Have you seen a product or its advertisement and wondered how the product was produced, advertised and managed till it got to its end consumers? Sometimes, when you see the advertisements for these products online, you are educated about what they do and how they work. These advertisements can be in the form of content creation, video ads, or just graphics. These and many more are the responsibilities of a product manager.
Who is a product manager?
The product manager of a product weighs the importance of some factors, such as the target audience of that product, the improvement of that product, and ensuring that the product fits into the business model of the company producing the product. A product manager is responsible for the procedure of developing, planning, launching and management of one or more products or services. He or she sees the product through from ideation to planning, to production, to launch, and he or she also manages the marketing of the product.
Many times, the product manager may be limited to taking charge of just one product of a company that manufactures several other products. For instance, a company like "Close-Up" in Nigeria is responsible for the production of one particular product - that is toothpaste. For this kind of company, a single person may be employed as the project manager of the product to oversee the production, distribution, and accountability/record of that product. For other large companies or organizations that produce/offer two or more different kinds of products or services, more than one or more product managers may be employed to manage the different sections of that company or organization.
For instance, a company in Nigeria known as Dangote is responsible for the production of cement. However, they are responsible for the production of salt, sugar and pasta produced from flour such as Spaghetti. The organisation can choose to employ one product manager to manage all the products or a product manager for each product. Paint this picture in your mind. The CEO of Dangote oversees the production of salt, cement, pasta, and other products produced by the company. At the same time, distributes the product and still makes documentaries for each of those products. Do you want to kill Mr. CEO because his company has expanded? Lol! That's on a lighter note, though. Mr. CEO is able to attend meetings, and conferences and still be confident that his company or organization is doing well because he has reliable and efficient product managers to oversee and give reports when necessary to different sections of the company or organization.
Responsibilities of a Product Manager: How a Product Manager Gets Desirable Performance and Achieve Organisational Goals
Is the Product Manager the CEO of the company since he's almost doing everything the boss is doing? Let's answer this question by learning the responsibilities of a product manager. However, before we look into these, it is very important to understand that to be an effective and successful product manager, you must be able to communicate through three things: stories, empathy, and product value. Storytelling is a marketing strategy that attracts the attention of people, your target audience is inclusive. This can be referred to as "Traffic Generation". People tend to give you their attention when you have a captivating story to tell because humans are naturally inclined to have more interest in stories as they paint a picture in their minds and help them retain more information.
When you tell a story of how your product/service solved a particular lingering problem, people are more inclined to give it a try because they want to see it for themselves. Furthermore, you can also increase the demand for a particular product through empathy. Most people like free things and consumers are more interested when they sense that you care about their pocket and wellbeing. Therefore, to market a product, “free” can come in the form of (but not limited to) a discount, promo, or warranty. This, as a product manager, is a way of wearing the shoes of your end consumers and feeling where it pinches, which results in you empathising with them.
Lastly, through the value of the product, you can educate the potential consumers on what they stand to gain when they use your products by communicating with them through advertisement. However, the goal is to convert potential customers into regular consumers.
That was a necessary diversion! Back to the responsibilities of a product manager. The product manager is responsible for;
- Product specialization: This involves knowing the features of a particular product, the regular customers of that product and getting feedback to improve the product.
- Business specialization: This entails managing stakeholders, conducting research, and having an in-depth understanding of the competition and business trends of similar products.
- Leadership: A product manager is responsible for coordinating other team members working in different sections of the organization, making decisions for the product, and also collaborating with all other team members to give reports to the superiors.
- Operation specialization: A responsible product manager is expected to have an understanding of the operations that keep a product in the market and also how the product can increase its relevance.
A product manager must be a good goal setter, he/she should be able to analyze means to meet the customer's needs, act as an advocate, gather the team, test programs, think like an innovator, and take on the presenter's role.
In conclusion, the product manager of a product of a company or organization is not the CEO of that company but is, however, one with authority almost as much as the CEO. How would you begin your journey as a product manager? Worry less because here at Teners, we provide personalized tutorship for intending product managers like you to learn the scope of product management at an affordable token and at a convenient time.
What are you waiting for? Begin your journey to becoming a product manager now!
