Decode The Difference Between Product Management And Project Management

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The competition is everywhere. If you are in the business industry, you cannot run from the competition. Every business requires experienced people and management to work on the result-worthy strategies. Employees often use Project Management and Product Management interchangeably. But let us tell you that these are distinct positions.

Employees Discussing in the conference room

A Product Management organization has separate roles for both Product and Project Managers. What is the requirement of your team? Well, the right role for your organization depends upon your business objectives. A Project Manager maintains the project by keeping track of its progress and bridges the communication gap. On the other hand, a Product Manager is the one who forms strategies for the product launch and coordinates with development teams. So, choose wisely which of the roles you want to include in your organization. If you are facing confusion, we are here to help you. 

In this blog, we will decode the difference between the two and what are the responsibilities of the Product Manager and Project Manager.

Product v/s Project

Project Management and Product Management are two complementary terms but distinct from each other. Before moving any further, let’s first understand the difference between product and project. 

A product is anything that you can launch in the market to satisfy the needs of the customers. A product is formed by passing through various stages. Initially, the idea is formed, and then the product is developed and offered to the market. Finally, the product comes to a retiring stage when the demand for the product starts diminishing. The product team is the one responsible for developing the products. 

A project is an endeavor that is followed to create a new product. A project is like a plan that includes a clear set of rules of what is the requirement to be fulfilled by the specified date. 

A product life cycle may include multiple projects. It is not defined in a product what needs to be delivered because the needs of the customers evolve over time. Similarly, the product should also evolve to meet their needs. Thus, you can say that product development is a continuous process of improving features of the product to satisfy the user’s needs. 

Defining Product Management

Product Management is the process of dealing with the planning, forecasting, production, and marketing of a product. 

Defining Project Management

Project Management involves the methods and techniques to attain the goals and objectives of a specific project. 

Who is a Product Manager?

A Product Manager is one who takes the responsibility of managing every step included in the success of the product life cycle. Product Management recruiters hire the ones with excellent time-management and problem-solving skills, as these are the vital requirements for being a successful Product Manager. 

They should follow the workable product strategies focusing more on the “what” aspect of the product. Successful Product Managers aim at maximizing the value and creating new revenue streams.          

All in all, Product Managers –

  • Prioritize the requirements of the customers.
  •  Define the vision of the product.
  • Communicate with the sales and marketing team to ensure that the satisfaction goals of the customers are fulfilled. 

Who Is a Project Manager?

Project Managers aim to deliver the project within a set budget and deadline successfully. The challenging part for Project Managers is to manage the scope of the project because they need to balance time, cost, and quality. For instance – if the deadline of a specific project has been reduced, Project Managers must either increase the cost or reduce the project’s scope to deliver quality. Hence, Project Managers have to maintain quality while minimizing risk. 

All in all, Project Managers – 

  • Build a product.  
  • Improve the product; add new features or extensions to it. 
  • Managing a team of product developers and tracking their performance. 

Dynamics Between Project Managers And Product Managers

A Project Manager is responsible for delivering the project and moves to the next one after successful delivery. 

The Product Manager forms the idea, develops the product, and brings it to the market. He/she is responsible till the product becomes obsolete. 

Both roles inform about their progress to the executive team, which then analyzes the entire process and ensures that the Product Manager and project manager have met the business objectives.

To Sum It Up!

Product and Project Management seem to be similar, but you need to understand the difference between the two. Only then can you meet your business objectives. Project Management is an internal concept focusing specifically on achieving certain objectives within a set budget and deadline until the project is no longer “managed.” While Product Management has a focus on customers, that means it is an external concept that determines the overall success of the project. You may consider hiring one person to fill both these positions. But it is advisable to separate these roles from steering clear of the conflicts. Moreover, separate roles also account for better resource allocation.

Why Must Product Organizations Develop Sustainable Product Visions And Strategies?

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With changing perspectives worldwide, many new trends are initiating changes in the organizations’ core values. Sustainability is that one change. Consumers and the workforce have become highly critical of the products and services they pay for or get paid for. One way to describe this change is conscious consumerism. Another term could be green products. A set of two simple phrases is leading the evolution of the current product market into a space that was unimaginable two decades ago. Thus, product organizations need the best product management recruitment agency to help recruit future-ready employees. It is essential to understand that green markets do not emerge from just thinking. Product organizations need to take concrete actions to build innovative and sustainable solutions. It can be done when companies embrace sustainable business practices by bridging the gap between knowing and doing.

