Introduction
In the varied and dynamic landscape of product management, the concept of product capabilities serve as a foundational pillar of success. The product capabilities include Understanding, harnessing and effective usage of the skills and leveraging product capabilities can assist in making or breaking a product's competitiveness and CSAT.
Purpose of this Article
This article is about the significance of the capabilities and share insights into how product people and product team can build capabilities to maximise their potential to drive product success.
What are the challenges I do see in the present landscape?
In the last one plus decade, having worked with various product management and product development teams while serving in the various organisations [start-up to large enterprises], I would like to call out some common challenges that persist among the technology focused thinkers:
Technical Bias
Limited Business Understanding
Mindset Shift
Balancing / Asking Priorities
Embracing User Centricity
Change Management
Collaboration and Effective Communication
I am highlighting few sections from my experiential learning while working with those teams and individuals:
Technical Biases - I have experienced that people with strong technical background may find challenging in making a shift their focus from ONLY technical aspect to the broader aspects of the business needs and product capabilities.
Limited Business Understanding - People who have had worked and contributed in technical roles may have very limited exposure to business concepts and required skills, as market understanding, revenue generations, ROI, FROI [forecasted ROI], user experience and customer pain-gain understanding etc.
Embracing User Centricity - Shifting focus from technology-driven mindset to product capability mindset requires a user-centric approach and that may include as understanding used needs, pattern analysis, preferences, behaviours and translating them into their product capabilities.
Balancing / Asking Priorities - Technology-focused people / individuals may struggle in identifying business needs over technical considerations.
What you need to build Product Capability Uplift ?
To start with, many of the significant change and shift in thinking of the product people requires and herein, I am sharing few pointers that may assist to explore further:
Alignment to the Organization needs
Balancing Short-term and Long-term Goals
Understanding Business and Market
Value Proposition and ROI
Building Collaboration
Collaboration with Business Stakeholders
Balancing Technology and Business Needs
Identifying Customer and Market Needs
Shift from Tech-only to more on UX and Biz
Product Planning and Roadmapping
Requirement and it's Prioritization
Product Capabilities and Product Management plays a crucial role in building product, customer satisfaction, driving innovation and business growth within organisations. In order to maximise the importance of the product management, it is essential to align with the overall goals and objectives of the organisations.
The alignment to the objectives and effective product management requires close collaboration with various stakeholders across organization that may include areas as engaging with the senior
leadership members, marketing teams, engineering teams, sales teams, customer support teams, customer support and operations teams etc.
When you are working for Prioritizations, alignment with the organization objectives and strategic goals will assist to identify key areas as market demand, internal market demand for large organisations / brands, customer feedback, user feedbacks, technical feasibility and business impact are the key areas that help us to perform prioritisation.
Balancing Short-term and Long-Term Goals: We know that short-term goals are and quick-wins are important, moreover, product people and thinkers should also focus on long-term and sustainable growth. They need to focus and strike a balance between addressing immediate market needs and investing in the future Usability and Sustainability.
The shift from only-tech thinking [Feasibility] to Desirability [User Experience / Business Needs] as well as to Viability [ROI, Business Objectives, FROI, Org Goals etc.] will assist building your product capabilities.
Understanding Market and Competitive Landscape: Referring to the above image, to ensure business viability, people should know to talk, express and ask about market and competitive landscape / offerings. These may include market trends, emerging technology, technical feasibility along with business viability.
- When you are working for a new capability in your product development, ask product management people about the applicability and usability of the feature / functional behaviours
- Ask about which segment of users / brand are we targeting
- Is it something we are doing for a new brand / market
- Does it include any Futuristic market?
- What kind of Growth we are expecting from this?
How do you build your Product Capabilities?
In terms of product capability learning: the techniques, practices and usability we share, teach and mentor at WeCollab PMA, they’re agnostic. It doesn’t matter if the participant is from B2B, B2C, B2IB, or B2B2C, there are various learnings, capabilities and skills that you can take with you which are required for working towards a Digital Product Management.
Conclusion
Aligning product capabilities and product management skills with goals is essential for skills development and ensuring the long-term viability of the initiatives.
Overcoming challenges requires a commitment towards continuous explorations, learning, openness to new perspectives and seeking opportunities to develop business acumen.
By shifting from only technology-focused mindset to UX-BIZ thinking for priritizing business needs and viability, as well as user needs [desires, wishlist, pain-gain etc.].
When we understand the Organization Strategy, collaborating with stakeholders, balancing goals, measuring impact, these product capabilities directly impact to the impactful outcomes.
Product Capability Uplift Program / Workshops and exposure to business-focused approach can support an individual in successfully transitioning from a technology-focused mindset to embracing the broader concept of product capability.
About the Author
Anubhav Sinha is a Co-founder as well as the Course Developer of the Product Capability Uplift. In this role, Anubhav leads the development of the PMA as well as works as the Product Thinker of the Product Capability Uplift PMA [Product Management Academy].
Anubhav Sinha is a Product Coach, a product management practitioner and technology product geek with around one and half decade of the product management and development experience that ranges widely in the B2B and B2IB product space. He is known for contributing and creating products majorly in the start-up space, helping start-ups in their early stages and contributing industry product organisations as user-experience flow optimiser. He had served industry as Principal Product Owner [co-founder], Product and Design Thinking Coach, Product Owner and Transformation Coach.
Anubhav also has a rich experience in Designing and Crafting Product Culture Transformation for the large enterprise organisations that involves a deep know-how of the principles and practices involved in building and nurturing a strong product-thinking focused organization.
Anubhav holds a Post-Graduation in Marketing - IB and Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical and Electronics.
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