Product Management: Should I?

I've been juggling evangelism, development, and product management for a while now. I've realized my interest is more in understanding why and what to make, rather than how to make it.

So, a few days ago, I decided to dive deeper into product management. After 500+ days in this field, I've learned that while building a product can be quick, maintaining a market presence is challenging, especially with the current AI trend.

Now, I have some questions: Should I continue with product management? How different is it from engineering, and how does it stand out from other professions? Are PMs the CEOs of the product?

Let's explore these questions one by one and clear up any doubts about starting with product management.

The Opportunity

When I re-joined @netcorecloud, I noticed that the tools I built a year and a half ago, like GradeMyEmail (now EmailDojo.io), had lost their identity. They were facing issues with page load times, frequent crashes, and incorrect results. It was disheartening to see that a product that once helped thousands of users had lost its value. Now I'm left wondering: How can we revive this product? Is it even worth working on it? These are just a few of the many questions on my mind.

Draft 1: The Concept

After some deliberation, my mentor and I decided to rebuild the product with a bigger vision. Instead of just being a tool that grades email domains or emails, we aimed to create a playground for the entire email community. Whether it's a deliverability expert, email marketer, or email designer, our goal is to address every problem they encounter in their daily routine swiftly and efficiently.

Draft 2: The Creation

We fixed the flaws and started fresh on the whiteboard. We realized that many of the features we planned to build already existed. So, we asked ourselves: what's new and helpful we can offer? We decided to incorporate AI wherever needed and include market trends that aren't widely available. This led us to develop multiple tools, starting with an AMP email editor and eventually creating 14 standalone tools that any email marketer can confidently use.

Draft 3: The Final Insight

I'm okay admitting that I failed with my first launch. It wasn't just a failure or success journey; it was a learning experience. The first launch of the AMP email editor started with failure, but we ensured the other tools succeeded. And guess what? We launched a set of tools that were widely loved by the community.

These tools are still used every day, but our biggest success was with the launch of the Gmail Annotation Builder. About the tool: It makes it easy for users to build carousels within Gmail promotions, leading to direct ROI as users land directly on the product landing page, resulting in a positive sales cycle for the brand.

However, despite building these tools, I didn't feel satisfied because our goal was to turn these tools into a lead-generation platform, which didn't happen. In hindsight, we learned a lot from this experience, even if we didn't achieve our original goal.

So, let's discuss the learning part. After reflecting on the journey, I realized that many things could have been handled differently, potentially leading to greater success.

Should I do product management? — Definitely, YES!

No matter your profession or daily routine, everyone should try product management at least once. The experience is the magic behind a product's success or failure.

How you start in product management depends on your background, but there's no strict path.

After working as a PM for a few years with an engineering background, I can now understand why certain applications are built a specific way, why we need certain features even if we have better alternatives and the potential bugs that might arise and impact the team.

Similarly, if you have a design background, you'll focus on why a particular font is chosen, the image size, and specific pixel dimensions. In marketing, you'll think about different types of launches, while in sales, you'll focus on pricing and other relevant aspects.

Let's dive deeper to understand what product management is, its roles and responsibilities, and how it differs from project management.

This article is based on my personal experience and is supported by insights from numerous courses taken from various leaders and platforms.

What is Product management?

There are many technical definitions related to the above statement. Simply put, product management is about deciding what to build, why to build it, and how to take it to market. This involves making strategic and tactical decisions, prioritizing tasks, and ensuring the product's commercial success.

As a product manager, you ensure a product's success by bridging communication gaps between stakeholders and teams like engineering, design, sales, marketing, and customers. Your role is to gather feedback to create new features or fix issues, ensuring a smooth transition from development to release.

Product vs Project

Project management is about planning and getting things done. It involves assigning resources, setting goals, managing budgets and schedules, and ensuring projects are completed on time.

Product management involves setting the vision, devising strategy, planning roadmaps, and achieving business goals. Product managers collaborate across teams to ensure the ongoing success and growth of the product over the long term.

Roles and Responsibilities

A product manager plays a crucial role in bridging business, technology, and user needs. They understand customers, set product strategy, prioritize features, coordinate with teams like engineering and marketing for smooth development and launch, track market trends, and drive product success. Their skills can greatly influence a product's market acceptance and company profits.

Are PMs the CEOs of the product?

A Product Manager is like the "CEO of the Product," needing a mix of business, technical, and strategic skills. They must think strategically, work well with different teams, understand customer needs, spot market trends, solve problems, and communicate well.

These skills help them manage stakeholders, create product vision, make important decisions, and ensure smooth product execution. If these skills are your strengths, then you are the CEO of your product.

Conclusion

Product management is a unique skill. While it may seem easy and cool, it’s not. You need to understand every stakeholder’s perspective to bring out the best in the business, even if it sometimes involves challenges.

It's an amazing field with lots of learning and experiences that broaden your thinking.