5 Things Product Managers Need to do Better in 2018

An effective product manager is the one who has a visionary emphasis and capable to know their customers in some of the specific domains even better than the customer can ever know themselves. In order to explicit the user requests and thinking about the bigger picture for imaging a holistic journey of the customer, these product managers have to respond. They are capable to toggle between particular and abstract from this view, turn subtle and often require unstated into solutions for seeking to delight and anticipate.

The customers having enough choices are recognized by these product managers and this flexibility to select that doesn’t expire while making the first purchase. Switching costs remain lower than ever it can be in a SaaS-based universe. Moreover, new enterprise software has been deployed by nearly 70% companies in the last one year, the existing solutions can be replaced by the majority of these. It is clear to see the implications of this fact. If you are a product manager, your duty is to deliver a product that not only caters the initial requirements but also remains capable of earning their post with your client over a certain period of time.

We want to say that there is a more importance held by the modern product managers for the health of the SaaS-based business as compared to other functions. Furthermore, it is their duty to anticipate and fulfill both the present as well as future requirements of the customer. In order to do that, they think about a greater picture by zooming it out and drilling down for finding details. There are lots of people who consider Net Promoter Score for establishing a streamlined for the satisfaction of the customers, looking to connect with the emotions of the customer according to the user behavior for the identifying the areas that need improvement.

Check out the five particular things that are needed to be performed better by the product managers in 2018:

1. Begin the process with why

According to the popular TED-talker Simon Sinek, you should begin with why. The majority of you might be thinking why we should do that? It is due to the fact that customers basically shop not because what you are doing, but why you are doing for that. This technique is implemented by the organizations, such as Salesforce, Amazon, and Apple. These companies look for something bigger as compared to the total product parts. However, what is the need to go beyond the company narrative?

What should be the heartbeat of the product management feature? There should be an obsession in the ideal product managers regarding the job’s understanding that needs to be performed in the lives of their customers. They are generally boosted to the obsession point due to this important question, why anyone is willing to utilize this product? Which problems are solved by it? And what is the problem that comes with this problem? How can they be eliminated? Product managers are allowed to be aware of the customers in a better way as compared to the customers themselves due to this type of inquiry.

2. Check out beyond your category

An average product manager generally stays obsessed with the competition. There must be an obsession with an ideal product manager. A normal product manager targets the next-best alternative of the customer, whereas the last-best experience is focused by the great product managers. The B2B software can be built by you, but the expectations of the customers can be shaped. It isn’t only done by your competitors, but also by Amazon and Uber. Already, they have figured out what a good thing looks like and nothing lesser will be accepted, irrespective of category.

Generally, the excellent product managers look beyond the limitations and learn from the organizations who have done it in a right way no matter where they live. Furthermore, it can be distant or adjacent categories that provide the maximum chances for doing something innovative and inspirational. Perpetuate mediocrity are categorized bounded by the product managers. Category distinctions are rarely made by the customers and that’s you too should do that.

3. Testing and failing to learn and scale

The build-measure-learn feedback loop is the main part of the Lean Startup methodology. So, it is compulsory to “test & fail” to “learn & scale”. After defining a high-value issue, don’t only target the complete solution, but on the minimum viable product. You will be allowed to gather and work on the usage data and customer feedback as the refining basis and increasing the initial iterations by adding something into the learning wild sets and motions.

The response rates of 50-60% are seen by the product leaders as compared to the 10% average that comes from the email surveys if feedback is asked within the application. These in-app surveys can be combined with the usage data for revealing even more strong insights for helping the product leader in identifying and prioritizing the highest effect works for iterating towards the item perfection.

4. Continuous innovation and optimization

The trap of set it and forget it can be avoided by the best product managers. There is no need to declare win on the launching day. Instead of that, they should utilize that thing for memorializing the starting of a journey that never ends. The reason behind that is that a product leader should never stop before the full value is received by the customer from the new credentials. Creating something that wouldn’t be utilized can be purely defined as a complete waste and not fair as per the team members and customers. There is a need for continuous innovation and optimization for the product managers until they attain complete success. They should look to attain and renew the loyalty of the customers every time a product is used. But, the real question is how? It can be done by always staying dissatisfied with the status quo and the product done should never be declared. If innovation and optimization are continuously failing by the product leaders, then they will learn in a fast manner about how much unforgiving is the market.

5. Capturing and acting on customer feedback

NPS is extremely simple and elegant as a customer experience metric. However, it is specifically actionable. Every person understands that the measurement can’t be managed by yourself. But, the real question is why you should measure something that isn’t understandable. For the majority of the companies, making a co-relation of the NPS scores with particular behaviors and experiences looks tougher or even impossible to discern. That’s why it is so important that qualitative details such as NPS scores should be combined with the other quantitative measures to reach the real truth.

Customer feedback is taken as periodic snapshots in time by the product managers who only have average thinking. Only highly-skilled product managers have the capability to see it as a part of a continuous narrative. The most important thing about this narrative is combining the qualitative data, such as NPS and additional quantitative behavioral measures. Furthermore, customer delight is driven by the engagement patterns.

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