A Product Manager is one of the most crucial hires you can make as the founder of a firm trying to grow quickly. You’ll start with a concept, verify it, develop it into a great product, and then expand it into a profitable business as you progress through your first 12 months. A professional and user-focused Product Manager may assist you in shepherding your product from idea to first interaction with consumers to speedy success.
What is the role of a Product Manager?
As a result, a Product Manager must be familiar with all elements of the product. She’ll do so by digging into the issue you’re trying to solve, putting your suggested solution to the test against a well constructed hypothesis, and iterating on the product with modest, measured modifications. Because the Product Manager has a thorough awareness of the issue landscape, he or she will be able to guide the product from concept to fully-fleshed-out solution to your customer’s problem.
What does this mean in practice, though?
A Product Manager’s major role, as previously said, is to have a thorough awareness of the issue landscape in order to deliver the best solution for your clients. In reality, this implies that your Product Manager will be in charge of three key aspects of your product: discovery, product build management, and product iteration based on user input.
Organizing the Construction
The Product Manager will work with the development team (typically in a cadence of one to [two week sprints], see Scrum for more details) to build the product and deploy it to your customers, which will be organized in a prioritized backlog.
What will they add to my product that I don’t already have?
After going over the function and responsibilities of a Product Manager in the first section of this post, I’d like to believe you can see how a Product Manager can contribute considerable – if not crucial – value in a variety of areas. However, let us be upfront and ask ourselves: why do you require a Product Manager?
The straightforward response is as follows: Understanding the problem in depth leads to unique solutions that you (the entrepreneur) and your startup may use to grow your company. A Product Manager, for example, may break this down further:
- Helps to decrease squandered resources (both human and financial); helps to prevent rework; creates internal harmony; fosters a culture of experimentation;
- Validates the demands and difficulties of customers;
- Verifies assumptions and prioritizes the development of a lean product.
The most important advantage of a Product Manager is that she will assist you in reducing wasted expenditure, both human and financial. The cost of a squandered investment is directly related to the creation of the incorrect product. When you build the incorrect product, you risk wasting development time and money. Launching a product that lacks market fit and does not resonate with your customers is a step backward, and a costly one at that. Customers will be less likely to reject your product if you have a Product Manager who focuses on the discovery phase.
Finally, the Product Manager will emphasize the need of a lean product development. By concentrating on producing exactly what is essential and deferring “nice to haves” to a later date, the product development process may stay on budget while still offering clients with only the features they want and need. This approach begins with discovery and intensifies while working with the development team to create a backlog of well-formed User Stories to work on.
When is the most advantageous moment to recruit a Product Manager?
We’ve now discussed the Product Manager’s function and the benefits that having one may offer to your company. When is the best moment to recruit a Product Manager, though?
For the first 12 months, a startup’s founder usually fills the function of Product Manager. This is critical since a successful founder should have a thorough understanding of both their company’s aims and its clients. However, when the company’s founder takes on a more concentrated position as CEO, she will have less time to handle the product and will instead focus on the company’s strategic direction. She’ll make do until the business reaches a size where she can afford committed help with her product. She’ll make do until the startup reaches a size where she can afford dedicated help with her product. However, it is frequently too late.
The foundations of good product thinking (also known as having good “Product Muscle”) should be well and completely in place by the time your organization has acquired seed-stage or later investment. This should fall between the first 12 to 18 months of your product’s lifespan. Being able to demonstrate to investors a deep and meaningful understanding of your consumer, as well as a tale of improved income owing in part to modifying the product to better suit your client base, will go a long way toward obtaining future funding.
With this in mind, we feel that a Head of Product should be one of your first critical hires throughout your first year. This, however, will vary based on the sort of business you’re starting. At Forward Partners, we frequently see a firm employ a Head of Growth with significant product expertise as their first big appointment; on the other hand, many organizations want a Head of Product with marketing and growth experience. You’ll seldom be able to afford both at this point in your career, so finding a product-minded recruit who’s fit for your firm is critical.
Conclusion
Finally, a Product Manager is one of the most critical, yet frequently neglected, positions a business can make within the first 12 months of its existence. The Product Manager provides a highly real advantage to the first 12 months of a product’s existence, and to the success of a business, by precisely understanding the problem that the product is trying to answer, and by thoroughly knowing the consumers to whom the product is being sold.
