Defining new dimension of a Product

For example, you may want to define the social media strategy or mobile strategy of your product.  Or you may be thinking of productization of your earlier project.  In other words, you would like to define a new dimension of your Product.  Three important tasks that one should consider for this, are:

1.       List:  List down all the current important features that exist today.  It could be as simple as noting the entire menu items in your webpage and you may already know most of them, but don’t worry.  Pen down all the important ones.

2.       Shortlist:  out of the prepared list of items, few may not be suitable for the new dimension that you want to take.  For example, sensitive data that you capture in your product should not be posted to social media.  So, strike out all the ones that are not suitable for your new dimension.  You will be left with shortlisted items which are viable.

3.       Prioritize:  Now, you have the items that you can take up further.  The next task is to decide on which item should be taken up first and implement.  There are many factors that influence the priority including the market conditions and client-requests.

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Thanks,

Sivakumar AVKD

Product Management

Definition:  Product Management has to do with the Definition of what to do.  For a given problem, what is the solution and what should be done in the application in order to achieve the solution, is what is defined by Product Manager (PM).

Inputs for New Projects:  There are different sources from which new Projects are created.

·         FDCs(Future Development Considerations) turn into New Projects

·         Requests from Clients create new Projects for us.

·         Issues that Clients report, if visible on UI, they turn into Visible Changes and tracked.

·         With the evolution of Market/Product, new enhancements to the Product are thought of and executed.

·         Innovation – with the creating thinking that PMs have, new projects get created.

 

Various Activities and Qualities of a PM:  PM has to work closely with the clients to understand their needs and problems.  He/she has to understand the Client’s business and their way of working.  This enables PM to define robust solution for any problem.  PM has to take other clients and their business under consideration while proposing a solution to the problem.  He/she has to make sure that the solution is not creating other problems to other clients. 

There is a lot of co-ordination and discussions happen between Clients and PM on a regular basis, very frequently.   Hence, the first quality of PM:  Oral Communication skills.  Communication should be clear and elaborate enough for clients to understand.  For some problems, there can be technical and functional limitations and PM should be able to effectively communicate those limitations to clients.

Once the Problem is discussed and identified, PM has to think through different possible solutions.  He/she has to consider technical limitations while proposing solutions.  Hence, the second quality is:  Broader/out-of-box thinking.  He/she should get clear picture of whether the solution that is being proposed, is completely resolving the actual problem or not.  This needs a lot of analytical and problem solving skills.  Also, any assumptions which were taken into account should be made clear to clients before implementing the solution.

Now, all the different solutions that were thought of should be documented properly.  Hence, the next quality is:  Written Communication Skills.  PM should be able to visualize the User Interface changes with respect to the proposal.  He/she should be capable of using different tools to document those changes along with screenshots (wherever applicable).

With all the documentation ground work, PM has to discuss this with SE and QE regarding the implementation of the solution and the technical possibilities of it.  Hence, the next quality is:  Technical knowledge.  He/she should discuss and understand the technical feasibility and limitations of the solution.  He/she should be able to understand the timelines that SE and QE propose for the implementation and testing of the solution and then communicate that back to client.

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Thanks,

Sivakumar AVKD