3 pople discussing while watching city view

In general, a sustainable business model stands on three pillars- economic, environmental, and social. Before we understand the importance of sustainable product vision for product organizations, let us briefly know what product vision means.

What Do We Mean By Product Vision?

A product vision is like a map that guides you in reaching or achieving your product targets. It encompasses all the steps from the idea to bringing a product into reality. It saves your team from wandering aimlessly and helps your business plan and execute the product demands correctly. It helps your product team align products with the customers’ needs, i.e., staying on track.

A sustainable vision would mean finding a route to eco-friendly products and bringing a holistic change to society. 

What Is A Sustainable Product Vision?

In brief, sustainable product vision refers to companies’ impact on society or the environment. Product teams would focus on one global problem and try to incorporate those visions into their business model that will help in bringing a positive change. A product manager needs to be intuitive enough to understand which issue needs the company’s attention then and in the future. Sustainable business strategies help in addressing several global problems, such as:

  • Income inequality
  • Depletion of natural resources
  • Human rights issues
  • Fair working conditions
  • Pollution
  • Racial injustice
  • Gender inequality
  • Climate change

Although it may seem as if being sustainable is purely ideological, the companies that incorporate green practices benefit extensively from it. Because they understand that a successful business strategy runs on three P’s- people, planet, and profit. Obviously, a product organization needs to be financially well to do good.

How Can A Sustainable Business Approach Benefit Your Business?

At first, it may sound like a bluff, but the sustainable approach to business does boost a business’s overall performance. Driving environmental and social change can also contribute to your organization’s overall success rate. ESG (Environment, social, and governance) ratings measure how ethical and sustainable practices a business operates. And as per McKinsey, the businesses with high ESG ratings often outperform their not-so-sustainable competitors. Investing in sustainability strategies can take your business to experience long-term benefits. Here’s how going green, inclusive, diverse, empathetic, and more can help your product business:

Builds and Protects brand image

Every product organization’s success depends on its reputation. You can imagine how much trouble an oil spill caused by your factories can bring to your PR department. Those days are gone when a user was just happy with the quality of products; today’s user demands transparency in your product development procedure. Therefore, following a sustainable approach will help your brand look credible and trustworthy.

Being purpose-driven gives you a competitive advantage.

Being purpose-driven may seem like an expensive choice, but it will get you a talented, curious, and motivated workforce. In addition, you will add value to your brand by ensuring a minimum carbon footprint.

Conscious demands and Vigilant consumers

According to reports, people today prefer to buy products that do not involve coercion or damage to workers and the environment. While absolute sustainability may be hard to achieve, still little steps can bring you loyal customers.

Final Notes

Today, sustainability as a term is familiar to every school-going child. They know the basic definition of sustainability- meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations. That’s why product organizations need to know who they’re building products for the generation leading the light of change. Indeed, the market has become increasingly dynamic, but that doesn’t lift the responsibility of making a positive difference from your shoulders. Product managers need to be more flexible and interdisciplinary to lead the product teams for a better future. It is the beginning of a new era where our future product managers can usher in a much-needed change in every product industry. If you need more information about the role of product managers, visit our website.

Why Do Product Managers Need To Focus More On The Universality Of Products?

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Have you ever wondered why some products are so easy to use for everyone? Suppose you are in the metro and see an older person trying to get a ticket from the ticket vending machine but unable to get one. After all the efforts, he seeks help from someone. Here, a product manager needs to focus on the scenario where the elderly couldn’t get help from someone. Product teams need to focus on this situation and iterate carefully on making a product universal. That is a product design that everyone and anyone can use.

Product manager interview questions are now drifting towards a more comprehensive approach to product design- universality. Let’s have a closer look at what universal design means.

Product Team Briefig

What Does Universal Design Mean?

Product development is an extensive process. It includes going back and forth like a pendulum from iteration to wireframing until desired product goals are achieved. Today, with changing market trends, universality concerns more product companies. 

Here you can question the reason behind this. 

Like in the above example, numerous products need updates so that everyone who wants to use the product can easily use it. So, by definition, universal design is that product design that makes the product easily accessible to all people regardless of condition, age, gender, disability, and other factors. The beat here is to create a universal product without any modifications. Look at these examples to better understand the versatile design of products.

