What you should be a product manager

Everyone should have heard that "the product manager is the cradle of the CEO", and there are even some people who choose to be a product manager because of this sentence. But everyone understands this sentence differently, and in this article, the author shares his own opinion.

The phrase "product managers are the cradle of CEOs" felt "fake" when I first heard it, but as I experienced more and more product manager positions, I gradually realized that there was some truth in this sentence.

What it actually wants to express is not that product managers can become CEOs of the company in the future, but that if product managers want to continue to "grow" after reaching a certain level, they need to have the company's CEO's awareness of cost benefits and development strategy guidance, and manage and promote the iterative development of products under these necessary awareness.

According to my many years of experience as a product manager, my experience and feelings are different at different stages of my career.

From the ignorance and novelty of the first product manager, to the later enlightenment, and then to the current enlightenment, there is a long way to go in this process.

When you first start as a product manager, you're "playing" super complex puzzles, and your goal is to put together a panoramic picture of the "product" continuously; Later, you have to look at complex cubes in the light, and the projection shape is different from different angles, and your goal is to find as many different angles as possible to view the projection; Then it's about seeing through the different sections of the cube and presenting a variety of interface shapes, and your goal is to cut the cube from as many different angles as possible in as small increments as possible; Then it becomes the need to evaluate the output/input ratio of the product, and your goal is to stimulate the maximum output with the smallest possible input while meeting the customer's needs.

The road to "product manager" is long, long enough to gain more as long as you want to "grow".

Every company, big or small, says in public and private that its motto is "customer-centric", and employees, especially those in the product manager position, use "customer-centric" as a mantra. However, if you ask questions such as "what is truly customer-centric", "who is the customer", "what is customer-centric", "do you really understand the customer", etc., there is a high probability that there will be no precise answers.

As a product manager, it is dangerous to only know the basic concepts and not really think deeply in the context of your own job position, or at least not to be very responsible for your own career development. As an excellent product manager, the most important thing is to know who your "customer" is, and then be able to extend the "demand" from this key point to the periphery, so as to make an excellent product that truly meets customer needs and customer expectations.

There are already many books and articles on the market that teach you to "understand the customer", so I will not repeat them here, but I will dismantle the rank that we should have as a "product manager" from another perspective, so that we can continue to improve and improve in the direction of "product manager".

According to the order of "growth", I divide the ranks that should be in the product manager position into four, which are "beginner-logical thinking", "intermediate-abstract hierarchical awareness", "senior-empathy feelings", and "top-CEO strategy".

1. Elementary - Logical thinking

Due to the restrictions of university majors, the vast majority of product managers who have just entered the product manager position do not have a very comprehensive and rational understanding of "how to become a qualified product manager", but they are ignorant and enter the direction of "product manager" after listening to the very high position, resulting in the professional background of "mechanical automation", "computer software", "transportation" and even "philosophy" and so on.

Although the professional backgrounds of product managers are very different, and professional knowledge is not very helpful for career development, for those of us who are new to the "product manager" position, the "logical thinking" taught by the university major can help us move forward in the "product manager" position.

In general, the various software products that serve customers on the market are composed of different functions, and different functions are composed of different logical relationships. The vast majority of the "small" needs undertaken come from the business side that has the deepest understanding of their own pain points, and the business side will unconsciously propose product solutions with what they think when they put forward the requirements.

As a newcomer to the product position, due to the lack of understanding of the software products in the industry, the limited product methodology, and the lack of voice in the company, as long as the product solution proposed by the business is disassembled into the corresponding logic and fine-tuned, the work goal is successfully delivered.

We should try to get rid of the "student thinking" of learning, and also get rid of the "subsidiary thinking" that since it is a service business, then what the business says is what it is.

If we don't reflect our own thinking in the product solution, others will unconsciously define us as just a "microphone" between the business side and R&D, and our value will continue to decrease as we spend more time as a product manager. Therefore, you should not stay in this rank for too long.

2. Intermediate - abstract hierarchical consciousness

With the continuous experience in the position of product manager, the depth and breadth of our understanding of software products have been increasing, and with the number of requirements undertaken, especially the increasingly frequent interaction design needs with upstream and downstream product modules, we have gradually established our own preliminary product methodology.

When undertaking business needs, they will start to think about the list of product modules that may be involved in the product functions that need to be added, the advantages and disadvantages of the implementation solutions in different product modules, the increase or decrease of dependencies between different product modules, and the impact of different implementation methods of product functions within the product module on the cohesion of product modules.

According to the correct product methodology, we have fully considered and collaborated on the above aspects before giving more suitable product solutions.

If we can reach this level, we can have our own place in the company's product manager family, but we must always be aware of who the customers we serve are, and it is important to understand the "customer", so we must continue to grow.

3. Advanced - empathy feelings

"Empathy" is a quality that is often emphasized as a product manager, but it is based on a certain understanding of the business, software products, and a certain product methodology. "Empathy" requires product managers to be able to change the direction of thinking about problems, truly understand the "customer", and put themselves in the customer's shoes.

As a product manager, you need to realize that the vast majority of software products in the market are business-driven, customers are the source of demand, customers create the most fundamental value for the company, and product managers use software products to serve and help the stable and rapid development of the business.

Product managers and customers are two sides of the same coin, one is indispensable, we should try our best to bring ourselves into the scene faced by the business when receiving business demand information and designing product functions, understand the pain points of the business, and give reasonable product solutions in a targeted manner. In practice, if you can reach this level, you have surpassed most product managers who have been in the industry for many years, and you can be invincible in the career development of product managers. But for more aspiring product managers, they can continue to "grow".

Fourth, the top - CEO strategy

The "CEO strategy" puts forward higher requirements for us as product managers, and it requires us to be able to think about product problems from the company and even the industry level.

For the CEO, TA needs to point out the development direction for the company, TA needs to ensure that the company has enough profits to maintain normal operation, we need to improve the position, not to the development of a single product system/product module as the only focus, to be responsible for the product system/product module and the company's development strategy together to consider together, and to the company's development strategy to plan, design products. As a product manager, especially a good and aspiring product manager, if you can integrate the "CEO strategy" into the design of product solutions, then one day in the future, you may really become a CEO.

The road of "product manager" is very long, very long, as long as you are willing, believe that you have unlimited potential, and keep soaring on the road of "product manager" with an open mind, you can infinitely improve the height of the "ceiling".

This article was originally published by @Practice Knowing and Doing Unity on Everyone is a Product Manager. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.

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