1, very familiar with the industry
If you want to know more about different industries, you should have worked for at least two to three years and read a lot. You can clearly understand the current situation and future development trend of the industry, and you should be familiar with the current product form and business model of the industry. For example, in the mobile Internet industry, you should at least have an understanding of the development history, current situation and possible future opportunities. This is the appearance, and in addition to the appearance, there must be inner, that is, to be what it looks like.
In other words, as an industry practitioner, you should at least understand the situation of industry practitioners. For example, the author used to be the product director of a QR code app and spent two months doing industry research. During this period, I read many articles, at least several times about the history, present situation, future trends and technologies of the industry, and deeply studied the advantages and disadvantages of similar companies at home and abroad, how long it was established, the origin of its founders and the promotion methods.
Of course, at the end of the investigation, the author became an industry expert, wrote many industry articles, and was reprinted by more than N websites. Even what I learned can be talked with doctoral students who study these fields, so that others can answer questions when they ask questions. Of course, there are many experts in this industry, and they are very familiar with this industry. At least later, when I talked with those practitioners in Weibo, I could still talk to them. These are the understandings of people in the industry.
2. Know the user very well
I often meet some product managers who talk about users' needs, but when asked how many users you have contacted, how much market research you have done, what kind of people they are, and what do you think of them, it is estimated that many product managers are speechless and really understand users, not their own fantasies, but actually contact users and chat with them. In fact, a company should understand users and why they are customers, because customer service often chats with users. We should be very familiar with users' needs. Some people who understand users' needs are sales, because these people are offline and directly face users, so the real product manager has at least done sales, or customer service, or often hangs out with netizens in various forums, post bars and question-and-answer products.
The author used to be a seven-level answer to Baidu's Q&A, answering thousands of industry questions. After understanding the problems of many users, I wrote a post and spread millions of web pages, which was also used as a tutorial by many Taobao shopkeepers. I think this is the real understanding of users.
Here, let's take the topic of renting an app as an example. You have at least rented a house and been a renter, and you know the psychology of users very well. I saw dozens of houses in a few days, but only two or three were satisfied, and I received hundreds of rental calls. Of course, most of them are intermediaries. After this process, I found that this is an industrial chain, including homeowners, intermediaries, tenants, cleaning, broadband, freight and partnership.
3. Know the market very well.
When it comes to the market, it may also be business. In many companies, business and market are actually one department. Many product designs do not consider these requirements at all. The products are designed for business or marketing. As a result, the market and businesses were dumbfounded at first sight. No slogans and materials, no business model. So we need to push out requirements, require technical modification, add interfaces, and then develop. As a result, we met all day to discuss the needs and came out for a few months. More than half of the promotion time of gold has passed, and it is more difficult for merchants and markets to promote cooperation. Moreover, many products designed by product managers are written by business and market. In fact, these are all things that product managers should think about in advance, at least when designing products.
There are also many slogans designed by product managers, which can only be understood by themselves or written from their own perspective. For example, many domestic mobile phone manufacturers always tell users how many cores, pixels and millimeters our mobile phones are. Most of these technical terms are spoken by product managers, and users simply can't understand them. In this respect, Apple's copywriting is the best, which is worth thinking and learning by many product managers.
So a good product manager should also have a good understanding of the market and business, at least you have worked in the market or business.
4. Very familiar with the product itself
Finally, when it comes to the product itself, if the above points are macroscopic, then the last point is microscopic and related to the product, that is, the technological development of the product and the current and future development direction of the product itself. When it comes to technology, at least communicate with technical students more, so that technical students can understand some introductions of products, which can stimulate the enthusiasm of technical personnel for development.
At the same time, as a product manager, we should make a long-term plan for the product, including the development and changes in the early, middle and late stages of the product. For example, many functions that a product should have in the initial stage, such as core functions, security, anti-cheating, data statistics, product update, etc., are not considered comprehensively, which leads to a lot of data being taken away by competitors, which is also a great loss.
At this point, wechat has done a good job. The author intercepted the historical news link of WeChat as a menu. At first it was found that it could be used, but later it was found that it could not be used. It turns out that most of these links are expired, which prevents the danger of data being maliciously grabbed. In fact, it is the function of the product. Although many product managers have designed products, it is really difficult for them to talk about the functions of the products, such as the main core functions and auxiliary functions of the products. These should be some treasures. Let's be clear.
This is the future development trend of products. Many products are designed without considering the future, and the product structure is not well done, so that they have to be revised constantly. Finally, make the product into four elephants. The future of products includes membership system, upgrade system, update system, profit system, new function interface, data export and so on. Therefore, the product must know the product very well, otherwise, you should not be a product manager. An excellent product manager must have clear logic, clear classification and accurate description.
So, what should a good product manager look like? People who have done at least a variety of jobs and positions can at least understand the industry trends from a macro perspective, understand users and products from a micro perspective, see opportunities, seize opportunities, and always stay awake and not be confused.