All the steps, from concept testing through mockups and wireframes, product prototyping, product design, market testing, and commercial production, must be monitored carefully. In fact, many steps may be iterative and a product manager has to maintain a bird’s-eye view to ensure success.
Assurance
Finally, the market launch of the product and its progress through different stages of the product life cycle is also the responsibility of the product manager. A product manager takes the newly developed product from different stages of market adoption, i.e., introduction, growth, maturity, repositioning, and even decline. All while ensuring that the product reaches its maximum potential and serves the intended customer needs. And we, at The Able Guys, take care of everything from strategy to realize and then launch and maintain software products, be it an app or web related product