Spotify: Spotify is an online music streaming platform that allows users to enjoy different genres of music at a very affordable price. Their design is universal because you can listen to the same music on your pc or laptop that you were listening to on mobile with just a click. 

Automatic doors: When you go to a shopping mall, you must have encountered automatic doors. It is always a fun sight to enter without pulling or pushing anything. Did you know that its design was made to suffice universality? Maybe not, then try to think now. Suppose there’s a person in a wheelchair or a mother with bags and her baby. Can they open the door with a doorknob? Maybe yes, with a slight push or pull here and there. But, their experience would have been different and more comfortable if they could quickly enter the mall without requiring any help or pulling some strings. That is where universal product design comes in.

Why Do We Need Universal Product Designs?

Agree or disagree, there’s one point in life where we can not function as per our ability. In those instances, products based on universality principles can help us use a product or service without feeling isolated. Universality forms its basis on two principles-

  • Understanding and respecting the diversity in people
  • Informed responses to a variety of people

What Are The Key Principles Of Universal Design?

Universal design primarily promotes an inclusive approach to include every group or section of society as its users. In simple words, it will help maximize the number of users benefiting from the product or service under development. Universal design has seven fundamental principles that guide product teams to make a universal design. These were designed to make communications, products, and environments more inclusive and universal. Here’s the list of seven principles:

Practice Equity

Equity as a value means to be fair and impartial. No one likes to be treated differently because of their ability. Therefore, products should focus on fair use and provide a similar experience, if not identical. 

Flexible use

Products and services shall be able to accommodate different abilities and preferences. The designs shall allow users to control and use the product as they wish.

Intuitive and simple design

The products should be simple to comprehend and use for every user irrespective of their age, qualification, knowledge, or skill. In simple terms, users must know which steps to take after carrying out the first step.

Perceptible information

Every product design must be simple enough to communicate all the necessary information to the user effectively by using multiple verbal and non-verbal cues.

The low magnitude of physical effort

Product teams must know user satisfaction is their priority. So, every product they develop must aim to make users’ lives easier. 

Error tolerance

Remember the undo button on pc, and it works the same way. Here, product teams must know that their users may commit some accidental error, and there shall be some mechanism.

Size and space

Teams need to enhance the user experience by providing a proper approach for use, i.e., irrespective of the user’s shape, size, posture, or mobility, and he must be able to access the product.

Takeaway!

This is why a product manager recruiting agency like Palarino Partners works to bring consensus among the candidates’ expectations and the product companies so that a potential candidate can work at the desired place without compromising values and vice versa.

An Overview Of Product Management Lifecycle and Process

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In the market, the maximum percentage of new items fails to last. They don’t live up to client requirements. There may be a case where a product is selling well, but the corporation cannot keep up with the demand. All of these instances demonstrate the shortcomings of product life cycle management. Lacking a strategy for the product, you’re almost certain to launch can be costly to a firm regarding both money and prestige.

Office Staff Working Late Night ight

In this blog, we’ll go through what things are in there in many product manager jobs and product management processes in-depth. Provide you with a glimpse into the work of a product manager. So keep reading to find out the answers to your burning questions regarding this new field of study.

What Is Product Management And Its Core Work?

Bringing a new product to market is known as product management. It typically entails product conception, planning, launch, and growth duties. But the story doesn’t end there. When the product has done its objective, the actions ensure that it is sent without causing any disturbances.

Let’s look at the phases in the end-to-end product management lifecycle stages.

What are The Process And The Stages Of The Product Lifecycle?

The division of the product management lifecycle is into different stages that tell you what you need to achieve and when you need to do it. Let’s look at how they play out in real-life circumstances.   

Conceptualization

This stage is concerned with gathering and managing product ideas that do not deviate from the organization’s strategic goals. External sources of inspiration include consumer data, rival activity, supplier relationships, public portals, etc. Alternatively, you might get them from internal sources like trend analysis, brainstorming sessions, product evaluations, and feedback.

Following the collection of relevant ideas, you should manage them throughout time using the following method:

  • Keep a list of ideas in a backlog.
  • Regularly merge redundant concepts.
  • Examine new ideas in light of current objectives.
  • Encourage plausible arguments to be added to the product roadmap.
  • Inform the ideator of the situation.
  • Idea backlogs may help firms enhance their products by creating clear standards and offering arguments for dos and don’ts.

