What is Product Management – Know Interesting Career Paths

What is Product Management – Know Interesting Career Paths | Product Management | Emeritus

Product management guides each step of a product’s lifecycle, from development to pricing. Here is some product management course for a bright future. Ever wondered who built that fire stick you use to stream all your favourite shows online? Or for that matter the smart assistant on your phone that guides you step by step for the things you ask for? All these products have different people working on them at different stages of development. However, if there is one person that identifies the needs of customers and the larger business objectives that a feature or product will fulfil besides articulating what success looks like for any product and turns the vision into reality, then it is the product manager.

Product managers are the vital cog in the wheel of digital experience. But before we understand what a product manager does, let’s begin.



What is Product Management?

Product management guides each and every step of a product management life cycle, right from development to positioning and pricing by focusing on the product and its customers. Ideally, it is overseen by product managers who set the entire product vision in motion while putting certain procedures in place, such as:

  • Putting forward new ideas for developing products and features
  • Bringing products to life in collaboration with the engineering and design teams
  • Meeting the needs and requirements of the target customer base

Product management puts target customers at the focal point especially in the tech sector because there is a continual need to manufacture newer and advanced products and create tailored solutions to meet the distinct and changing needs of the customers.

Why is Efficient Product Management Important?

Product management is an integral part of launching new products and experiences for consumers. Product managers develop a shared product vision after collating different ideas shared by all the teams.

Effective and efficient product management is what makes a product successful and outlines its impact on the customers. Without a product manager and an efficacious product management process in place, it can be challenging for the companies to ensure the success of their product and its ability to meet customers’ needs.

Different Types of Product Management Roles

To understand what a product manager does, it is essential to thoroughly understand the scope of their role. Pursuing a product management course is one of the best ways to comprehend everything about product management, the role of a product manager and different domains within product management.

A few reputable job titles that you can attain in product management are – Chief Product Officer, Product Owner, and Associate Product Manager. Here is a brief look into different specialized roles in product management.

Growth Product Manager

Growth product managers ensure that they work on a specific growth metric set by the company. They work together with the product marketing and traditional marketing team for expanding the reach of products. A product management certification can be a great way to further one’s skills in this domain.

Technical Product Manager

A technical product manager works with engineering teams on improving certain aspects of a product. This includes its functionality, tech stack, security, etc. This means they are focused on its inner and technical aspects.

Data Product Manager

A data product manager works with numbers – that is, the business analytics teams and data scientists. They are responsible for creating use cases which help in understanding how well the products will do under different scenarios.

There are different product management courses and product management certification programmes one can pursue to decide what kind of role they want to take on. However, there are some universal tasks that are common across the board, such as:

Product Management Tasks

Research

A product manager focuses on the end user and therefore, spends a good amount of time conducting both market and user research.

Defining the roadmap and other aspects

Once the research part is done, product manager ensures that a clear roadmap is defined for the products. This includes a workflow on how and when a new feature will be released and in what manner. The product manager works closely with different teams to determine the steps.

Testing and launching

As part of their role, product managers also set up experiments and iterations to test new features. Different aspects are broken down into phases, known as beta launches.

Analysing and presenting results

Once a new feature is live for customers, the product managers communicate its success stories or shortfalls to the different teams.

How to Start a Career in Product Management?

A career in product management is a perfect fit for people with different backgrounds and skill sets. Here are some tips that can help you understand how you can kickstart your career in product management and upskill yourself:

Empathy for the user

This is a must-needed skill as it is important for product managers to know both the good and bad aspects of customers’ feedback on products. It can help you understand the common pain points with a product and the actions you can undertake to make the experience better.

Problem-solving

Product managers are also problem solvers – both for the business as well as the end user. You must have the ability to solve critical problems or background of having done that earlier in your past roles.

Emeritus offers some of the best product management courses you can pursue for advancing your career in product management.

To ensure that you hone your skills before applying for the role of a product manager, make sure that you choose the best product management course to achieve valuable product management certification. Emeritus India offers a range of online product management courses and certification programmes, combining the best of all approaches.

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