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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

What Are The Steps To Be A Product Manager

If you want to be bad for a product manager to avoid awkward or naive-sounding questions. You are responsible for a significant area of ​​business, and do not seem to be ignorant about key issues. It 'a good time to ask basic questions, and the beginning of the life cycle of the product, or a particular project. If you raise those kinds of things at any time across the board, every question your ability to understand the business and bring the product.

If you want to be a good product manager, do not be afraid to ask what may seem like stupid questions. "Dumb" questions are really more about when asked what they are curious about.

Too often, people make assumptions about the products and these assumptions are not addressed. We expect the business model is solid. We expect the market research to find a particular solution. We assume we need to maintain the characteristics of the next version of the product. Stupid questions to challenge these assumptions, the project is often a time when they are relevant.

Some of the most productive and enlightening conversations I've had, when the project is the result of stupid questions asked. These are often the underlying problems that many people have been, but never thought to ask, or were too scared to ask. "This may be a stupid question, and I asked a long time ago, but ..." often starting with very interesting ideas and hypotheses, and each leaves a better understanding of the context and issues.

Once I was in a meeting to discuss a new proposed product. We were talking about financial goals and the reason behind the launch of this product, and spent 90 minutes talking about the technical options, business models, sales channels, and the challenges of integration. Suddenly it occurred to me that if we had discussed market conditions and needs indicated the product is accepted by customers, never really clear whether the product will meet the specific business objectives were established.

Once I asked stupid questions - "What is the underlying problem we face is to actually fix this problem?" - All quickly realized that this product could meet the needs of the client, but the approach we consider does not meet the objectives of the organization. He quickly regrouped and began to address this issue as well. If I had not asked the "stupid" question, I would have gone further in the wrong way and waste and more than 90 minutes of conversation.

When a product manager to do these stupid questions, you can also create an environment where other people can ask questions such as, without fear. Questions to the best business models to become a developer, the best questions about the marketing strategy to become the designers and the best questions on the need for operations to customer service representatives. You can get the most out of these questions, the more you are able to deal with them to create a better product and get the R & D team to rely on what they create.

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