Hello there!
Have you had a great learning experience joining me on this journey? I hope it has been as insightful and helpful in expanding your knowledge.
Today we will dive deep into the day in the life of a Product Manager(a PM).
If you're just knowing about product management, you would probably have been wondering what we do on a day-to-day basis. I am here to give you a few clips of what a PM does and how we work. Walk with me.....
At any given time, a PM is involved in products and features. The work of a PM can be categorized into;
- Live features
- In-Development features
- Future features.
Let's do a little breakdown of what happens in each category.
Live Features: The work done by the PM are; data analysis, funnel analysis and user behaviour analysis. The work of the PM here is to analyse the data of the product while it is in the market. When a product goes to market, the PM monitors the backend data. Which features are mostly used and which are the least used? What kind of feedback are the customers giving? What kind of behaviour is exhibited by the user on the platform? If there are in-app purchases how many of them are converting? These are the things the PM looks into and documents over time and after that, the PM looks for ways to make the platform better for the users.
In-Development Features: here the PM defines requirements, finalizes designs and does AB experiments and testing. Here, there are a few features that are in the pipeline. The PM works on a document called a Product Requirement Document. In this document, the PM explains each feature and states the requirements for each feature to work and how each user on the platform would use the feature, This gives the developers a clear understanding of what they are to build. The PM also reviews the designs done by the Product designers to be sure it flows well and the users would actually have a great experience using them. Once the platform is ready, or during the product development, the PM does testing to be sure the features are functioning as they should before the features/products are deployed to the public.
Future Features: the work of the PM here is to identify opportunities, do further market analysis and road maps. The PM looks into the current product and finds more opportunities for the platform to do better and documents this. The PM does further market analysis to validate If these opportunities are needed and the PM will need hard proof to prove this, After all this is done, the PM will draw out the road map on how the development of the new features would play out and inform all affected parties
This may look like an easy work, bt its not. Knowig fully well that people are hard to please, keeping customers satisfied and using the platform is not an easy job seeing that there are other options for the users to pick from.
How do PMs work across teams? Let me explain this.
PMs work with UX designs, UI designs, BI& Analytics, Engineering, Customer supprt and stakeholders.
PMs and the UX Design team: the PM collaborates with the UX deisgn team in identifying user journeys. Remember that the job of the UX deigner is to make sure the user has a good experience using the platform. The PM also collaborates with them in creating information hierarchy, and user interactions.
PMs and the UI Design team: the PM works with the UI deisgn team in creating the final colors in the UX screens. They make sure all UI elements such as buttons sliders, pages are all well put at the appropriate places. They also check for design consistency, making sure the designs are not sloppy.
PMs and the Analytics team: the PM collaborates with the analytics team in reveiwing products reports, creating AB testing/experimentation plans and tracking identification.
PMs and the Engineering team: the PM works with the engineering team in implementing the designs from the UI/UX teams as well as implementing API designs. The work of the Engineering team is to implement the designs of the product deisgners and make sure they function how they are supposed to, the PM makes sure that happens seamlessly,
PMs and the Customer Supprt team: the PM partners with the customer support team by gathering insights from complaints they have documented. The PM also works with the feedback they gather from surverys and feedbacks from users. These help in making key decisions for future feature releases.
PMs and the Stakeholders: the PM reports and communicates the product progress to the stakeholders and get their feedback on the vision of the product. The PM plays a huge leadership role here as they have to be accountable for their team and also be able to effectively communicate the happenings on the product development to the stakeholders.
This about sums up what a PM does and more actually. PMs work a lot in making sure customers have the best experience using digital products. So, when next you see a PM, please tell us "Well-done", we deserve it, lol.
I hope this was helpful.
Till next time.
Franny.
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