I will teach you how to become a Product Manager | ex-Microsoft, Senior Product Manager at Stepstone
Do you sometimes feel frustration, as you are building a product to get the management off your back, rather than address the users? Here are 6 ways to become user-centric again: 1) Prioritize in a transparent way This is a great place to start. If your backlog is prioritized based on data and potential opportunity, risk, and cost, it will be easier to put forth user-centric initiatives ahead of those that came from upstairs. At the very least, you will have a good basis for an educated discussion. 2) Utilize users' perspective using user stories and personas If your team understands the users and their problems, it will be easier to craft something great that will later appeal to the same users. Just keep up the empathy of creating something by people for other people, and not get some metric magically go up! 3) Make user feedback public If everyone in the company can see the themes that come from user feedback, it will be way harder to ignore it in favor of some corporate nonsense. Let those voices be heard by everyone! 4) Have the NPS and user ratings at the forefront The same goes for a single metric representing the general product sentiment. If the number is low or, worse, is going down and everyone can see that, the responsible Product Manager has to react. 5) Focus on your product goals Now, upstairs mandates might not be the only distraction you face when trying to improve your product. To survive them all, focus on one thing: your product goals. This will allow you to demonstrate you are doing what you are asked for and you can use user feedback and points 1-4 to pursue those goals. Thus, it's like killing 2 birds with 1 stone. However, you can also simply: 6) Have the confidence to say "No" Not all company/legal/management requests can be ignored. Sometimes changing the law or a wider company initiative will require you to comply and that is OK! However, there will also be times when someone will try to force your compliance. This is where you need to be confident, and exercise your Product Manager's independence, especially when there is no data to support a specific request. There you go! My 6 ways you can become a user-centric Product Manager. How about you? Do you address your users or your management first and foremost when developing your product? Sound off in the comments! #productmanagement #productmanager #usercentricity
A tester would have been invaluable here as a scapegoat. Designer: Here's a wonderful idea, the purpose is not to spill the contents. Developer: Got it. No further instructions required. Tester: But it doesn't work because if you shake it the contents fall out because the container cannot adjust fast enough to the arm movement due to the materials used. Developer: It didn't do that when I tried it. Manager: Nobody would do that. They'd use it the same as in the demo. And they would have read the instructions. BTW, Tester, you need to write those as the Training department just got laid off. Purchaser: I wouldn't do that, I'm too smart. I always read the instructions and watch the demos. User: So the purpose is to try and spill as much of the contents as possible?
Never underestimate the ingenuity of a toddler
Love the video that goes with this. I always love to watch users actually using your product or prototype in their environment. You pick up on things you’d never have expected inside the four walls of your organization. You see things going on around them in their day-to-day that can’t be tracked by the system. It’s where theory meets reality. Like this precious video.
Eat your own dog food! The closer your team is to being users of your product the faster you will develop a successful product. At IVL Technologies we were developing digital effects processors for the music industry. Most engineers were performing musicians and we all had at least some formal music training. The team inherently made better decisions, resulting in faster time to market and more successful products.
Thinking from the user's perspective and working backward is crucial for improving product performance and customer satisfaction. Rather than aligning your product's development to meet the expectations of current users, focus on addressing the complaints of dissatisfied users. By focusing on feedback from users who complain, you can drive meaningful improvements that not only meet but exceed user expectations, ultimately creating a more robust and user-centric product.
Good luck saying no to the top or making any change on this list without org buy in. It's dangerous to teach this to new PMs. Not reality and it sets people up for failure and unrealistic expectations. An org will change you before you change it. And you will burn a lot of social capital and credibility along the way. This type of change will not be possible without top down alignment.
Your post provides a comprehensive guide to maintaining a user-centric approach amidst competing demands. Thank you Dr Bart Jaworski. I particularly resonate with your emphasis on transparency in prioritization and leveraging user stories and personas to foster empathy within the team. In addition to making user feedback public, I've found that actively involving users in the product development process can be incredibly beneficial. Whether through beta testing, user advisory boards, or user co-creation sessions, direct user involvement not only validates the product direction but also fosters a sense of ownership and loyalty among users.
Since "User Persona" just give us an approach to know the profile of our customers / users instead of know the needs I rather use Jobs To Be Done as a tool for Product Discovery. About the video, yeah may be very frustating for devs see how the product is bad used but according with UX its never user fault: why the user did that with the product? maybe because we really don't know what are the porpuse of the product for the user and again JTBD are an excellent tool to get a better approach of it.
This product is not intended for use in this manner. Instead, it is designed for application in moving objects such as cars and motorcycles, where it maintains stability regardless of road conditions, including bumps and irregularities.
I will teach you how to become a Product Manager | ex-Microsoft, Senior Product Manager at Stepstone
1moBeing a product manager for a job board on the job seeker side, I believe I have a privileged position where, regardless of what I do, I will always have my user in the spotlight. After all, every application made for a job is an opportunity for a better future for the user, so why not push them a little to share their resume?