What do Product Managers do? Roles & Responsibilities, Skills, Qualification, Tools

Introduction 

To thrive in a fiercely competitive business environment, companies must establish a robust product management system. The product management team ensures that the products and services delivered are in line with the market requirements while maintaining that the overall corporate goals are met at each stage of the product lifecycle.
Here comes the role of product managers – who lead the product management team towards the success of a product. Are you curious to know if you can make a career out of it? You are thinking of taking a product management course? In this article, we will talk about product management with a focus on product managers’ job descriptions. 

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What is Product Management? 

Before we go into the details of a product managers’ job description, we must understand what product management is – it is an organizational principle within companies that guides the planning, forecasting, and marketing of a product or service at each stage of the product’s lifecycle. It is the product manager’s responsibility to ensure that the corporate strategies are aligned with the market needs.

Product management acts as a centre of product and market information for different parts of the company like Sales, Finance, Marketing, Management, Development, and Support. Product managers have to communicate with each of these distinct internal departments as well as interact with clients, customers, and external stakeholders. Thus, product management entails the setting up of the strategy and roadmap of the product while ensuring customer satisfaction and optimal utilization of the invested time, money, and energy. 

Classification of Product Manager Roles 

Lightweight product managers – Since the executive management team is dominant in the planning and management of the product portfolio; lightweight product managers operate as a peer on the product management team. They are engaged in market assessment, identification of opportunities for new products, and their successful commercial launch. They define product requirements based on customer needs. They are not responsible for the overall profit and loss of the product line.

Heavyweight product managers – Their roles are similar to those of lightweight product managers. Also, they have control over the management of profit and loss for the product line. Acting as the general manager for the product line, they have more authority over the product’s portfolio planning and govern the development efforts of the product management team. 

Key Responsibilities of Product Managers 

Product managers’ job description outlines the following responsibilities:

• Setting out the product vision, roadmap, and strategy.
• Specifying the research needed to gather market information for determining and representing the needs of customers.
• Providing insights and perspective on product portfolio planning.
• Reviewing product specifications and requirements and evaluating new product ideas.
• Working in liaison with marketing, sales, engineering, and support to ensure the fulfillment of business case goals and customer satisfaction.
• Gauging market competition by comparing competitors’ products with those of the company.
• Calling on customers with field salespeople to evaluate sales call results and assessing product market data.
• Defining the objectives for product marketing communication. 
• Preparing short-term and long-term forecasts, reports, and analyses on product sales. 
• Determining product pricing based on market research data and reviewing production and sales cost.
• Recruiting and training employees for product management staff.

Skills and Qualifications of Product Manager 

The role of product managers requires some fundamental skills:

• Business expertise – Profit generation is mostly dependent on the success of the product. To maintain the profitability of the product, the product manager should have a suite of business expertise and skills.
• Domain expertise – Knowledge of the business, the market, the product, and the customers is a crucial pre-requisite for the role of product managers.
• Leadership skills – Being the one who leads the product management team, a product manager must have sound leadership skills.
• Strategist – Product managers must be meticulous at strategic planning. They set the product goals based on a market-driven strategy and work towards achieving the goals while considering the organization’s potential and capabilities.
• Accountant – Besides defining goals and initiatives, a strategic product manager must keep a record of the performance metrics that determine the success of the strategy and the product. 

Learn More: Key Skills for Product Managers

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Tools Used by Product Managers 

Leading product development from conception to completion is not a child’s play and requires specialized product management tools. Earlier, product managers relied on limited resources such as project management software, spreadsheets, and presentations to define ideas, set roadmaps, design strategies, and prioritize product features.

These tools did very little to ease the task of product managers and were quite time-consuming. But today, several tools are available that simplifies the Herculean task of product managers – be it defining product strategy or setting out features. Here is a list of some of the tools with examples:

• Product strategy and road mapping – Aha!
• Analytics – Google Analytics, Amplitude, Geckoboard
• Customer feedback – Google Forms, Formstack, IdeaScale
• Design and wireframing – Axure, Balsamiq, Figma
• User experience testing – Adobe Target, Appsee. Clicktale
• User onboarding – Appcues, Evergage, Hopscotch
• Collaboration and productivity – Confluence, GoToMeeting, Hangouts Chat
• Project and task management – Asana, Jira, Rally 

Also Read: Product Manager Interview Questions & Answers

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Summary 

Product management is, indeed, a crucial process that dictates the profitability of a product. As discussed above, the role of product managers is the driving force behind the successful completion of a product lifecycle. From conducting market research, identifying potential products, and determining specifications, pricing, and strategies, a product manager wears many hats.

In a way, a product manager directs the company on a competitive path in the future. If you’re eager to learn about Product Management and interested to become a great product manager, you need to demonstrate qualities of leadership, check out the Post Graduate Certificate in Product Management for it is you who’ll guide your team towards the path of success