Invoice Notes and Terms Example for Product Management that Streamlines Your Workflow

Invoice notes and terms example for Product Management

hi there my name is josh vector i'm one of the founders here at product manager hq i'm also the head of product and founder of a software company called squibbler and in today's video i'd like to discuss one of the most common questions about product management which is what is it so what is project management and as you may know it is one of the most in demand field in the world and with it has quickly become one of the major buzzwords in the business field today as well as within lots of different tech companies and companies understand that the time to invest in product management is now which leads business leaders to ask what exactly is product management how is it different from project management will product management bring any benefit to my business and in this video you'll learn the answer to all those questions and more but first don't forget to subscribe and hit that notification button to get direct notifications from product manager hq whenever we post new and insightful videos just like this one and that way you'll always be first in line to get great content from product management experts let's dive right into the discussion what is product management as you can imagine with product management being such a diverse field no doubt there are hundreds of definitions that you can find each one with its own unique subtleties however in my opinion there's no need to over complicate an already complex field especially when there's a simple definition that will help us to get a clear understanding of what product management is at pmhq we like to think of product management as a practice adopted by company in which all activities related to the development of a product are handled my activities i'm talking about everything from the conception of a product idea all the way to the launch date and all that comes with it a product leader therefore is someone who is at the center of all these activities in turn being the person who supervises what is done and ensuring that they are done well before we continue it's important not to confuse product management with project management in order to illustrate these differences it's crucial that we first discuss two of the most important and well-known frameworks used by companies to solve specific problems namely scrum and waterfall approach why you might ask simple each of these frameworks is heavily associated with each of the fields that we're going to be talking about let's start with scrum scrum is a goal-oriented methodology used in development that seeks to leverage iterative and incremental practices to help manage highly complex products scrum is one of the main branches or subsets of the agile methodology a broader framework applied to development that emphasizes iterative periodic analysis and adaptation for product improvement apart from being an iterative approach to product management agile is also recognized for the focus that places on three other aspects of product projects so we have one a leadership framework that inspires teamwork while still respecting the importance of self-organization and individual contributions to projects then we have two an approach to product creation that speeds up the design development and implementation process without compromising on quality and three a business focus that seeks to bridge the gap between company goals and customer needs this brings us to the second framework that i want to discuss today which is the waterfall approach one which is associated with project management as opposed to product management the waterfall model emphasizes that projects should follow a logical progression of steps throughout the software development lifecycle or sdlc just like the name implies each phase of the project cascades into the next progressively flowing down like a waterfall the main difference between them is that waterfall projects are completely sequential while agile projects are completely iterative in a cycle waterfall projects can be broken down into several distinct phases there is an ordered set of phases and each phase needs to be completed one by one phase two cannot be started until the previous phase has been completed and so on and so forth on the other hand agile projects are based on small phases that can happen simultaneously involving various team members these individual deliverable pieces are called sprints and lasts a few weeks once each sprint is completed the feedback is used to plan the next phase therefore to bring this back full circle product management differs from project management in terms of the very process and approach used to tackle tasks during a given project now that we've seen the differences between product management and project management let's go ahead and take a look where product management came about the history of product management can be traced back to the early days of ford motor company they had a problem with getting their designers and engineers working together on car designs they needed someone to reconcile the two groups conflicting goals so that they could deliver on time and within budget what ford did was to create a separate role for someone who could get the two groups working together thus the product manager was born the first product managers were valued for their ability to bring together teams negotiate between groups and come to a common consensus for the betterment of the product a role which still endures in many organizations today what we have come to recognize as traditional product management is a 20th century version of this model which has largely stood the test of time although it must be said that with the agile development approach today companies are looking for agile product managers which simply means a product manager who is familiar with the agile approach agile product management attempts to solve many of the problems that exist in the current approach followed by most organizations agile product managers value speed customer focus continuous planning and iteration over predictive estimates a product management framework provides a basic steps involved in a company's product roadmap from idea to launch there are various frameworks are being used in the world of product management today businesses are using a revamped methodology for product development all of which vary based on the product strategy that is being implemented while this approach varies usually it contains as many as 11 steps if you're familiar with project management then the first seven steps will come as a no-brainer you have ideation a research design prototype development document and tests are all fundamental design and development aspects of any successful project however the remaining four phases may come as a surprise to many the first one after the testing phase is known as train this is a new part of the agile methodology whereby a product team is expected to carry out a series of iterative actions that lead to a tangible result this result is then released to customers and based on insight gained maintenance upgrades are carried out until the product comes to the end of its life cycle a stage called retirement another innovative and modern framework currently being used is the experimentation approach companies like spotify have employed this framework to great success the main focus of the experimentation approach is delivering a great product experience over a long period of time by iterating the product aspects to the best possible combination the focus is not only to deliver a great product but to do so at minimal risk and operational costs the framework follows a unique model during the think phase teams research ideas validate problems and experiment with concepts this is a high-risk stage meaning that if a product idea is released without being properly vetted the probability that it will flop is high during the build-it stage teams develop their product and test it on a small subset of users to capture feedback they also spend time assessing the quality of the process and the product when shipping companies usually operate with a limited blast radius they'll release a new product to a small set of users then they monitor how those people use the product if the product is a success they'll roll it out to the entire customer base if it's a failure though they go back to the drawing board the tweak-it phase is the longest stage of the cycle teams spend a lot of time evaluating the data and making tweaks and adjustments to the product or feature they also fine-tune the operation to reduce costs and optimize for performance another unique approach is a popular one called working backwards approach in fact amazon has been one of the biggest companies in the world to have employed it in their product strategy to