Product Management for Digital Products

 Product managers for the digital world

May 24, 2017 | Article

By 

Chandra Gnanasambandam, Martin Harrysson, Shivam Srivastava, and Yun Wu

ole of the product manager is expanding due to the growing importance of data in decision making, an increased customer and design focus, and the evolution of software-development methodologies.

Product managers coordinate many functions that touch a product—engineering, design, customer success, sales, marketing, operations, finance, legal, and more. They not only own the decisions about what gets built but also influence every aspect of how it gets built and launched.

The product manager of today is increasingly the mini-CEO of the product. They wear many hats, using a broad knowledge base to make trade-off decisions, and bring together cross-functional teams, ensuring alignment between diverse functions. Product management is emerging as the new training ground for future tech CEOs.

Today, there is a strong case for a well-rounded product manager who is more externally oriented and spends less time overseeing day-to-day engineering execution, while still commanding the respect of engineering.

Data dominates everything

Companies today have treasure troves of internal and external data and use these to make every product decision. It is natural for product managers—who are closest to the data—to take on a broader role. Product success can also be clearly measured across a broader set of metrics (engagement, retention, conversion, and so on) at a more granular level, and product managers can be given widespread influence to affect those metrics.

Products are built differently

Product managers now function on two speeds: they plan the daily or weekly feature releases, as well as the product road map for the next six to 24 months. Product managers spend much less time writing long requirements up front; instead, they must work closely with different teams to gather feedback and iterate frequently.

Products and their ecosystems are becoming more complex

Managers must now oversee multiple bundles, pricing tiers, dynamic pricing, up-sell paths, and pricing strategy. Life cycles are also becoming more complex, with expectations of new features, frequent improvements, and upgrades after purchase. At the same time, the value of the surrounding ecosystem is growing: modern products are increasingly just one element in an ecosystem of related services and businesses. This has led to a shift in responsibilities from business development and marketing to product managers. New responsibilities for product managers include overseeing the application programming interface (API) as a product, identifying and owning key partnerships, managing the developer ecosystem, and more.

Three archetypes of the mini-CEO product manager

There are three common profiles of the mini-CEO archetype: technologists, generalists, and business-oriented. But, each of them has to work across multiple areas (for instance, a technologist product manager will be expected to be on top of key business metrics). Most technology companies today have a mix of technologists and generalists in their product manager roles.

As these three archetypes emerge, the project manager is a fading archetype and seen mainly at legacy product companies. The day-to-day engineering execution role is now typically owned by an engineering manager, program manager, or scrum master. This enables greater leverage, with one product manager to eight to 12 engineers, versus the ratio of one product manager to four or five engineers that has been common in the past.

Common themes across the three archetypes

An intense focus on the customer is prominent among all product managers. 

There are, however, differences in how product managers connect with the users. While a technologist may spend time at industry conferences talking to other developers or reading Hacker News, the generalist will typically spend that time interviewing customers, talking to the sales team, or reviewing usage metrics.

The product manager of the future

Over the next three to five years, we see the product-management role continuing to evolve toward a deeper focus on data (without losing empathy for users) and a greater influence on nonproduct decisions.

Product managers of the future will be analytics gurus and less reliant on analysts for basic questions. They will be able to quickly spin up a Hadoop cluster on Amazon Web Services, pull usage data, analyze them, and draw insights. They will be adept at applying machine-learning concepts and tools that are specifically designed to augment the product manager’s decision making.

We anticipate that most modern product managers will spend at least 30 percent of their time on external activities like engaging with customers and the partner ecosystem. Such engagement will not be limited to consumer products—as the consumerization of IT continues, B2B product managers will directly connect with end users rather than extracting feedback through multiple layers of sales and intermediaries.

Similarly, the background of future product managers will evolve to match this new role. A foundation in computer science will remain essential and will be supplemented by experience and coursework in design. Product managers will know how to create mock-ups and leverage frameworks and APIs to quickly prototype a product or feature. Product managers will typically start their careers either as engineers or as part of a rotational program. After three to four years, they may get an executive or a full-time MBA with a specialization in product management, which is becoming an area of focus at several top-tier MBA programs, and which we expect will become more prevalent.

A key aspect of a future product manager’s profile will be frequent transitions between products. 

Getting started: Redefining your product-management function

We recommend that organizations begin with a thorough assessment of their current product-management capabilities in six areas: a grounding in customer experience, market orientation, business acumen, technical skills, soft skills, and the presence of organizational enablers. Companies typically focus on being best in class in one to three areas and meeting the bar across the board. 

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/product-managers-for-the-digital-world#/

https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/gx/en/insights/2017/experience-matters.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forrester/2023/06/02/keys-to-successful-digital-product-management/

https://www.forrester.com/blogs/the-keys-to-effective-digital-product-management/

https://www.productleadership.com/guide-to-digital-product-management/

Digital Product Management, Technology and Practice: Interdisciplinary Perspectives: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Strader, Troy J.

IGI Global, Sep 30, 2010 - Technology & Engineering - 316 pages

Products that can be stored, produced, and disseminated in a digital form can be referred to as digital products.ÿ Digital products involve some combination of text, images, audio, video, and computer programs. They have unique advantages such as very low marginal costs for production, storage, and distribution, but also involve the disadvantage of increased opportunities for product piracy.

Digital Product Management, Technology, and Practice: Interdisciplinary Perspectives covers a wide range of digital product management issues and offers some insight into real-world practice and research findings. Experts in several disciplines from around the world offer their views on the technical, operational, and strategic challenges that face digital product managers and researchers now and in the next several decades.

https://books.google.com/books/about/Digital_Product_Management_Technology_an.html?id=uY6qp2fV2GsC

Strategize: Product Strategy and Product Roadmap Practices for the Digital Age

Roman Pichler

Pichler Consulting, Sep 7, 2022 - Business & Economics - 204 pages

Create a winning game plan for your digital products with Strategize: Product Strategy and Product Roadmap Practices for the Digital Age, 2nd edition.

https://books.google.com/books/about/Strategize_Product_Strategy_and_Product.html?id=D72HEAAAQBAJ

https://theproductmanager.com/topics/digital-product-manager/

https://www.gartner.com/en/information-technology/glossary/product-management-digital-business

https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/resources/how-to-hire-guides/digital-product-manager/job-description

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