What does a Product Manager do?
You can also read the original post here: O que faz uma Product Manager? in portuguese, my native language.
On August 31, 2023, I had the privilege of attending AmbevTech’s Tech and Cheers meetup, Edition: Mulher.Ada — an exclusive event for women.
The point is that a large amount of the audience still didn’t work with technology… and the idea was precisely to talk about careers in tech.
This presented a unique opportunity to delve into discussions about careers in tech and inspire the attendees to explore this exciting field.
The first time speaking as a product person at an event where a significant portion of the audience wasn’t very familiar with technology. I thought: “What’s the best presentation approach? How can I make myself understood in a way that’s simple yet conveys the challenge of working with technology?.”
So I asked ChatGPT for help:
A Product Manager is like the conductor of a band of talented cats.
The answer brought a cute metaphor that illustrated very well the joys and pains found in the life of someone who works with product.
The conductor is responsible for coordinating and guiding the musicians to create a cohesive harmony, which relates to the Product Manager’s role in aligning and guiding the team towards building the right product.
They try to get all the cats (team) to play the same music (product vision) without any of them running after a ball of yarn (random features).
I can draw a clear parallel with some aspects of my everyday life as a Product Manager:
Leadership. Purpose. Focus.
LEADERSHIP — Even in contexts where this professional may not have direct reports, leadership skills are very important, perhaps even fundamental! It’s necessary to set the direction, make decisions, being accountable for the product’s success, solve conflicts, and reconcile stakeholders’ interests…
Furthermore, as we’ve seen above, motivating team members to strive towards common goals is also an example of applying leadership skills for a Product Manager. One of the approaches I particularly like is ensuring that the team understands how their daily deliveries connect with the bigger picture, sharing a clear and exciting product vision, and linking that one commit to the overall company strategy. This way, it becomes easy to ignite a sense of PURPOSE. The “talented cats” begin to realize how the team’s efforts contribute to transforming the business and changing lives (both for operations, customers, and consumers).
A significant challenge, right? That’s exactly why the product professional helps ensure FOCUS, doing continuous and appropriate prioritization, so that the deliveries are aligned with a medium and long-term strategy. Another way to ensure the team’s focus is through effective risk and distraction management, enabling the team to work more productively and achieve the product’s objectives.
They coordinate the meows (communication) among the cats and even seek help from the dogs (other teams) when necessary.
Connection.
Product Managers need to ensure clear and constant communication with the development team, stakeholders, and other teams/departments. Mitigating communication noise becomes another mission for the PM, who must be capable of genuinely and empathetically listening and effectively conveying information.
Balancing priorities, managing dependencies between teams, translating business terminology for the development team, translating technical language for the business, mediating the interests of different stakeholders, facilitating dialogues, building bridges, working towards genuine CONNECTION among the people.
In the end, they hope the audience (customers) will give them a standing ovation (product success). And if something goes wrong, well, they’ll have to figure out how to turn scratches into symphonies. 😺🎵
Impact.
I love this play on words. Applause is already an indicator of success in itself, but the concept of “standing ovation” represents the highest approval from customers, meaning the IMPACT generated by the product.
Resilience.
But life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Problems happen, some things really go wrong, deviating from the plan, after all, we are dealing with a context permeated by a lot of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. A muscle that the product professional needs to exercise a lot is the muscle of RESILIENCE, to deal with challenges and problems that may arise during development or after product launch.
Just as a conductor turns dissonant notes into a harmonious symphony, Product Manager and the team must seek creative solutions to overcome the challenges and everyday problems.
P.S.: I am a tutor to three beautiful cats, and I must confess that turning scratches into symphonies is also not easy when dealing with real cats… 😸
And if you also noticed something strange in the chatGPT’s response, I invite you to read this other post: Vieses na Tecnologia: Como a IA Reflete e Amplifica Preconceitos Sociais (only in Portuguese).
Spoiler:
See you! 🖖🏼
