Product management, the secret weapon of growth companies

By Rita Hassani Idrissi

Published: October 17, 2024

It's not always easy to create a product in a constantly evolving environment! Will the product still be profitable despite new trends? Will it always meet the needs of its target market?

So many questions that are difficult to answer, despite the many forecasts made by marketing teams. And that's exactly why product management exists.

Initially used and valued in start-ups, product management is now gradually being integrated into large companies. It helps product teams to plan, create and monitor every stage in the lifecycle of a digital product.

🔎 Zoom in on this evolving organizational process, a real performance lever for companies.

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What is product management?

Product management: definition

Product management is a methodological framework that encompasses everything connected with a digital product, from the creation of the concept and the study of the target audience to its development and marketing (and customer support).

👉 It's only recently that product management has emerged in recent years to respond more easily to the various issues faced by product teams, namely :

changing target needs and demands,
changing market trends,
changes in the environment: laws, standards, economic situation, etc.

It is therefore an integral part of the company's organizational process. It allows product teams greater flexibility and better communication with other areas of the company, notably via a product roadmap.

💡 Anecdote: major world-renowned companies such as Spotify have adopted product management, as have some of the big names in French start-ups such as Doctolib, Frichti, Blablacar....

The 4 phases of product management

Product strategy

This is where the concept is created, the product vision is formalized, and the needs of the target audience are properly defined. The marketing team sets its objectives, while respecting a viable business logic and aligning with the company's overall strategy.

Product design

This is where the creativity comes in! This phase consists of conceiving, prioritizing and framing the various stages of product realization and organization. This includes all technical, visual and communication features, etc.

Product ownership

And yes, just like the agile method, product management enables us to deliver a digital product in its entirety, through iterative development cycles . This enables :

greater flexibility,
the possibility of making changes along the way, without disrupting the existing project structure,
and greater visibility into the future.

Product marketing

It's time to get your product out there, measure its performance via marketing KPIs, and check whether objectives have been met.

Why product management?

Define an evolving product vision and strategy

In today's fast-changing world, it's vital to define a strategy that can evolve over time, and one that can be implemented flexibly.

Product management enables you to create a product gradually and in cycles, allowing you to take account of sometimes (very often) unexpected changes in the environment.

Reduce your time-to-market

Crucial step: your time-to-market. Time-to-market refers to the time from product creation to the moment when the product is considered mature enough to be marketed.

Product management is able to compress this time-to-market via a number of levers:

its product life-cycle approach enables you to anticipate this stage before you even get to it,
its collaborative techniques distribute the information and feedback needed to launch a new product, quickly and easily,
its agile nature gives you the flexibility to modify or add elements to your product development without disrupting the basic structure.

Integrating all stakeholders

Product management also has great collaborative qualities. This methodological framework favors communication and information sharing, and supports and integrates collaborators throughout product development.

We can speak here of a multi-disciplinary co-construction logic, since all stakeholders are integrated:

customers
business teams,
designers,
developers,
decision-makers, etc.

💡 Product management is based on " mixing skills" to create a common culture, a common goal and thus deliver quality digital products.

Adapting your product to customer feedback

Product management places great importance on the collaboration of all project groups, including customers. Who better than consumers to provide product feedback?

Some specialized product management software packages enable you to monitor and track customer feedback in real time.

Harvestr, for example, is a digital product management software that helps teams collaborate easily and create high-performance products. With automatic, real-time updates to your product roadmap based on incoming customer feedback, it gives you complete control. But that's not all! An all-in-one tool, it integrates with all your customer data and software development tools, such as ticketing solutions, for 360° control of your product development.

What role does the product manager play?

Also known as PM or Product Manager, the product manager is one of the most sought-after professions in the tech industry today. He or she is responsible for overseeing product development from inception to launch.

Establish product strategy and positioning

And this starts with establishing the product's strategy and positioning! The product manager must translate the vision of the concept's founders and the Tech team so that developers understand the intention behind the product. And that's no mean feat!

Fortunately, the PM has several strings to his bow; to achieve this, he puts in place several levers:

He conducts in-depth market research to fully understand the market, the types of target customers and their issues:
👉 in order to present it to the teams and facilitate understanding of the product's environment;

He creates his product positioning in alignment with the strategic objectives of the company and decision-makers:
👉 to remain consistent with the company's overall vision;

He establishes the product strategy and vision according to reliable and comprehensible sales forecasts to give greater weight to the project and demonstrate its profitability:
👉 a product strategy is not complete without reliable quantitative data.

Understanding and prioritizing every request

The PM works closely with all parties involved in the project: CEOs, marketing teams, sales teams and even customers. There's no shortage of requests and ideas! The role of the product manager is to understand and listen to each request, then prioritize them.

The aim here is to foster communication between teams, and to choose the ideas or complaints that will move the project forward more quickly and increase end-user satisfaction.

Overseeing every design stage

The product manager defines the product roadmap according to the priorities defined just beforehand; he or she must therefore be familiar with the technical imperatives linked to development, production launch and the management of bugs or potential difficulties of use.

In short, he or she is the product's orchestra conductor. He or she must be available at all times to :

ensure that requests are taken into account,
validate each design step,
confer at any time (if necessary) with the various parties involved in the project,
ensure that the product roadmap is respected and that the product or new functionalities are fixed on time, etc.