The Strategic Value of Product Management

What does it take to deliver a product or service that doesn’t just work as intended but also drives value to the customer? While it might seem like a complex process, the answer is pretty straightforward: it takes good product management. Today, I’m going to explain why this practice is so vital for businesses of all kinds.

What is Product Management? 

Product management is a means to drive the development of products that meet the strategic needs of a company. A product manager (or product management team) is responsible for discovering, planning, and developing new functionalities, products, or services for a business unit or company. 

Successful product management requires several aspects: 

• A deep understanding of the industry and market in which the product resides. 
• Knowledge of innovations and technologies that can be applied.
• The ability to articulate a near-term vision to the business and its customers. 

Depending on the needs of the organization, product management can be carried out internally by a team or an individual, or externally by outsourcing the service. The service provider, in turn, can either supply a team of product specialists or train in-house employees how to carry out the process. 

The Roots of Modern Product Management

Product management’s origins can be traced back to the 1960s. In the advertising industry, businesses would designate a “product man” to go out and be the advocate of a product. Going back even further to the 1930s, the consumer packaged goods sector also had “product men”, or “brand men”, who owned specific products as part of a brand marketing team. 

The transition of product management from the marketing and sales side to business and technology strategy teams occurred with the rise of Agile in the 1990s and 2000s. Hence, the introduction of the Product Owner (PO) role. The position gradually took on further responsibilities and led to the creation of the higher-level and more strategic role of Product Manager.   

By some accounts, the product manager is the “CEO of a product” . Other definitions disagree with this interpretation, because product managers don’t have direct authority over the components needed for a product to be successful, like user and data research, design, development, marketing, sales, and support. 

Either way, product managers work across nearly all business units within an organization. They think strategically and execute tactically, all while leading a team of people that do not report to them. They own all the processes to get the product from idea to market. 

The Value of Effective Product Management

A product manager’s worth lies in their ability to think strategically, while combining a technical perspective and a business perspective. What makes this role so important is the value it brings to an organization and ultimately, to the end users. 

Product managers extend the technology long enough during the process of digital transformation, so that the company can continue to grow financially as the product keeps expanding. 

At MentorMate, we had a client partner with us to update their mobile app and back-end server. Their vision was to first update the application, and only then, the server. We convinced them to take the opposite approach as it would be more beneficial, both from an engineering and a business standpoint, to start with the update of the server, thus avoiding “double” work in technical terms and cutting costs. 

MentorMate’s product services team utilizes its depth of knowledge and experience in product management to guide businesses through various challenges. We help with everything from defining requirements to developing a long-term strategic vision. Our mantra is “Always build repeatable and scalable products”, which is essentially what underlies good product management. It helps reduce costs, boost revenue, and increase customer satisfaction by developing products that work across market segments and scale in terms of users and functionality. 

Barriers to Product Management

So far, I’ve discussed how valuable product management is to businesses, but it’s certainly not without its challenges. With that in mind, let’s look at some of the obstacles that product management tends to face.

• Decision making may suffer when either too few or too many people are involved in product decisions. It can be troublesome if decisions come directly from the top with no other input. On the other hand, if a committee makes the decisions, there may not be a definitive answer. Another unhealthy practice is when decisions are made by business units with a vested interest in the product, like sales or development. 

To avoid such complications, decisions should be based on experience, knowledge, and market need and should be driven by the product management team/individual.

• The lack of a road map means that a key element in the lifecycle of a product is missing. Developing products in real-time can be time-consuming and inefficient. If a product team is not using a road map that details what is to be done at 0–6 months, 6–12 months, and 1–3 years, the product will wander and never meet its objectives. 
• Reluctance to product management as a process is not unusual. Particularly in smaller companies where discussions about introducing an external product management service are ongoing, there may even be an atmosphere of hostility towards it. This feeling stems in part from being too emotionally invested. It’s akin to the feeling of abandoning your baby, letting secrets outside of the company and giving up control. In such cases, the external product management team needs to invest time and effort in building trust with the customer.  

Final Thoughts

Regardless of whether you delegate your product management responsibilities internally or you outsource it to a trusted partner, it’s important to have someone driving the development of products. While it’s certainly possible to skate by for a while without product management, it’s simply not scalable to do without it long-term. Inevitably, tasks fall through the cracks, important features don’t get implemented in a timely manner, and the overall success of the product falters.