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Product Management is a function that articulate, direct, control and strategizes, an organisation’s span of products and services. It is the centre point that brings together Consumers, Target market, Technical and Financial expertise so that it may governs the types of products and services that a company thrives to develop and continue to offer in the market. The role of the product management is misunderstood by many people because of its meaning varies across various companies and industries. The product management function should be described in terms of the sort of work that needs to be done. There are three unique areas of work exist for developing and managing products in any company New Product Planning, Introduction, Post Launch review- Product Life Cycle Management. There are Products that simply don’t work right, aren’t useful, are too difficult to adapt, or that take more time to sell. There are some difficulties that occur so frequently and are so destroying that we think they are at the root of the most of bad products. Here we are going describe why we get confused and fall into these artifice. This below list will hopefully serve as a prompt to the dangers to avoid in your company’s product development efforts.
States of Confusion between Customer Requirements and Product Requirements in product management is the first pitfall; first, customers won’t know what they need, second, customers don’t know viability, third is, customers aren’t in a state to understand their wide range of needs and opportunities. Product management is accountable for defining the right product by understanding the target market with their needs, and then to work to combine what is possible with desirable.
Making ourselves confused between innovation and value; Innovation in product management should have a clear purpose. It should not simply look real life problems in technological perspective. There are numerous products in the market today which is simply because they are possible now, but it had not been built to solve a real problem, or to give better solutions than other. Product development team should be equipped with a clear vision and product strategy so that they will have an opportunity to see the customer problems directly which results innovations and breakthrough products can result. A vision and strategy are the two key factors that supports in providing true value to the customer.
Making ourselves confused with our Customers; it is natural in product development we think ourselves as the target customer when we design and develop the product. But it is very dangerous because perception varies from one to other. For example, you may be able to learn and get to use any product easily, but for others it will not be the same they may find the product overwhelming, complex, irritating, and useless. To perform better we must put our products in front of customers in target market, and review their response carefully and continuously which help us to keep their perspective in mind.
Making ourselves confused with the Customer and User; it is incredible to know how many product efforts do not differentiate the customer from the user. But the fact is their needs are different which varies from one another. The person who buys the product need not necessarily consumes it; they both have different concerns from the consumer who sit down and consume the product every day. Sales persons can understand this difference, and often break down these barriers to increase sales. The product team should be exposed to the customers – the buyers are the economic decision makers who represent the needs of the users. The personas technique and user profiling will help to ensure the product management team to raise this issue early.
Confusing Features with Benefits; product management team will be easily absorbed with the specification of the product, rather than the benefits it should provide. The product’s value proposition should speak its benefits than its features. Simply Product must have a clear and fascinating value proposition. Target market must be understood deeply, and the people in that market must perceive that our product solves a real problem. There are may be reasons for poor value proposition; product which is not solving problem significantly, an interesting technology looking for the right application, the product is not valuable and useful to the people in the target market, or expensive relative to the benefits.
Confusion on Building Right Product or Building Product Right; The critical issues around building the product right; whether process followed was good or not, whether the project completed on budget and met the quality goals. Unfortunately, this is not contributing any value to the product or will actually be paid for by customers. Did the product development team build the right product? It is important to ensure that the product designed has reliability and execute its functions as required. If not it is useless. It is important for every member of the product development team to keep both factors in mind. Usability testing and quality assurance will help you evaluate if you have built the right product and the product right.
Confusing Product with Business Model There have been numerous new products that couldn’t sustain in market. It is not enough just to develop a good product by product development team; it must be in aligned with, the company’s business model. Sometimes this will be difficult but considering the situation we should improve our mission dramatically. For example the television industry is heavily funded by commercials; so the employees at TiVo worked hard with the industry and came up with a new business model and product that customers cherished and still let customers move forward through commercials, but did it in a way that without affecting the industry.
Don’t confuse with Inspiring Features with Nice-to-Have Features; one of the most significant problems in product management team is the emotional element. People bluntly put their inspiring features in product definition which may not require. We have to create product with enthusiasm and excitement, without that it is tougher to build a community of loyal customers and it is much harder to sell. When exploring for ways to introduce excitement in your product sometimes you’ll stick on to the features that are inspiring and less obvious, alike the emotional impact of the visual design. Design is vital factor in the user experience than most product management teams had realized.
Try to avoid adding Features than Improving Product; adding features is an old the formula for improving your product. You might have heard that your customers telling you that the product is good but it doesn’t satisfy my need. Give importance on core functional requirement of the product than adding up on features.
Confusing a Complete Product with a Sellable Product; Even if you have the best product and your organization is not aligned with the effective distribution to sell the product then your product will fail. You ask yourself whether we have clear organization’s structure, business model, the sales and distribution channel for effectively reaching the market. In general, it is much easier to align the product to fit the business model and company structure than starting a new company, or partnering, or acquisitions of an existing to meet the needs of your product.
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