We need to become good Product Managers

We are all Product Managers, and we need to be good at it. Why? Because we happen to be managing a very crucial Product — Ourselves!

If I were a Product, no one else would have as much interest in developing this Product as I would. If I am not good at managing this Product today, I better learn quickly.

How could I do that? Perhaps by understanding the product and the market a little better. These questions might offer a starting point…

1. Understanding the Customer Base

• If I were a Product, who is the customer? I’d say anyone spending their money, time or attention on me is a customer. They do that because the Product adds value to them
• Our respective employer is a customer of the Product. Perhaps even a key customer. How happy are they with the Product?
• Which is our “target segment”? For which set of customers would we want the Product to be absolutely top notch?
• How often do we solicit feedback from our customers? Which feedback needs to get incorporated back into the Product?

2. Understanding the Product Capability

• I’ve been building this Product called “Me” for several decades now. Some features (skills/traits) have been planned inclusions, some others have crept in over the years. What is the current Product Capability like?
• As a Product Manager, which features of this Product am I happy about? Perhaps there are features with high usage, or those which are highly valued by the customers
• Are there features which customers aren’t aware of? Perhaps they need to be marketed
• Are there features where the cost of maintenance is higher than the value to the customers? Perhaps they need to be deprecated

3. Building the Product Roadmap

• What is the long term Product roadmap? How would I want this Product called “Me” to shape up over the next 5 years? 20 years? Are my short term activities aligned to the long term roadmap?
• What is the competitive landscape? If each of us is a Product, there would be HUGE competition in an open market. How could we differentiate ourselves from other products? Each of us is unique really — what’s our ‘Unique Value Proposition’?

A lot of these questions might require us to introspect, and I hope it does. As the philosopher John Dewey put it:

“We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience”

That said, I’m sure the list above is far from exhaustive. What other questions could we ask ourselves to get better at Product Managing ourselves? Please do share your thoughts.