We listen closely to our clients. Sometimes that takes us in directions we didn’t expect.
In addition to our software project management assistance, we’ve been providing consulting services that would be considered “software product management”. Until recently, most organizations did not develop their own software products. While it is still somewhat rare, the increasing power, simplicity, and importance of software products, services, and apps has resulted in more and more businesses taking on this function. Once it reaches a certain scale and importance within the organization, a software product usually requires dedicated management from a product manager.
We’re seeing this evolution with some of our own clients who have asked for our assistance with their growing product management needs. The good news is that this added service fits quite well with our software project management offering. Our mission is to help companies manage their software projects better, and some of our goals apply directly to software product management.
The role of a product manager tends to vary a lot from organization to organization. Generally speaking product management is recurring work that occurs as part of an ongoing lifecycle, rather than as part of a software project that has a defined start date and end date. Still, the product manager often contributes to (or manages) multiple smaller projects that are required as part of the product development. And depending on the client need and the product manager’s own skillset, he or she may focus more on the technical/development side or on the non-technical marketing side. Some of the common tasks include researching and defining the product vision and corresponding sales and marketing objectives, then translating those into technical specifications for the software engineers to build. Once a product is created, a great deal of time and effort goes into identifying and responding to competitors, maintaining a release roadmap, determining and communicating the desired user experience, prioritizing features and bugs, assisting with marketing material, attending trade shows, as well as providing pre-sales assistance.
This is a complicated role because it requires a great deal of software experience, strong communication and negotiation skills, the ability and willingness to sit at the junction of the client, upper management, and the technical, marketing, and sales teams. A good product manager evangelizes the product vision, within the company as well as with the outside world.
We’ve expanded our service offering to assist clients with software product management needs. We can do this directly by providing part-time product management assistance as you mature your product and processes. We can do this indirectly if you need help shaping your initial product vision and roadmap, or extra muscle defining and prioritizing your product features. We can template your product marketing, sales, technical, testing, and installation material. We offer a high-flexibility, high-value, high-impact consulting service that will be tailored to your unique product management needs.
So, please book a call, choose the “What can we do for you” option, and let’s see how we can help you!
