Introduction to Product Management and Ownership
Project management means the process of leading a team to hit goals or complete deliverables within a set timeframe. Project management involves project documentation, planning, tracking, and communication—all with the goal of delivering work successfully within the constraints of time, scope, and budget.
-Team Grant
Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints.
-Wikipedia
Product management is an organizational function that guides every step of a product’s lifecycle — from development to positioning and pricing — by focusing on the product and its customers first and foremost. To build the best possible product, product managers advocate for customers within the organization and make sure the voice of the market is heard and heeded.
-Atlassian
Therefore, a project manager is a professional who organizes, plans, and executes projects while working within restraints like budgets and schedules. Project managers are in charge of leading teams, defining goals, communicating with stakeholders, and seeing a project through to its closure. The strategic role of a product owner is to be responsible for representing the interests of the customer for the development team. Their role is to ensure that there is always a user advocate involved in development meetings.
Four Pillars of Product Management
1. Vision
The idea that the world will get better if you succeed
"In terms of people going to Mars, I think this is potentially something that could be accomplished in about 10 years, maybe sooner, maybe 9 years. I need to make sure SpaceX doesn’t die between now and then, and that I don’t die. Or if I do die, that someone takes over who will continue that."
Elon, Space X
2. Design
A compelling design delivers a useful, usable, and delightful experience to your customers
“The design is not just what it looks like and feels like. The design is how it works”
Steve Jobs, Apple
3. Strategy
Details exactly how you are going to dominate the market
“If there’s one reason we have done better than of our peers in the Internet space over the last six years, it is because we have focused like a laser on customer experience, and that really does matter, I think, in any business. It certainly matters online, where word-of-mouth is so very, very powerful.”
Jeff Bezos, Amazon
4. Execution
Shipping the product out at the right time. If you are not* spending 60% of time doing the 4 pillars of PM on execution. You are doing it wrong
“We’re selling a reduction in information overload, relief from stress, and a new ability to extract the enormous value of hitherto useless corporate archives. We’re selling better organizations, better teams. That’s a good thing for people to buy and it is a much better thing for us to sell in the long run. We will be successful to the extent that we create better teams.”
Stewart Butterfield - Slack
Who is a Product Designer?
A product designer is somebody who oversees the design process of a product from start to finish, or the improvement of an existing product.
UX Designer
The UX designer role is to make a product or service usable, enjoyable, and accessible.
Project Development process
- Get a PRD
- Do a Workshop
- Sprint Planning session
- Walkthrough Session
- Soft testing
- Hi-fi
- Peer Review session
- Sign off - 1 week
Product Requirement Documentation (PRD)
The PRD will contain everything that must be included in a release to be considered complete.
PRD is the Assumptions, Constraints, and Dependencies.
Assumptions are anything you expect to be in place (yet isn’t guaranteed), such as assuming that all users will have Internet connectivity.
Constraints dictate something the eventual implementation can’t require, be it a budgetary constraint or a technical one.
Dependencies are any known condition or item the product will rely on, such as depending on Google Maps to add directions for a dog walking app.