Verification

Product managers decide which concepts should be in the final product roadmap. And to make a choice, they must answer the following as also asked in the topgrading interview questions.:

  • Is the product a solution to a problem?
  • What are the market’s present and prospective sizes?
  • Is it possible to build the solution with the resources available (people, money, and time)?

Suppose the suggested solution is retrofitting a problem rather than fixing it. Product teams often participate in various tasks to determine the best course of action, such as developing a hypothesis, mapping out assumptions, doing competitor research, and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data.

Make A Plan

The product strategy document should ideally have the problem and target audience; market competition in the region; product vision; high-level ideas (how the product solves particular goals); user and revenue forecasts (or the financial model); and delivery milestones.

Development & Design

A product manager must work with various teams to determine which features will be there in the final product. The product delivery tasks prioritize when the stakeholders sign off on the technical requirements and experience designs. Finally, release notes and documentation are to suit the lifecycle’s tracking requirements.

Launch 

A go-to-market strategy acts as a roadmap for product managers in many respects. Before the launch, they may figure out what type of help they’ll need from marketing and other departments. They can also create distinct launch phases in collaboration with the organization’s leaders or project managers. While fixing certain defects and concerns right away, others are put off until later to reduce corporate risks.

Identifying The Right Market

You’ve achieved ‘product-market fit when clients gain value from your product and increase utilization.’ On the other hand, it’s possible that your market offering is receiving negative feedback and that utilization is low. Product managers are liable for guaranteeing that the product continues to fulfill market demands and please consumers. Iterations continue in the case of new items until the market fit is achieved.

Preserving Saturation

The growth rate decreases as the product development and new features take longer. As a result, product managers must keep a careful eye on client retention data. They can opt to perform one of the following things to preserve market dominance:

  • Concentrate on a few critical efforts that balance acquisition, engagement, and retention.
  • Learn from your competitors to maximize the benefits of size and consistency.
  • Implement cost-cutting and efficiency-enhancing product innovations.

To Sum It Up!

They may be in charge of various activities in small businesses and startups, including pricing, marketing, and sales. Larger companies are more likely to offer unique roles with a restricted work area. As the company expands and more items have introduced, the need for good product management and managers will increase.

Product Manager Interview Questions To Keep In Mind In 2022

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One of the most daunting tasks for product team leaders is to hire the best product managers for your company. There is no perfect way to hire the ideal candidate. It is all about selecting the right one from the sea of unicorns. And how do product manager headhunters do that? By asking the right product manager interview questions. Following a cookie-cutter approach is not the right way to hire managers. You need to have a solid strategy to determine an excellent fit for your organization.

The job description of a product manager varies from company to company. For instance – sometimes your organization needs a technical expert, or other times it needs a person who has hands-on experience in marketing.

Getting the right candidate adds an invaluable asset to your product team. But the moment you get it wrong, your company’s reputation is at stake. So, what is the solution in this case? The key to selecting the right candidate is to ask them the right questions. These questions will help reveal the value and intentions of the candidate.

Let’s find out the key product manager interview questions that you may ask from the candidates to select the best product manager for your company.

What Is The Role Of The Product Manager?

Knowing the answer to this question will get you an understanding of what the candidate thinks about this role. There are different types of organizations. So, people have different expectations for the role of a product manager. This question helps to give a clear idea that candidates know about the job they are applying for and do not feel disappointed once they start working in this role.  

Do You Have Any Experience In Product Management?

The employer should have an idea of the candidate’s skills and effectiveness you bring to the table from day one. You want to know the kind of training the candidate requires with respect to the new organization. You may also need to know how the candidate deals with challenging situations when it comes to product management. 

The education and professional experience of the candidate may differ. The candidate may have worked in the field of product management. They may discuss their past employment experience to describe the training they have undergone. For instance – A candidate may say, “In addition to my training, I learned different skills in the field of data visualization and market analysis.” An experience like this may impress the employers to a large extent. 

Describe Your Technical Skills As A Product Manager?

Usually, product managers won’t keep a focus on the technical questions related to software development or engineering unless the candidate has specifically come for the technical product manager. But you might still want to check the technical knowledge of the candidate for his/her ability to communicate with the product development engineers. So, candidates should come prepared to speak about whatever skills they have in an easy manner. 

If a candidate is applying for a specialized area like technical product manager, he/she should be able to clearly explain the technological concepts in his area of expertise. 

What Is Your Favorite Product, And What Do You Like About It?

