The role of an IT Product Manager becomes increasingly important as our tech-driven world keeps evolving.
These experts are at the forefront of driving innovation while ensuring businesses stay competitive.
What exactly does an IT Product Manager do?
What is the Product Manager role?
A Product Manager oversees the development and production edges of different products within a company.
The IT Product Manager also handles the product vision and the strategy setting.
To do so, it works closely with specialized, cross-functional teams.
But that’s not all! A key responsibility of an IT Product Manager is to understand both market and user needs.
This stage involves market and trend research while gathering customer feedback.
All this info allows them to make strategic decisions along the Product Development process.
Why is the IT Product Manager Important?
An IT Product Manager is a crucial link between businesses and technology!
Yet, their impact is not limited to overseeing Software Development procedures.
They're strategic partners that contribute directly to business growth.
The Product Manager role thrives both in translating needs into actionable features.
This user-centric approach helps all team members ensure products align perfectly with customer desires to fuel business growth.
By analyzing competitor offerings and identifying market gaps, an IT Product Manager can focus on cutting-edge features.
That's why companies excelling at data-driven customer-centricity grow up to 60% faster than competitors.
Last, according to ProductPlan, companies with higher maturity in IT PM are 60% more likely to exceed revenue targets.
Example of the Role of an IT Product Manager
Let’s put the role of an IT Product Manager in action!
To clarify the process, we’ll use an example of the Product Manager's role in improving an existing system.
Their gal will be to boost the Customer Experience for a coffee roasting company called Big Bean Brew (BBB).
Let’s check it out!
Research
At this first stage, Big Bean Brew acknowledges there is something wrong.
Their sales have decreased when comparing this last quarter with the same period of last year!
By diving further, they discover that BBB’s website is not exactly what you'd call friendly.
Since they’re no experts, they contact a specialized partner to get a glimpse of what may be happening.
The partner's IT Product Manager conducted Usability Testing on the site.
They also interview new and existing customers to determine what issues they encountered.
The results? Users find it hard to find their desired coffee products and varieties.
As a result, they abandoning both carts and the site.
This info allowed the team to create a prototyped User Persona for this site and the brand itself.
Roadmap
By knowing the current status, the IT PM can develop a user-centric roadmap to establish both goals and steps to take.
Joint by Development and UX/UI Design teams, the Product Manager will focus on prioritizing problems.
Based on the identified issues of difficulty to find products, the IT Product Manager prioritizes features in the roadmap.
They could first focus team efforts on improving the site’s search functionalities.
This could be done with a search bar feature with autocomplete and relevant product suggestions.
The IT PM can then move to enhance the site’s navigation structure.
Intuitive navigation, well-defined menus and breadcrumb can help users finding what they’re looking for easily.
Lastly, the team could move to enhancing product listings and filtering options.
Here, the PM can pay attention to clear product descriptions, high-quality images and relevant filters.
These steps will allow the team to tackle different elements within the overall goals for the product.
Prototype
After the step-by-step roadmap, the IT Product Manager organizes the procedure to put it into action.
They start by outlining the site’s content structure and navigation hierarchy.
UI/UX Design teams work on intuitive interfaces with low-fidelity wireframes and prototypes aligned with BBB's branding.
The Product Manager focuses on tracking the feedback of real-life users testing usability.
With this info, they can identify any potential issues on both functionality and friendliness.
Development
Next in line, the IT Product Manager will serve as a bridge between the dev team and BBB’s stakeholders.
PMs ease discussions after user feedback to ensure defined features align with the defined roadmap and prototyping conclusions.
The Product Manager role manages the product backlog, defines acceptance criteria, and tracks development progress.
They also create and maintain product documentation and ensure everyone is aligned on goals.
5. Launch
Following the launch of BBB's new website, the IT Product Manager must track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Some examples include bounce rate, time on site, page views per session, average order value and sales growth.
By diligently tracking KPIs, PMs can unlock insights into how users interact with the new site.
This data holds the key to uncovering gaps in User Experience (UX) that require further optimization.
Iteration
Iterating on Big Bean Brew's new site after launch is key in addressing any shortcomings missed during the lifecycle.
At this stage, the team analyzes post-launch performance to compare it with the current status.
Let's say that there was still a high number of users leaving the site with full shopping carts.
The Product Manager role would focus on analyzing abandonment rates, heat maps, session recording and user surveys.
Following this example, the team could find out the main issue relates to payment gateways.
To address this issue, the IT Product Manager would led the team as they integrate gateways or processors.
A smart move here would be to include as many method as possible so users can rely on their preferred payment platforms.
Users can gain more flexibility while the team reduces cart abandonment due to limited methods.
Performance
By partnering with a Product Development Company, BBB revamped its website with user-centric functionalities and seamless payment options!
The company saw a significant increase in sales and improved Customer Satisfaction.
In this context, the IT Product Manager's data-driven approach ensured the project's success .
The Future for IT Product Management
As technology and business change, the Product Manager role constantly evolves.
It’s key to stay up-to-date with trends and breakthroughs.
Of course, a big trend is the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).
We can see it used today to automate areas like feature prioritization and feedback analysis.
Alongside, we’ve seen the results of the increasing importance of data!
PMs harnessing data to not only back up their decision-making but also to measure the outcomes.
That shows the relevance of this role to deliver outstanding solutions with long-term profitability!
Conclusion
The Product Manager role requires a unique blend of technical and business skills.
As the business scene keeps evolving, PMs will keep playing a centerpiece role in driving innovation.
We hope this article has provided you with a deeper understanding of the role of an IT Product Manager!
