The product is a very large and relatively relative concept. For consumers, the product is the specific item they use (domestic consumers do not have the habit of treating services as products, such as various financial services launched by financial companies). , In fact, are products launched by financial institutions, but consumers are not accustomed to calling intangible items as products. Therefore, when financial institutions launch such products, they generally use the name “some service”, such as automobiles. It is a product, and a mobile phone is also a product; for the specific executors in the product process, it is more detailed. For example, for market personnel, the product should be a concentrated expression of multiple needs, which is abstract; for technical personnel In other words, the product should be on the drawings and can be used for industrialization. It seems abstract, but it is actually image; for the salesperson, the product is the substantial item with packaging that can bring profit, which can be seen. Things you can touch.
But as a product manager, if you understand the product from the above perspective, you will be very one-sided, not only for yourself, but also for your company.
Laotang has also made several products, and now I briefly summarize, I am willing to share my personal experience with you brothers. Thank you for your support.
As a person, when I consider a product, I generally consider the following aspects:
1. Demand
Needless to say, demand is the soul of the product. As a product manager, you are actually dealing with a variety of needs related to your product every day. These demands come from the market, from the wishes of the senior management, and from Personally, the needs mentioned here are not the same as the needs recognized by the market department. The needs recognized by the market are scattered and disorderly. For them, these needs may be a market opportunity and a good selling point, but If the product manager thinks so too, problems may arise. It is not that these requirements are useless, but that the product manager should consider how to use these requirements, rather than simply satisfying each demand point.
Product managers must learn to give up, this is the truth (this, Lao Tang will summarize an article again, ^_^!)
Therefore, the same is the understanding of demand, and the product manager’s understanding must be more rational and comprehensive than that of the marketing department, so that a good MRD can be formed.
2. Features
Features are more specific and vivid performances than needs. Many needs may eventually form only a few features in PRD, that is, these few features determine the market ability of the product. At this point, there will definitely be friends Ask, isn’t this the selling point of the product? Yes, that’s right. This is consistent with the product selling points formed by the marketing department in the product promotion strategy. I mean that as a product manager, you must be one step ahead of other departments. When the product is still in the text, you must The selling point of the product is considered clearly, otherwise there will be such a problem: after the product comes out, there is no characteristic, the marketing department cannot formulate an effective promotion strategy, and a lot of manpower and financial resources are wasted. A product with no characteristic is so competitive. In the environment, the short life cycle can be imagined.
The reason why product managers are asked to use features to understand the selling points of the products is that I hope that brothers can work hard on this level. Don’t expect the products to come out and then think about the selling points of the products, but at the beginning, you must think clearly. If you are not sure about it, don’t make this product.
3. Technical means
If the requirements are clear and the features are clear, let us do it, ^_^, don’t think that when it comes to the technicalization stage, you are just controlling the progress, urging the technical staff, coordinating the development resources, retreating to the second line, and completely handing it over The R&D manager will do it.
As a product manager, it is definitely inappropriate to know nothing about the technology to realize your own products.
For example: to develop an e-commerce system, the requirements are very clear, and the program is not difficult to implement. For many product managers, they will feel that there is no problem and just do it. In fact, it is not the case. Use ACCESS and SQL. The effect of the database may be quite different. At this time, the product manager must consider the expected user scale of the system. The user scale of 100,000 and 1 million, or even 10 million, has completely different requirements for the database. Don’t wait for the technicians to come and tell you, you have to think about it and tell them, because the technicians don’t know how many users the system will carry. Changing the database can be troublesome.
I have seen some such product managers. The product ideas are very good, but because of the lack of understanding of the technical implementation methods, the product design documents are very thin and cannot be recognized by the technical department at all, and they are concerned about the technology that may appear in the product. The risks are not sufficiently understood.
Product managers must understand the technical means of product realization. Understanding technology is not to debate with technicians how to do it when problems are discovered, but to make themselves more comprehensive and feasible when considering products, and avoid detours.
4. Implementation resources
To clarify the technical means is actually to clarify the extent to which the product can be realized, but don’t think that this can be done in a relaxed manner. Another factor that is easy to overlook is the “realization resources”.
The realized resources mainly include: manpower; material resources; financial resources. In layman’s terms, it is how many people, equipment, and money the company can provide to make this product. Simply put, the product manager should “have what weapons to fight”. I think there are not many companies in China that can have ” What kind of weapons are used for fighting” conditions.
The resources the company provides to product managers directly determine what the product can look like. This is not alarmist. In fact, many product managers have this experience. The product design is very good, but it is because the company cannot give enough resources to finally make it. There is a big difference between the product and the drawing. In fact, this is a very helpless thing. After all, thinking is one thing, doing it is another thing. If you think you can construct your dreams in a wild way, and doing it will be inevitable. Restricted by various objective conditions, there are not enough developers, or enough developers, but the technical level is not good, or the necessary technical equipment is lacking, or there are equipment, no people who understand the equipment to operate, etc.
Therefore, when product managers are considering products, they must figure out the resources they can control before formulating a realistic product development cycle and various subsequent tasks.
5. Development cycle
After clarifying the resources available for their products, the product manager can work out a more objective development cycle. I won’t do too much introduction here. Everyone is very familiar with how to put the development cycle on top. I’ll just talk about some old soups. Personal experience:
1) The development cycle must be more surplus. For example, if the estimated development cycle is 30 days, you must not get stuck in 30 days. You must include the surplus time of the project. My experience is that the surplus time accounts for the estimate 20% of the time, if it’s 30 days, 36 days when making plans. This is because the risks of the project have to be taken into account. The more time is a way to avoid risks. I won’t introduce too much here. You can have time. Learn some knowledge of project management.
