5 Things To Do Ensure Your Product Management Success
The whole world is shifting toward technology-enabled services, which means technology is the primary input into the offered services instead of labour. Whether they are global tech giants like Google and Apple or startups, they all have launched products that solve customer problems in different ways. This trend is increasing as businesses adopt a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model.
From this perspective, businesses need to constantly innovate in the software space to remain relevant in competitive markets. Because the product development process needs constant customer feedback and effective marketing strategies that will drive the demand, product management is the most crucial factor driving product development’s success.
So, before dive right into the product-based IT approach, here are the five things you should do to stay on track.
1. Product management planning
One of the common misconceptions about product management and other agile framework is that they don’t have plans, leading to hesitation when switching from project management to product management. The reason behind it usually revolves around the different skill sets of the two product management and project management disciplines. While project management’s work scope is approved and developed plans, product management drives the product development.
However, the agile framework’s foundation is “change”; we have to be flexible and ready to change all the time. With that being said, you should always make plans and are open to change.
2. Get the product team in front of the end-user
When taking the product-based IT approach, the ultimate goal is to solve the end user’s problem and serve the customers. Therefore, it is crucial to allow the product development team to talk to the end-user and hear their feedback first-hand. The team must always keep the customer in mind.
When the product development team takes ownership and has a passion for the products they create, they significantly impact the outcome of the final software and the increased team engagement and commitment along the way.
Frequent customer interaction is one of the significant trademarks of product-based IT. When engaging customer early in the discovery phase, you can get your ideas and prototypes validated as well as post-software release feedback.
3. Don’t make emotional decisions
It’s easier to develop emotional attachment when creating a product in the first place, especially when working closely with the end-user or your product development team. But making decisions based on data is more important than making decisions based on emotion.
It is essential to keep the product’s best interests or the development team in mind; therefore, you might have to evolve into a new role or move to an entirely new product. All team members need to grow and have the emotional flexibility to do what’s best for the business.
4. Open-minded to change
Like said, the agile frameworks’ foundation is change. It is crucial to realise that as the business grows, there may be times when the need to structure yourself differently becomes apparent. We can’t expect something remains constant without change in three or five years.
Similarly, a product that has successfully been launched will need to be changed sooner or later. And when a product needed to be changed, almost certainly that it won’t be the same team that will retain it in its maturity process.
In each maturity phase, product development requires different skillsets and mindsets. It is rare to have a software developer enjoying exploratory and greenfield development, as well as maintenance. Understanding the product itself and the people working on it, and the evolution and development needs leads to success.
5. Forget the dates and deadlines! Focus on the results instead.
Many businesses are still using deadlines and dates as a successful measurement. We’re not saying that setting a deadline is a bad thing. It is an important task to do instead. But, shouldn’t we focus on the outcome instead of deadlines?
Finish something on time doesn’t guarantee the best result, so instead, you should set up a benchmark to which you can compare the quality of the product development team. The deadline can be the vital motivation booster, while the product’s quality is the real focus.
Conclusion
More and more organisations continue to prioritise digital transformation. Product development management methodology is a must. Make sure to follow us for more information about software development. And if you’re ready to get started on your software development project, drop us a line to talk to our team of consulting experts.
