Businesses are turning their interest toward developing a customer centric approach to sustain in the fast paced markets. These markets are mostly located in the countries where software based products are used heavily, and the success of these products invariably help innovators and software vendors to penetrate into tier II countries, which are more or less developing regions of the world characterized by lower internet penetration rates, the limited scope of automation and tight industry norms for monopoly.
In this article, we have pointed to five time tested tips offered by an experienced head of products and trainers on how to begin and fuel your career with a weekend MBA in product management training.
Think like a CEO
In the product industry, it is a common notion among CEOs to think of their head of products or aspiring product managers as the real action forces, the real CEOs who drive the value for their business through great product experiences. If you are beginning only now in the product management domain amid the COVID-19 then you are doing the right thing. Because the whole paradigm and culture among product development teams have changed in the last 2 years! Organizations are giving more and more importance to product engineers and developers who are taking Product management certification very seriously by enrolling with the weekend MBA courses.
A CEO-like approach would help you bridge the gap between what’s expected from you as a Product manager in the team and what’s the business sentiment as far as product experience feedback from users and customers. This is an extremely important aspect of a career for young product strategists to align with.
Be clear about product experience benchmarks
Product experience management also referred to as PEM, is a subdomain in the user experience industry. You may have heard of UI UX so many times in the past. But, the product experience definitions keep changing more often as compared to user experience. For example, social behavior, lifestyles, and economic factors greatly influence what users expect from their products. This is particularly true of what customers see on social media platforms such as Instagram. If you remember, before the COVID-19 set in, short live videos and video blogging were considered as a passing fad until TikTok came into the picture. And, when the lockdown was announced, everyone was on TikTok doing video marketing using TikTok. Within months, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and many other short video content platforms emerged and completely subsided TikTok. The product management team at Instagram totally rocked the opportunity with some classic “inspiration” fetched from what TikTok did and what it missed. Similar trends in product experience are witnessed in food delivery apps, instant raw meat and seafood processing apps, and dating apps. In fact, the best product experience benchmarks are all expressed explicitly in mobile marketing and advertising, followed by ERP and CRM companies.
Be like an athlete — go lean
Lean product management is a fascinating subject. It encompasses all the key aspects of developing a product using validated processes related to just in time, continuous delivery, and customer experience management. Product teams that follow lean are invariably faster in delivery of products, in addition to adopting agile frameworks that allow such companies to listen actively to the “voice of customer / VOC” and maximize Net Promoter Scores (NPS) from their customer base.
Manage your product first; manage your Customer next!
It’s true that product managers are constantly asked to be focused on what the customer wants. They are asked to see through the lens of the customer and this is essentially a practice across the industry. But soon, you will come to a stage where you have to create a product first and the people buying these would follow eventually. Such product managers are a rare species. They are the ones who are called the disruptors! If you want to be a disruptor, hone your product management skills with newer skills that nobody else is talking about seriously now. Like, cyber security for healthcare companies, or blockchain for gamers!
Communication
Product managers would be closely liaising internally with team members, or with peers from other departments and cross-teams. They could be also providing solutions for answering to queries arising from the installation or usage of the product. In most cases, communication skills would come to your rescue, especially in email. A lot of dynamics is at play when organizations shift their focus from becoming technology centric to turning to customer friendly destinations, and the success is only achievable when their product heads are balanced and leading a team of highly qualified who can communicate solutions professionally.
If you are planning to start a lucrative product management career with a weekend MBA course, taking a deeper dive with this article would surely help you.