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Project Manager vs Product Manager
While the Project Manager and Product Manager roles overlap occasionally in skills like time management and leadership (and having the word manager in their title), the two roles are different. The Project Manager role compliments the Product Manager’s role by executing the plans made by the Product Manager.
The Product Manager is like the CEO of a product. They set the vision for a product that needs to be built – from a physical product to software to services. The product lifecycle starts in development and ends with launching.
The Product Manager gathers every necessary requirement and prioritizes them. They analyze and market test the product for viability. They have knowledge of everything from business and marketing to basic technology used to build the product. They keep the project organized and on track from start to finish. They update the product over time and continue to keep it marketable and useful.
A Project Manager is someone who acts on the Product Manager’s vision. Projects are on time endeavors that are usually a part of creating the product or service. It has a definitive start and end date and defined outcomes. They make sure it is executed based on the Product Manager’s prescribed timeline and adheres to the budget. Project managers tackle functional issues while the Product Manager tackles the big, technical issues.
Product Manager Resume
A solid Product Manager will need to know how to use product management tools in order to stay organized and build prototypes. They’ll also need to be a strong leader who is ready to say “no” when necessary. Your product manager resume should show any applicable previous experience as well as industry tools.
Here are some product management skills and tools you’ll learn at product management bootcamp :
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) - Defining the MVP requires framing a problem based on information gathered through customer research, finding a market fit, and performing competitive analysis.
Prototyping - A prototype is a simple experimental model of a proposed solution used to validate the idea, design, or functionality of a product. As a product designer, you’ll use both software and analog tools to create prototypes.
Product Testing - Product testing is also referred to as consumer or comparative testing. This process measures the properties and performance of a product to analyze whether it is ready for release and meets requirements or needs to be fixed.
Product Launching - A product launch can be an existing product with an upgrade, patch, or new feature or a new product. You’ll learn successful product launching techniques at bootcamp and the tools you’ll need to do it.
Product Marketing - In order to be successful financially, a product will need to be marketed. Most Product Managers will be focusing on digital marketing. Some Product Manager roles won’t deal with marketing if the company has its own marketing team.
Market Analysis - Product Managers need to know how to analyze the market to decide whether a project is viable.
Financial Analysis and Risk Management - How to price a product, how to fund it, and whether the product is worth the risk.
Roadmapping - Roadmapping is a strategic process used to determine the next steps, resources, and a timeline to take products from ideas to reality.
Design - As a Product Manager, you’ll likely be working with Designers but you may also be doing some design yourself during prototyping, marketing, and mapping.
Leadership Skills - You’ll need leadership skills and all of the soft skills that leadership requires in order to be successful in this highly managerial role. Recruiters will look for team players, strong leaders, good communicators, and level headed creative thinkers for the Product Manager position.
Time Management and Organization
Defining Customer Profiles - You’ll define target customers so that you can design a product specifically with them in mind.
Story Mapping and Customer Experience - Product Managers need to know how to map out the journey the user will go through when moving through your product experience. You’ll need to keep in mind the user’s experience.
Agile and Scrum Principles - These best practices include collaboration, self-organization, and cross-functionality of teams. Scrum is a framework used to implement agile development.
SWOT - SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It’s an analysis process that helps vet your product’s viability.
Jira - Jira is a platform used to track analytics.
Product Manager Interview Questions
Be prepared to talk about your background, your management skills, your goals for the future, and how you work on a team. Recruiters will want to know how you work on a team. One question you’re most likely to be asked is, “How do you say no to people?” As a manager, it’s your responsibility to be able to steer the team. Sometimes this means saying no to your teammates or to stakeholders. You might have to make decisions about the product’s timeline, financial implications, or even the choice to launch a product or not.
You’ll also likely get questions about your background which you can spin to demonstrate transferable skills from your previous experiences. Being able to spin your background in a useful way is especially important for those changing careers from fields that do not involve business, marketing, design, or tech. Product development takes time. Your commitment to the industry and to the company you’re interviewing is important. Be ready to talk about your goals for the future, what you’re looking forward to, and maybe even how your background proves you are loyal to your previous jobs.
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