The highest objective of every product manager is to manage a product that will concur the market in the future. For that to happen, the product not only has to reach the right user and fully meet their expectations but also be well managed. The only person able to achieve this goal is one that has appropriate instincts, i. e. features and skills that will allow them to make the right decisions about the direction of product development over a given period of time. To some of the most fundamental instincts of a product manager belongs:
1. Understanding Of The Market
Every success-oriented product manager should know what the market and competition looks like, know the market trends and feel the user’s needs. This will allow them to discover new possibilities in the form of minimal advantages in functionality, thanks to which their product will be unique and achieve success.
2. Understanding Of The User
Every product manager must be able to understand the way users think and make decisions. Only the previous contact with a product will make it easier for them to understand the needs of the user and the changes that will allow them to make even better use of the product.
3. Appropriate Communication With Stakeholders
Communication is one of the most important skills during the product manager’s work. It is about talking not only to the team members at work but also to stakeholders. The product manager should have highly developed communication skills. To those belong, among others, the art of negotiation, telling interesting stories or even persuasion.
It is also crucial to remember that stakeholders may have slightly different goals than yours. The boss wants to increase profits from the product, users expect interesting functionalities that will meet their expectations, while engineers are looking for clear requirements for the product. Talking with all stakeholders can be difficult if we are not able to properly communicate information to different people.
4. The Ability To Prioritize
Products that are well planned and managed are successful. The way in which a product is created and placed on the market indicates its success or failure right from the start.
Good product managers have a highly developed ability to set priorities. They know what is more important for the user at a given moment. They are aware of what can wait, what functionalities will increase the scalability of the product, and what will be unnoticed. Such questions should be asked when product managers define priorities.
5. Forecasting
If you think that you are a good product manager because you know the users, understand the market, and are able to negotiate and prioritize tasks properly, the following will prove you are completely wrong.
Why? The problem causes a constantly changing market and its trends. If you don’t want to lag behind, you have to be ahead of the competition and users’ thinking. It is enough to make one step more than them, and you will be the fastest in the industry. You can achieve that by asking the following questions
- What is the direction of the market?
- How will change users’ expectations in a few years’ time?
Read analyses, study the market trends not only those concerning your product but also those ”in-between”. This will help you find innovative features that are appreciated by users.
Summing up
Select the instincts to match the nature of the product. The success is within your reach.