The definition of Product and Brand Management vary across organizations, but simply put, a PM is nothing but everything, a necessary evil for any company. As the popular adage goes, PMs are the CEO of the product- they look after the technical attributes, design aspect and make the product comprehensible to the customers through product and brand management. PM breaks things down for the naïve customers to get a true picture of product features and this very significant interaction of PM determine the hype of the product in the market and how it will trend and perform in the real world.
First things first, let’s understand why do people actually plan a transition to Product Management.
Here’s a report of a little survey conducted by Joblist
So if you have one of these reasons or you think you are career sleepwalking, read further.
Why Software Developers Make Successful Product Managers
The various roles and responsibilities of a Product Manager internally as well as externally makes Product and Brand Management a venturesome profession. Ambitious software developers are making the transition to product management, as they want active participation with the product users. Undoubtedly, they are smart workers, and lean thinkers. All this makes developers a great product manager material.
Skill Gaps of Developers for Great Product and Brand Management
Developers have a high degree of technical knowledge, but this very nerdiness of the developer makes them customer unfriendly. A developer seldom has persuasive, rhetorical skills, making a conversation sound gibberish to naïve customers. Definitely, you don’t want to haunt your customers with your nerdiness and rather become a resourceful people’s person, then you need to embrace what’s lacking — the skills of product management.
If at all we need to list the skills down, here we go quickly (keeping the length of this post short)
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Communication skills
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Technical expertise
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Business intelligence
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Research skills
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Analytical skills
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Interpersonal skills
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Marketing skills
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Management skills
Role of a Product Manager in Making or Breaking a Company
The role of a PM in product and brand management is immense. It can give a rocket push to your brand like Tesla dream to establish tourism on Mars or shutter down your dreams like the case of Kodak. A highly skilled PM in the past 20 years has become a necessity for every company due to their multifold roles in the management of products. If you believe a Product Manager gets an endowed chair to browbeat the business analysts and developers, you need to reconsider your intent to switch. But if you are ready to take the leap and get prepared to prioritize, create product roadmap, prepare product lifecycle, actuate minimum viable product, drive growth hacking, interact with high-end customers, adapt and stay innovative, the first step towards a successful career transition is filling the skill gaps.
Filling the Skill Gaps Through Product Management Courses
You may not need to do this all alone; we’re in this together. There are product management courses that can take you there and help you become a successful and irreplaceable product manager.
As a PM, you will have to maintain a humble balance between all the pillars that build, shape and give a silhouette to the product. That is to listen, react and adapt at a lightning speed. As a developer, this comes in handy as you know all the 0 and 1 of the product, but inculcating PM competencies in your life there will be no limit in your life, no differentiation, life will open infinite doors to you.
Why is Switching to Product Management Ideal for you?
Become the core creator of the product and guide the engineers to code the product. This gives you an eagle view of the whole process. Being a developer, you know the electrons, protons and neutrons of a product but as PM, you can see the wonders of these atoms when they come close together. It gives you the opportunity to work with various branches of a company. Be it through planning, analysis, designing, development or others, you make a credible product. As a PM, you remain a part of the product from A to Z. From conceiving the concept to its validation and formulation. You see it all, you know it all. Nobody has more feel for the product than you.
As you have come to think about it, the relationship between the developer and PM is like Scorsese and DiCaprio. A sure success formula. Opting for a product management course will be a successful step in that very path. Various institutions offer courses to make you competent in product and brand management. But our pay-after-placement Product Management courses adhere to all the above points and is quite trending among professionals. With a promising rate of placement, they also have phenomenal demands in the domestic and international job market alike.