This question will let you know what the candidate feels about the products and do they value them? It will make you determine what the candidate finds useful about the product. Is it the product’s appearance? Or endurance? Or technicalities that make him adore the product. Ask them to critically examine the product they love. This question gives you an idea of how the candidate finds ways to improve them. 

What Is Your Way Of Communicating The Product Strategy?

This question will help you determine the tools and methods that a candidate uses to get the tasks done. It also gives you the knowledge on whether the candidate is using data to back up the things or using a roadmap to meet the deadlines? Healthy communication is the key to developing a good product strategy and ultimately making the product a success. 

Way To Become A Good Product Manager

The employers in an organization conduct a thorough process to find a suitable product manager for their organization. They conduct a topgrading interview for the perfect match. They believe that core competencies, developing a good product roadmap, flexibility to adapt to new features, and responding proactively to new obstacles are the key things that make a great product manager.

To Sum It Up

Conducting product management interviews is one of the important and final steps in determining the right fit for this role. Undoubtedly, every interview is different. So, use the same set of questions to evaluate the candidates. Track the answers of the candidates in the document to review it afterwards. It will give you a standard mode of comparison between candidates. After selecting the candidate, make the best offer and develop the best management strategy.

 

Why Should You Reimagine Your Product Roadmap?

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Product management is the core of the process of developing a product. It involves fulfilling a list of responsibilities from leadership to end-product analysis. The product management consultant believes it requires planning a roadmap, as we do in normal development processes. It starts with identifying the need or requirement and then working on that need to build a solution; the process between these two points is what we may call a plan. So, for a moment, think about what a product roadmap can look like?

Man Working on a computer

Product Roadmap- In Brief

For you, a product roadmap can mean different things based on your perception of product development. It can be a Gantt-style chart or an excel spreadsheet in a visual sense. But, what stands behind those visuals makes a roadmap a plan in a genuine way. The substance in a roadmap is a structured way of answering questions about the product’s vision, target audience, etc. In simple words, product managers build a roadmap that represents the making of a house. Like building a house needs a structure, so is the development of a product; because you can not move with your gut feeling.

Answering questions relative to features, objective, target, scale, budget, etc., is the essence of the product roadmap. Roadmaps today go beyond standard feature wishlists and form an essential element of the PM’s planning arsenal. And as markets are undergoing a drastic change in less time, it demands active engagement from product managers. They need to focus on iteration, building, analysis, evaluation, and iteration. However, conventional methods of devising a roadmap will not work anymore in today’s fast-moving market trends. Hence, product managers need to rethink and reimagine new ways to build strategic roadmaps that solve the problems of today’s consumers and serve future requirements.

Best Time To Rethink Current Roadmaps

With fast-changing trends and a rapid shift in consumer behavior, current markets are struggling to cope with the pressure of making new products now and then. It has limited the scope for innovation and cluttered the needs with similar products leaving lesser quality choices for consumers. In this overly crowded market landscape, some companies are trying to overcome market shift hurdles by outnumbering their competitors. However, fast-moving results in unprioritized features, undifferentiated products, and a less credible brand image. It is crucial to make a good product roadmap that can guide companies with a visionary approach.

However, How To Move Forward?

In the past, roadmaps only served as a proxy for the project plans to help product teams move in a specific direction. Conventional roadmap tactics focus on getting the features out in the market rather than thinking about the reason behind those features. Today’s environment is dynamic, and we need better plans to create a better future for all. Yes, profits guide the market, but it is time to shift towards a more holistic approach and develop sustainably. The simple reason for this is conscious consumerism. People are becoming more aware of the changes around them and need better alternatives to grow and develop as individuals. Product managers must understand that external factors like political will, social conditions, environmental situations, etc., influence markets. To put it simply, economics can not control the human mind; that is, product managers need to look at problems from diverse perspectives.

Hence, product managers need their roadmaps to be the harbinger of building products for a visionary future while supplying the demands of existing consumers. Also, they must give concrete reasons to investors and stakeholders to select particular reasons when they build a roadmap. But, how can Product Managers bring inputs to build roadmaps like that?

Fuel Roadmaps With The Blend Of Quant And Qual

Building a strategic roadmap involves using data information to construct a roadmap comprehensively. Including both quantitative and qualitative approaches is the best way to move ahead. Quantitative data provides you with facts and figures about user engagement that may further influence changes in the developed product. In contrast, qualitative data like customer feedback adds context to user behavior. Product managers must balance the two to produce the most robust and action-driven roadmap possible.

