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Sunday, April 14, 2019

What To Put In Your Product Management Toolkit

By Frances Jackson


Software is only one aspect of the job. To do the job well, you need to have several other skills in your product management toolkit. Most of the tools needed have to do with you personally and are things that you need to develop on your own and through your daily interactions. Relationship, influence, knowledge, and networks are all part of the set of tools needed to create and maintain a quality kit.

People are a big part of the kit. You will be working with designers, manufacturers, team members, management, and customers to accomplish your goals and the goals of the product development. Understand the people around you and what they need to accomplish their part of the task. Being ready and willing to coordinate and provide for these needs will develop the relationships you have into solid partnerships for the current and future project. This will be one of the most important tools to have available.

The types of relationships you build have a direct impact on the influence you carry. When you need to push a timeline or make a design change, you need to have trust and influence with the key people involved. This is done by building trusting relationships with your partners. Through this trust and influence, you will have an easier time getting things done because those partners will believe in your decisions.

Networking opportunities are all around you. There are product management groups that meet monthly in most local areas. Participating in these groups helps build a network of people that you can call on for quick projects or future hires for longer projects. Building a strong network also helps when you are stuck on a problem and need help finding an effective solution.

Knowledge is key. This part is up to you alone. You have to decide what information is valuable to you and will help you think creatively for solutions. Reading and studying industry information and even non-industry specific information will help expand your understanding and knowledge so you can do your job better.

Customers are everywhere. Most people think only the end consumer is their customer. In reality, everyone you come into contact daily is a customer in one way or another. Your team members, outside contacts, management, and other partners all have a need and are a customer that you provide services to.

Using technology to its fullest will help simplify processes and communication. Each company may have a specific preference for what software package is used to manage the systems and flow, so it is up to you to learn as many as well as you can. The processes will usually be similar, but being able to navigate menus and reports quickly will help you get the data to the right people in a timely manner.

The relationships you build and the knowledge you acquire are both important to doing your job well. Learning the various software systems well is going to enhance your ability to generate the needed schedules, designs, and reports. Building the necessary relationships and trust will help in many other ways that are just as important as creating quick reports. The relationships are a top priority in creating your toolkit.




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