The Importance of Product Management

It’s simple, a company will not survive unless earns profitably from the products and services it offers. From this obvious, yet fundamental statement comes the next question: how does a company create compelling products and services?

The importance of this question cannot be understated and many companies have attempted to address it through the use of product managers within their organization. A role that has become so important, that one blogger recently stated that the product manager is the 4th most important role behind the CEO, other C-level positions, and general managers. More surprisingly, he placed this role above product development and sales.

Why is this?

It is not meant as a criticism of other departments or their contributions, but rather a growing need within organizations to provide a focal point to guide stakeholders like marketing, sales, and development towards answering:

1. Who truly is our customer?
2. How does the customer actually buy?
3. What product or service actually fulfills the “job to be done” in their life?
4. Can we profitably create the product or service the customer when the customer needs it?

By employing the right product management principles within a company, these questions (and others) can be systematically investigated and answered. The product manager’s responsibility then is to help their teams have a holistic understanding that aligns around their customer needs. Once done, determining what to build, where to sell, and how much to charge begin to get much clearer, thus providing that much needed first step towards market success.

If you’re interested in learning more about our product management services, contact Box Parker here.

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