By Joy Eneghalu
As the leader of the product development team, my role as a product manager plays a crucial role in ensuring the success of a product. Working on my product starts from defining the product vision and strategy to monitoring and analysing product performance and as the product manager, I am responsible for overseeing every stage of the product development process.
Here I will be documenting the various activities and responsibilities involved in a product development process, including conducting market research, defining the target audience, outlining the key features and requirements, creating a product roadmap, and monitoring and analysing product performance. This is for rookies who want to become product managers and are trying to understand what product development entails.
By understanding the product development process and the necessary tools, as a product manager, you can more effectively plan, develop, and deliver successful products that meet the needs of your target market and deliver value to the business.
Tools of the Trade
Upon my first experience learning the process, I was introduced to some tools. My boss called it ‘tools of the trade’ – some were tangible and some were intangible. This is to share the tangible tools of product management with you.
These tools are at your disposal to help you plan, develop, and deliver successful products. These tools are also for different things and there are tons of them in the market. All you have to do is to figure out which you are comfortable with and then use it to build.
In dealing with customers, you will need a customer relationship management (CRM) tool. My preferred choice of CRM is Hubspot, however, you will find alternatives like Zoho in the market. With this CRM, I was able to track over 1670 customers in their various deal stages.
So you see why I prefer it? This CRM tool helps me manage and track customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle. This interaction includes tracking sales and marketing activities, analysing customer behaviour, and identifying opportunities for improvement.
The next tool I have in my arsenal is a product roadmap tool. With this, I am able to create and maintain a visual representation of the product roadmap, including the key features, milestones, and deadlines. This also helps ensure that the development team has a clear understanding of the product vision and goals. Examples of tools I use are Airtable and product plan.
In working with my team, I plan, organise, and track the progress of the product development process and in doing this I use tools that help me with task tracking, resource management, and fostering collaboration. A good example is Asana.
Figma or Invision are tools that are highly important to the trade as they are referred to as Prototyping tools. They help me as a product manager to create interactive prototypes of the product to test and validate design concepts and user flows. Once we have a prototype ready for testing, the user testing tools come to play. User testing tools, such as UserTesting or Lookback, help me conduct user research and gather feedback on the product. This can help identify usability issues and opportunities for improvement.
Other tools like Mixpanel as a data analytics tool, help me analyse key metrics, such as user engagement and conversion rates, to understand the performance of my product and identify opportunities for growth.
Collaboration tools like Airtable, ClickUp, Monday, Asana, and Trello help me coordinate and collaborate with the development team and other stakeholders. With tools like these, task management, document sharing, and team communication become a breeze.
For me as a product manager, the customer is at the heart of what we build and so I consider customer feedback tools to be very important. Ensure that they are seamless and accessible so that customers can always reach you with ease. Customer feedback tools, such as UserVoice or Intercom, help me gather and analyse customer feedback on the product. This helps to identify areas for improvement and inform the product roadmap.
By using and becoming proficient in the use of these tools, I have been able to streamline my workflows, collaborate more effectively with my cross-functional team and other stakeholders, and gather valuable insights to inform product development decisions.
My product development process
Now that I have shared the tools of the trade, let me walk you through my product development process. Before we go on, you must know that the product development process is often iterative and involves a variety of activities.
My first step in the product development process is to define the product vision and strategy, including the goals and objectives of the product and the value it will provide to the target market. Right after that, I conduct market research to understand the needs and preferences of the target market and to identify opportunities for growth and differentiation. This may involve conducting surveys, focus groups, or interviews with potential customers. Based on the results of the market research, I’ll then define the target audience for the product, including demographic and behavioural characteristics. Once this is achieved, I work with the development team to outline the key features and requirements for the product, including any functionality, performance, or usability requirements. I ensure that each feature is clearly defined and prioritized to ensure that the development team has a clear understanding of what needs to be delivered and when.
Based on the defined features and requirements, my next step is to create a product roadmap that outlines the key milestones and deadlines for the product. The roadmap serves as a plan for the development team and helps ensure that the product is delivered on time and effectively. While work is progressing with the various teams, I review and revise the product roadmap as needed to ensure that it reflects the current status of the product and the changing needs of the target market.
Upon the release of the product to the market either as a test phase or full launch, I monitor the performance of the product and analyse key metrics, such as user engagement, retention, and conversion rates, to identify areas for improvement. In the last phase of my product development process, based on the results of the performance analysis, I work with the development team to update the product with new features, improvements, or bug fixes.
Using this exact product development process, we were able to identify 221 users during our test phase and we got positive reviews for our product. When we launched our product, we got 1670 customers who trusted us to deliver on their very first day. I used the same tools and product development processes described here to achieve these.
Writing this feels so simple to me and I know it may feel simple to you as a reader but it definitely involves days and nights of reworking roadmaps and communicating with teams across different time zones. This is not to scare you as it gets better on the job. The more experienced you are, the more your product development processes can be simplified to get a more effective result.
Joy’s Biography:
Joy Eneghalu is a skilled product manager who is passionate about building and launching products that delight customers and drive business success. She is open to exploring new opportunities to put her skills to work. She has a strong background in product development, with a focus on driving growth and revenue.
