Product management, the secret weapon of growing companies

By Rita Hassani Idrissi

Published: 17 October 2024

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

These are all 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 all the stages in the life cycle of a digital product.

🔎 Let's take a closer look at this evolving organisational process, a real performance driver for businesses.

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What is product management?

Product management: definition

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

👉 Product management has only recently emerged in recent years to provide an easier response to the various problems encountered by product teams, namely :

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

It is therefore an integral part of the company's organisational process. It allows product teams greater flexibility and better communication with other sectors of the company, particularly 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 formalised and the needs of the target audience are properly defined. The marketing team will set 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 designing, prioritising and framing the various stages in the production and organisation of the product. This concerns all the technical, visual and communication features, etc.

Product ownership

Yes, just like the agile method, product management enables a digital product to be delivered in its entirety, through iterative development cycles . This means :

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

Product marketing

Now is the time to distribute your product, measure its performance using marketing KPIs and check whether the objectives have been achieved.

Why use product management?

To define a vision and an evolving product 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 allows you to create a product gradually and in cycles, so that you can take account of sometimes (very often) unexpected changes in the environment.

Reduce your time-to-market

Crucial step: your time-to-market. This is the time it takes from the creation of a product to the moment when it is considered mature enough to be put on the market.

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

its product lifecycle approach means that you can anticipate this stage before you even get to it,
its collaborative techniques disseminate 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 favours communication and the sharing of information; it supports and integrates collaborators throughout product development.

This can be described as a multi-disciplinary co-construction approach, since all the stakeholders are involved:

customers
business teams
designers
developers
decision-makers, etc.

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

Adapting your product based on customer feedback

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

Certain software packages specialising in product management allow you to monitor all aspects of the project, including customer feedback, in real time.

Harvestr, for example, is 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 now one of the most sought-after professions in the tech industry. He or she is responsible for supervising the creation and development of the product from its construction to its launch.

Establishing the product strategy and positioning

And this starts with establishing the product's strategy and positioning! The product manager must translate the vision of the founders of the concept and the Tech team so that the 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:

They carry out in-depth market research to understand the market, the types of target customers and the issues they face:
👉 in order to present it to the teams and make it easier to understand the product's environment;

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

It establishes the product strategy and vision on the basis of reliable, 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 each request and prioritising them

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

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

Supervising each design stage

The product manager defines the product roadmap according to the priorities defined just beforehand; he or she must therefore be aware of the technical imperatives linked to development, production roll-out and the management of bugs or potential user difficulties.

In short, they are like the conductor of the product orchestra. They must be available at all times to :

ensure that requests are taken into account,
validate each design stage,
talk to the various parties involved in the project at any time (if necessary),
ensure that the product roadmap is adhered to and that the product or new features are released on time, etc.