Business processes related to planning, developing, launching, and managing products are referred to as product management. Product management covers every stage of the product lifecycle, from ideation to implementation and then onwards to its marketing. It is basically divided into 3 core phases:
1. Strategic Product Management
Strategic product management encompasses all strategic aspects and tasks required to make an existing or future product successful.
In this phase, the product managers take the time to clearly understand the customer’s business problem from their point of view so they can truly offer products that add value instead of just improving on currently available, often substandard solutions. Additionally, they take a thoughtful approach to investigating market opportunities in order to find attractive, strong candidates – based on the organization’s sales, marketing, and product competencies.
Market analysis is a critical component of this phase. It includes segmenting the market, deciding which customers to target, and providing the input needed to develop product propositions. It is important to think of this as an ongoing cycle of activity.
This includes, among other things, the information analysis, the development of a concept as well as coordination and optimization measures.
This phase also includes things like:
- Market Identification
- Customer Persona
- SWOT Analysis
- Marketing Potential
- Basic Tech Analysis
- Market Strategy
- Communication
- Product Roadmap
- Overall Business Plan
To effectively communicate your strategic elements, consider creating an impactful presentation with templates tailored for SWOT analysis or market analysis, as these templates can enhance the visual appeal of your presentation, contributing to a more engaging and informative delivery of your strategic insights.
2. Technical Product Management
In technical product management, there is a similar approach to strategic product management.
Technical Product Management combines some of the most sought-after skills in one single position. TPMs often build products for product people, which requires acute knowledge of both customer and business needs. Technical PMs don’t just have to have a basic idea of how their highly technical products work, they need to know how it impacts their users.
They need to know how to collect and deploy data, crack the engineer’s process, and become problem-solving machines. Technical Product Management involves the management of products of relatively high technical complexity.
Here are some other tasks that also come under technical product management:
- User Technical Persona
- Gauging Requirements
- Resource Allocation
- Use Case Scenarios
- Prototype
- Review
- Approval of Prototype
3. Go To Market (Product Marketing)
This is probably one of the most important phases since this is where the strategies of launching the new product, marketing it, and actually bringing in revenue for the company will happen.
In the earliest stages of developing a go-to-market strategy for a new product or a service, the company has to initially conduct an accurate definition of the target market. They need to conduct research on things like, “Is market segmentation necessary for this product”, “Which channels of marketing will be used”, etc.
This is the phase where the company decides on the right distribution and marketing channels followed by promotion. A company has to decide which distribution model to choose, what kind of support and services are required, and address the possibility of creating a competitive advantage. Afterward, the company decides how it is going to promote its product or services and what kind of marketing campaigns are the most influential to follow
For e.g. A few years ago, the company Fitbit launched Smart Coach. (a premium service and personal training app, that integrates with the users of Fitbit)
They started off their GTM strategy with simple objectives, including:
- Increasing subscription revenue
- Building brand awareness
- Boosting the subscription attach rate
The campaign involved leveraging both paid and owned channels to reach the target audience (which consisted of people who owned FitBit wearable devices and smartphones).
The end result: The company earned an estimated $192 million in revenue through this strategy.
Go-to-market also includes:
- Product Launch Plan
- Product Life Cycle
- Marketing Plan
- Marketing Efficiency
- Customer Support
- Demos, Trials, etc.
- Customer Journey
- Positioning & Branding
- Website Promotion
- Sales Forecast
Conclusion
Product management involves going through a series of steps throughout the lifecycle of a product, from the conception of an idea to the marketing of the product. It involves user research, to understand the kind of user or consumer base a product has, the wireframe creation of the product, the product's current market potential, important metrics for the marketing of the product, and a lot more.
If you want to learn more about product management & the various processes involved in it then you should check out our free Product Management Course with Certification and learn about building products that have a greater impact on your organization.