User experience has historically been a field focused on solutions targeting consumers. But when how you use products at work no longer differ from how you use them at home, user experience obviously becomes important also for business users. I don’t want the web sites I visit to suck, the phone I carry to suck, or the software I use to suck, simply because I am in the office.
As a product manager, you are often faced with inheriting a product from someone else rather than having the full ownership from day 1. In this post, I am trying to elaborate on my own experience inheriting products and how to approach the subject.
Product managers are involved in all aspects of the product life cycle, from the first idea to retiring the product. Perhaps obvious, but failing to prioritize and delegate responsibility leads to constant fire fighting and lack of focus. Agreeing that the primary goal of the product manager is to identify and exploit a product-market fit as discussed in “what does a product manager do?” is a good first step. But beyond this, what are the key product management responsibilities and how do these help you decide what tasks to prioritize?
In any product oriented company the product manager takes a central role. But with no industry wide definition available, a very common subject of discussion is “what is a product manager?” or “what does a product manager do?”. In this article we will try to define product management and the product manager role.