Product Management is a method of guiding a product from conception to market success. Therefore, the PM needs a comprehensive Toolkit to turn an innovative idea into a successful product.
The following documentation serves as a critical infrastructure that transforms innovative ideas into successful products.
1. Competitive Analysis
It is a detailed breakdown of all the products offered by your competitors. You need to identify your direct and indirect competitors, using research to reveal their strengths and weaknesses in relation to your own. You need to find out their strategies, their campaigns, and the practices they follow.
2. Product Vision
Product vision is an aspirational statement that communicates the product’s purpose and what it aims to achieve in the long term. Creating a vision allows you to translate more effectively into a product roadmap.
3. Product Requirement Document (PRD)
A product requirements document (PRD) defines the product you are about to build.
It includes the product’s purpose, features, functionality, and behavior. It serves as a guide for your team to help build, launch, or market the product.
4.OKRs, KPIs and success metrics
Most organizations are already familiar with KPIs or Key Performance Indicators. They are periodic measurements that track how well your organization is doing.
OKRs stand for Objectives and Key Results. They serve a more strategic purpose than KPIs. They are about setting ambitious goals and defining clear, measurable results to track progress towards those goals.
Simply put, KPIs tell you where you are, whereas OKRs tell you where you want to be.
5. Product Roadmap
A product roadmap provides a visual summary that maps out the vision and direction of a product offering over time.
PMs use roadmaps to collaborate with their teams and build consensus on how a product will grow and shift over time.
Source: Jira
6. User persona and Design
A user persona represents the ideal customer for your product. It provides a detailed description of the person targeted by your product. To start building a compelling profile, three things need to be identified:
- a key demographic
- a key goal
- a key concern or barrier
A user persona example representing ‘busy professionals’ who use Swiggy, an online food ordering and delivery platform (Crayon’d)
When it comes to design, a product manager’s role is to maintain a document in which all the changes and alterations are mentioned. In product prototyping, the product managers set the right expectations and pave a path to treat them
7. Customer Journey Map
A customer journey map is a visual representation of the process your customers go through when interacting with your company. It will provide you with a visual storyline of how a customer persona engages with your business at every touchpoint, from seeing the product on social media to purchasing it on your website.
Source: Zapier
8. User stories
A user story is a short, simple description of a software feature from the perspective of an end-user, explaining what they want and why. A user story follows the following format: “As [a user persona], I want [to perform this action] so that [I can accomplish this goal]. »
One of the reasons they are written in plain language is for each team member to be able to contribute to it. Product managers use user stories as a foundational element of agile development.
9. Release Notes and Scope
A release note is a report published alongside new or updated software that details the technical features of the product. For example, when your app gets a new update.
There are a few benefits to writing them: it gives a sense of momentum, shows respect for users, and has an impact on retention.
Product scope is a detailed explanation that defines the boundaries and specific requirements of a product, outlining what the product will and will not do, along with its features, functionalities, and limitations to provide clarity for all stakeholders involved in its development.
It’s a key document in product management to establish a shared understanding, prevent scope creep, and guide the project team throughout the development lifecycle.
10. Go-To-Market Strategy
A go-to-market strategy is a plan for releasing a product and preparing its launch, thereby making it available to customers.
Product management teams should work hand in hand with the marketing team to deliver a plan having the following elements:
- Pricing Strategy
- Sales tactics and channels
- Customer Journey Map
- Marketing tactics and campaigns
- Budget for product launch and marketing
- Plans for training the sales and customer support teams