Here are a few data sources product managers can leverage:

Company’s Strategy

A company’s strategy must always act like a glue that will bind the distinct elements of a product roadmap together. As a product manager, you need to align all the vital organizational initiatives to your roadmap to ensure the team works in the right direction.

User Analytics

Relying on guesses and gut feelings will take your team nowhere. The product manager must create a clear view of how users engage with your product to let the product team address customer needs and future challenges. For instance, assessing user behavior will help your team guide consumers and solve potential issues.

Understanding The Voice Of The Consumer

Using tools like surveys, polls, and feedback helps qualitatively assess the complete picture of problems your users may be facing. It can serve as a powerful inspiration to make a good roadmap.

Market Landscape

Focusing on shifting market trends may not help you develop a practical strategy that is a product market fit. However, it allows you to understand the competitive landscape to leverage this market research. 

Conclusion

Roadmaps incorporate the essence of the product development process. Without a plan, no product team can move in an actionable direction. So, utilize these data resources to bring a robust product roadmap into reality. If you need more information about product management recruiters, visit our website.

How Does A Product-led Approach Create A Better Customer Experience?

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A company needs to follow diverse business strategies to contemplate the user’s demands and needs in product development. The involvement of dynamism makes it harder to comprehend the newer tastes of consumers. Here, it’s important to base a product plan on the company’s software, i.e., product-led growth. It is a simple step to focus all attention on the product itself, circling its feature, performance, and virality. It demands adopting a new multidisciplinary approach at the core of product organization structure. When the product team emphasizes the product more, it becomes the sole differentiator of all go-to-market efforts. Sales and marketing teams have to reorient themselves to let the product lead the way. For instance, when a company offers a freemium product, the product act as a sales and marketing tool by attracting new users without incurring ad-campaign expenditures. Thus, it establishes a mechanism that allows users to have a product experience free of cost and implicitly encourages them to upgrade to paid versions.

Business Discussion

At first glance, product-led growth may sound like jargon, but those who work in product development are already familiar with the concept. Its primary focus is on user acquisition, expansion, conversion, and retention as a business strategy.

Secondly, being product-centric isn’t only about growth; it is about building a mindset to incorporate the entire user journey. Hence product-led becomes the core around which all other business functions orbit, making it a company-wide activity. Let us know more about the meaning of product-led in today’s scenario and what shape it can take in the future.

Product-Led Is For Every Enterprise

People in the product development industry often become the victims of a common myth that product-led is only going to work for established enterprises or software companies. However, the truth is that every company is transitioning into a software company, which debunks the myth and confirms the fact that every enterprise can benefit from product-led tactics. Product-led strategizing is a democratic way of looking at things from a different perspective. Every expert has gone through a phase where organizations were convinced that freemium sale tactics might not suit their purpose. It is a matter of fact that even before being introduced to any such strategies, they were already using many of them, such as product-augmented onboarding, contextual in-app support, etc. To understand the underlying usage of product-led techniques in real lives, let’s see a few examples:

  1. Guitars require an application for tuning, lessons, and recording the learning process.
  2. Minimal or zero interaction purchase of vehicle virtually from companies like tesla 

The above few examples prove how product-led has been taking over the center stage in the market, but there is no one-size-fits-all policy here. For instance, the latest covid pandemic has reformed the way users use to engage. The current user wants companies to interact with them according to their conditions. Thus, engagement and interaction have to be purposeful and intentional. 

Benefits Of Product-Led Strategies

Adopting a new strategy always puts the outcome in skepticism. However, the probability of benefits and disbenefits falls on equal terms. Hence, a product-led approach can help companies in the following ways:

  1. Enhance efficiency
  2. Become more Agile
  3. Effective onboard delivery
  4. Smooth -running of the sales process
  5. More contextual and timely cross-sell and up-sell communication with customers.

Experts say a product-led mindset can positively impact a company’s overall marketing capability. Still, they must note that product-led tactics work for the entire user journey from acquisition, activation, and adoption to renewal. The role of data, i.e., product analysis, growth analysis, and customer analysis, helps understand the user’s journey from marketing qualified leads to produce qualified leads. Using a data-driven approach helps in further understanding consumer behavior and product usage. For instance, the freemium strategy is one unique tool that may be valuable in converting free users into paid users.

Product-Led Is Innovative, Not Humanless.