2) Never slap your chest: The product is not a personal product, but the product of the entire company. Individuals must be responsible for the product. Never slap your chest to promise anything, but should be realistic and follow the established development plan to do it If problems arise, they must be analyzed and resolved in time. If their resources cannot be resolved, they must be reported to the top in a timely manner. If adjustments are necessary, there is nothing to be embarrassed about. Don’t think that you must do it if you take a picture. , Even Vista will delay the release time.
3) Have the courage to say “no” to the senior management. Who knows the product best is the product manager, who can know the product in mind, who is the product manager, who is responsible for the product, or the product manager. From this perspective, except for the product manager, other people are relative to the product. Layers, since they are laymen, they will definitely ask laymen’s questions, such as high-level unrealistic development cycle requirements, projects that can only be completed within 30 days, and high-level executives ask you to complete them in 10 days. If you don’t say “no”, wait Yours is painful torture.
6. Product positioning
A product is not a collection of simple functions. A car can be said to be a product or not a product. Without a good product positioning, this product is just a visible concept. The concept car at the auto show. It can be said to be a product, but it does not have a market positioning, that is, it is still incomplete, it is just a pile of automotive technology.
Therefore, when product managers consider products, they should not only see a medium or a physical thing. Internet product managers should not only consider how the website platform should be structured. Software product managers should not only see the final CD, but It is to give these media the soul that can be conveyed. This is the market positioning of the product.
When considering positioning, the product manager should ask himself more questions: “Who is this product for?”, “Where is the target user of the product?”, “What are the characteristics of the target user?”, “Do I Is there a competitor?”, “What are the characteristics of a competitor’s product?”, “How should I use my strengths and avoid weaknesses?” and so on.
In fact, there is no need to talk about this aspect, so I will briefly mention it here.
7. Market strategy
With a clear market positioning, it is necessary to consider objective and feasible market strategies from the positioning.
The marketing strategy is based on a clear positioning. For example, the target users of a product are young women. When formulating a marketing strategy, it is necessary to consider promoting the product from the perspective of young women, such as advertising It is necessary to consider what the psychological feelings of this group are, what kind of advertising model and content can most impress such users, even the promoters during promotion, should also consider whether it meets the tastes of the target users, the most common is the supermarket Almost all those who promote beer are young girls wearing short skirts, while those who promote daily foods (such as cooking oil) must be middle-aged women who dress very casually. This is because the majority of beer consumers are young men. Using young girls to promote sales will definitely attract the attention of many target users. Middle-aged women who promote edible oils are generally married. She can approach consumers by way of personal explanations, while edible oil buyers generally come. It is said that it is mainly women who have married a little older.
The above examples are a bit too specific. What I want to say is that when considering marketing strategies, product managers must consider more comprehensively, try to think of the details of the strategy, and communicate with colleagues in the marketing department in this process. After all, the product manager is not too professional in the market, so he has to express his ideas and explain the reasons. Only when a product with a suitable positioning is combined with a feasible market strategy can it show a strong market invading ability.
8. Service
This aspect is easy to be overlooked. Although almost all companies are now talking about “service”, in fact, they have not worked hard on the details, including many product managers.
In foreign countries, some companies have put forward the theory that “products are an extension of services”, such as IBM. Do you say that he is a software company or a service company? In fact, in my opinion, service is an inseparable part of products. Therefore, when considering products, service factors must be taken into consideration.
Don’t just focus on the physical object with many functions. My personal approach is: When considering the product, the service factor after the product is launched must be added to the product. Specifically, it is the current customer service department. Whether it can meet the needs of new products, what forms of service are there currently, whether it is necessary to strengthen customer service, how to improve the efficiency of customer service, what form can better realize the service to users, whether it is necessary to develop a customer service process to meet new products, and how Obtain valuable information from customer service and so on.
Don’t separate the product from the customer service. Think that the product manager is the product and the service is the customer service department’s business. This is a bit wrong. I suggest that the product manager should take a guest role in the customer service when there is time to understand the real users. The true psychology of their products.
9. Price
The price setting of a product is not just thinking about it, it needs to be considered from the multiple aspects just mentioned:
1) Realization resources: how much manpower, material and financial resources the company has paid for this product, this is the most basic product cost;
2) Market positioning: You need to know what user group the product is made for, whether it is a mass user or a professional user, and what range of product prices are generally acceptable to this user group; if it is a regional market, different levels of market must be considered What is your spending power;
3) Marketing strategy: If you want to occupy the market as soon as possible, how can the price be set to be competitive and attract users? Whether it is a high-price strategy or a low-price strategy, it must be based on the market strategy of the product, such as a low-price strategy Product, it is very likely that this product is not used to make money, but to impact the market, establish brand influence, and set the stage for the next profitable product.
4) Service: Many companies think that service is to increase the simple labor cost and office cost of a customer service staff. If understood in this way, it is just a simple addition, which will cause a great waste of company costs, because the reasonable service process is efficient A good service system and a good quality of service personnel will affect the cost of service. It may be multiplication or division.
10. Product channels
It stands to reason that this should be a matter for the channel department, but as a product manager, you have to know it. The product is also available, the market positioning and strategy are in place, and the price is set. The next step is to sweep the market, but don’t be too happy, when you find that your target market simply cannot push your product to target users. At that time, just wait and be dumbfounded. Channels are highways, good channels are highways, and poor channels are county-level highways. You can also run cars, but you can see who is fast and slow.
Product managers are not the main body of channel construction, but they should also understand something. When considering products, they should communicate with colleagues in the channel to understand what the current company’s channels are like, and whether the products you are planning have enough If you don’t have a channel to support you, whether you need to establish it, these are all considered in the early stage. Don’t wait for yourself to get the product out, only to find that your product and the target user are separated by the ocean.