explain here amazon starts any new product by explaining precisely what they hope customers and the media will say when they get their hands on it they don't start by outlining a new product's intended features or capabilities instead they focus on the customer reaction they're hoping to elicit when a product manager has an idea for a new product or a product feature they write an internal press release that announces the finished product no one may have done any development on the idea at this stage the press release focuses on a customer problem and how the current solution doesn't solve that problem from there they explain how their proposal will be the product that ends all products if a product manager can't write a convincing press release they scrap the idea the general rule of thumb is that if the press release is hard to write or difficult to explain the finished product likely won't succeed amazon wants all of its projects to be easy to understand and simple to use with those goals it should be simple enough to write a press release that makes sense even without the finished product once leadership team approves a press release the product team uses it as a roadmap for design and development some companies like typeform use a two-part product management framework the first half focuses on product discovery which is a very important step the second half of their framework focuses on delivery discovery consists of identifying problems brainstorming solutions and validating solutions with a testable product once a feature clears discovery it moves to delivery which is made up of three more steps scope execution and measurement and lastly iteration what sets the typeform framework apart is its unique approach to mvps they don't have just one version instead they break the mvp into three parts the earliest testable product the earliest usable product and the earliest lovable product their logic is that by breaking down your mvp into bite-sized pieces will help you get feedback and data during every step of the process that way you can use a much more measured and testable approach to delivering something your customers want the next approach to product management is loosely called the customer driven approach and i say loosely as you know there's not one good product management framework out there that doesn't include some reference to customer research however in this framework the structure of product discovery is tied directly with customer discovery more than any other in turn being based on three main pillars so you have user interviews sales interviews and data usage product managers spend a lot of time talking to users and listening in on sales calls the goal is to get the most in-depth understanding of your users as possible and to use all this information to develop the best solution to address each problem area before building anything this framework urges product managers to put themselves back into the customer's shoes one more time then review their potential solutions to try and understand if it's the simplest solution possible companies like gogovan have pioneered this framework before gogoban spends any time building a product they define success metrics which must link back to the single objective for their team define these metrics is important as it avoids any instant reflex reactions when the data starts pouring in a basic product management workflow follows the same few steps first your goal is to try to figure out what problems customers or potential customers are having problems lead to opportunities the more problems you identify the more product opportunities you'll discover as you work more and more with a particular product your understanding of it will grow and so will your view of how each problem is interconnected with the other what's more is you'll be better at judging what is the best product solution to bring to the market with a bucket full of problems you now need to make choices and prioritize ing to your needs this is the creative phase you're likely to get things wrong at first and that's okay once you're confident that the proposed solution will address the problem then it's time to build this is when the team begins to work through the requirements discussed and documented in the solution phase at this stage the product manager can leverage their project management skills to guide the development process after all these steps you would have either fully completed your product feature mvp or have accomplished a first milestone in a larger product in either case you will be ready to launch it even if it's for a small group of users as soon as a few users begin to experience your new product you'll then be able to get feedback and measure product impact let's take a look at the main responsibilities of a product manager starting with customer research this is one of the cornerstones of any good product strategy and it's a manager's job to both lead the product management team's research efforts and to also conduct their own research on a higher level one of the primary requirements for any product is its ability to solve an actual problem for the user that's also one of the qualities that make it a good product market fit while conducting research product managers carry out tasks that permit them to gain a comprehensive understanding of the immediate and expanded product market they will also be charged with creating user personas based on detailed analysis of user stories and typical use cases and will also analyze competitors strategies and product approaches in an effort to better shape their own product vision and overall approach to development another key role for a product manager is to develop a product strategy the strategy behind the product is as important as the quality of the product if not more a strong product strategy involves considering the space the product fills in the market implementing features that allow the product to address customer pain points and instilling optimal functionality in the product while developing a product strategy product managers use the product specific industry knowledge they've accumulated to decide how the product should be developed while creating practical product objectives and goals any product management process needs a complete and coherent plan that dictates which activities are to take place at what time how they should be carried out and who should be in charge of what this is called backlog grooming which refers to the maintenance of the product backlog and its corresponding product roadmap depending on the company either a product manager or a product owner will be the one in charge of this aspect of product management ensuring in turn that there is a steady and easy flow of communication between various members of the product team they must also meet with investors executives stakeholders and team members to clarify doubts unified vision and make sure to handle possible conflict to ensure that everyone is on the same path for product creation once a product has exited out of the strategy phase and obtained the go ahead from key stakeholders product management then goes into the development phase which will involve the product leader being a cross-functional figure for on-point operations and development this entails providing support to team members where necessary gathering and implementing actual feedback between teams and also managing the product life cycle after the launch product management also entails analyzing both customer and market data in order to facilitate future product iterations this will involve activities such as soliciting direct feedback from prototype users carrying out pre-launch testers and setting realistic product expectations with developers so there you go that's all for today's video lesson about product management we looked at how companies have used different product management frameworks to launch successful products we also spoke about how diverse and critical product leadership roles are i hope that you've learned more about product management and now you know what to expect if you want to pursue a career in product management if you'd like to know more about this field we at pmhq offer different specialized courses in product management everything from technical pm to product ownership make sure to go ahead and check out the link in the description where we go ahead and list those different certification courses so you can level up your game and before i go i'd like to test how closely you've been listening to the video today here's our question what are the main disadvantages for employing the traditional waterfall approach in an agile environment let us know in the comment section below if you haven't done so be sure to like and subscribe to our channel and i'll go ahead and catch you in some of our future videos and i wish you the best of success in your career journey cheers