A doubt often looms over product-led strategies that may replace the human element in the industry; however, the truth is far from it. In common parlance, these strategies may help augment the human touch by using humans in a more strategic, thoughtful, and high-value wave. That’s why it fosters customer relations. For instance, in-app support allows users to carry out tasks efficiently without being stuck. Moreover, product-centric clears space for more innovative thinking with quantitative and qualitative user analysis.

Next On The Plate For Product-Led Experiments

This question needs a comprehensive answer which can not be based on predictions due to the dynamic nature of the market. However, experts predict a great future for a product-led world. Read on to know more.

  1. It is hard to expect changes based on assumptions, yet a data-driven approach and a flexible mindset can create a gradual shift in customer preferences.
  2. It will be interesting to see people get along with the design-focused products. The adjustment toward in-product experiences is what product teams and group product managers need to get accustomed to.
  3. Another landmark change involves blending disciplines to allow different teams to become interdisciplinary.

Bottomline!

That sums up the current role of product-led strategies in product development and user engagement and the shape these strategies can give to the product-based market. It is a simple yet necessary description of what product-led growth is capable of bringing into the world of product development. Visit our website if you’re looking forward to learning more about product managers and how these tactics may help them.

Different types of Startup Funding Series Stages for Product Managers

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Product Managers play essential roles in organizations. It becomes crucial for startups when you have to develop the products from the early stage to the expansion stage. It assists the Product Managers if they know the different stages of startup series funding. Finally, it helps them set the right expectations for the venture and the product.

Product Managers are always in search of new opportunities in terms of the growth of the product. Therefore, it is vital to know the different startup funding stages to earn the best possible profits for your venture. If you are a Product Manager in NYC and want to learn about the different funding stages, you have come to the right place. Keep reading to satisfy your intellect.

Pre-Seed Funding

Is the earliest stage of the funding that is generally not included in the stages of funding. It is the time when the founders of the company are just starting their operations in the field. Those who contribute to the pre-seed capital are usually the founders, supporters, family, or friends. These contributors are called pre-seed funders. The funding at this stage may happen quickly, or it may take a long time. Generally, the founders of the company are pre-seed investors.

Seed Funding

The first official equity funding stage is termed Seed funding. It is like the first official money that a startup or business raises. You can see “seed-funding,” similar to the process of planting a tree that helps grow your business. If you are dedicated and persevere enough with your business strategies, your company will indeed grow into a big “tree.” Seed-funding gives the financial assistance for the steps like market research and product. You can determine the final product and target audience with the help of seed funding.

You must have heard about the angel investors. They are one of the most common investors who invest their money in seed funding. They tend to put their money most commonly in riskier ventures in exchange for an equity stake in the company.

Product Manager In NYC

Series A Funding

Investors are not in search of just great ideas but also high return on investment. If you have a clear set of strategies of making money with your venture, you will find it easy to get the first investor for your startup. And getting the one investor makes it easy to let other investors come in.

Startup Evaluation  

The value of a startup can range from 10 million dollars to 15 million dollars and above.

Amount 

The first round of venture capital raises the amount of 2 million dollars to 15 million dollars and above.

Types Of Investors: Investors from traditional venture capital firms are the ones who put their money in series A funding.

Requirements From Investors: The investors should have the required skill set, financial records, and a well-established customer base. Having all of it gets them preferred stock shares after investing their money in the startup.

Series B funding

It is the stage where your startup transforms into a well-established company with the funds it has collected. In this stage, you can introduce new technologies and recruit more workers in the marketing, sales, or tech team.

Evaluation

The value can range from 30 million dollars to 60 million dollars.

Amount 

It is the second round of venture capital that can generate nearly 7 million to 10 million dollars and more.

Types Of Investors 

Private equity firms and venture capital firms help in this kind of funding. The means of crowdfunding can work too. Investors get the preferred shares in return.

Series C Funding

Companies in stage C (final stage of fundraising) have already become successful and are looking for opportunities to tap into new markets or acquire new companies.

Amount

If Series C funding has a pre-money valuation of approximately 115 million dollars, you can raise 50 million dollars or more.

Types Of Investors

Hedge funds, private equity firms, and the large secondary group helps in series C funding in return of twice the value of the investment returned.

Tip For An Early-Stage Product Manager

The product manager plays an important role in creating the first product and making it successful in the market. Seeing the product manager’s ability at an early stage will help you decide if he is agile or not. The product manager must properly know the answers to product manager interview questions to easily sail through his work. He must competitively analyze the product and empower the independent decision-making of the teams.

To Sum It Up

Creating a product and making it successful in the market is a challenging process when it comes to startups. Product managers have to face new challenges in the major phases like formation, validation, and growth of the product. When the product manager wants nothing but growth, it surely makes a difference to his career. So, know about the different stages of startup series funding and make the most out of them.

Important Metrics For Your Product Improvements

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The SaaS business is rife with suggestions about the best product metrics to track your customers’ activation, engagement, and interactions. However, how can these ideas convert into actual product enhancements? If you don’t know what questions you want to answer, these product metrics will blind you with the same data you were hoping to see. So, how do you move from merely putting your statistics into formulae? To address crucial questions about your product and business and deliver data that might help your product team make better decisions. Let’s find out what is Product Metrics! 

Employees Working

What Are Product Metrics?

Product metrics are data measurements that a product manager recruiting agency uses to assess a product’s success and identify how customers interact with it. Popular indicators like attrition rate and conversion rate assist multiple corporate stakeholders in determining a product’s value and guide product direction.

  1. Not Every Product Is The Same

Track standard SaaS finance KPIs like clients’ conversion rate from trial to paid and monthly recurring income. These and other measures, such as customer acquisition cost (CAC) and client lifetime value (LTV), are critical for determining a company’s overall health and strategy.

Start by researching what other businesses have done. While most of the “best practice” product analytics advice was good for presenting concepts, the guidelines weren’t universally applicable. So much is dependent on the sort of company you manage.

  1. The Right Questions Lead To The Appropriate Product Metrics.

“Start with the correct inquiry” is a core principle for the team. We’d be starting with someone else’s question instead of our own if we merely used well-worn frameworks mindlessly. If these frameworks don’t start with the right question, the metrics have no impact on how the production of a product or the path a company takes. These measures become fictitious proxies that appear fine on paper but create a misleading roadmap and don’t provide you with the details you need. Furthermore, when a firm expands in size, a single set of dimensions to service the entire organization becomes less and less valuable. When measures matter to them, teams tend to disagree.

Even though they all have the same high-level purpose, they contribute to it in various ways and judge their performance accordingly. The growth team focuses on one aspect of the product, while the marketing team focuses on another.

  1. It Requires A Team Effort To Come Up With Good Questions.

The analytics team may give product managers various relevant data to help them assess product performance more effectively. Here are a few examples of SaaS company engagement metrics:

  • It is average time it takes to convert a trial user to a paying customer.
  • Percentage of users that utilized a particular feature of a product
  • The average number of times a user took an essential action per session, the average number of necessary actions taken

Most teams get stuck because they don’t know how to ask the correct questions using their analytics. Instead of the more usual stakeholder-resource relationship, deciding on such questions necessitates collaborative cooperation between the analyst and product development team.

We drew inspiration from what guides the development of product metrics linked to product goals (Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, Task Success). Here are some of the queries we ask our product teams to assist them in understanding their goals and helping them develop relevant metrics:

  • What activities do we picture an ideal client performing when they receive value from our product?
  • What are the specific actions a user must take within our product to accomplish a goal?
  • Is this product intended to address an issue that affects users or just a portion of them?

  1. Touchpoints To Consider While Determining Metrics.

We employ product usage ideas that have become well recognized and agreed upon within the organization to assist our product partners in answering these inquiries. These words are connected closely to crucial moments in our product’s journey for customers:

Intent to use: The action or acts that customers take to indicate that they plan to utilize the product or service definitively.

Consumer engagement: refers to how much a customer continues to benefit from a product or feature.

We may seek to address problems like those given above using these simple notions. The next stage is to hunt for product or feature-specific signals corresponding to these ideas. We’ve discovered that open cooperation with individuals from all parts of our product teams — managers, designers, researchers, and engineers – produces many relevant signals that we can utilize to construct effective product success indicators.

As long as you’re asking the appropriate questions, you’ll acquire helpful information that you can use. In other words, begin with the problem rather than the facts like that of topgrading interview questions and answers the company asks to understand the problem-solving capability of the candidate. 

Take Away!

This collaborative approach to defining metrics has resulted in more seamless collaboration between the analytics and product teams. Using a uniform, consistent manner of working also ensures that everyone in the organization understands what product metrics represent and why they are essential. It implies that the insights acquired from analyzing the data defined by these indicators guide – or even lead – product improvements.

 
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