Product managers are an important bridge between two different parts of a company: the management side, which hopes to see growth and revenue; and the development side, which is focused entirely on building the product itself.
Success means achieving the goals of one side while managing your development team as they build the best product possible.
Like any management role, the key to successful product management is viewing things not just from your own perspective, but from the perspective of the people you manage.
From realistic expectations to clear project milestones, developers expect certain qualities from their product managers. Below, we’ve listed six things development teams likely want from product managers, all of which can help you build a better product.
Focus on “what” instead of “how”
As product manager, you’re responsible for turning a vision into a real product, whether virtual or physical. Doing this successfully means focusing far more on the “what” of product creation than the “how.”
One of the most common frustrations of developers is a product manager that gets involved in the process of development. It’s easy to take part in the development process while wanting to help, only to create more problems than you solve.
Engineers are great builders, and they’ll rarely need help with the practical side of developing new features or entirely new products. Focus on the “why” and “what” of product creation and leave the process and implementation to your development team.
Have realistic expectations
It’s easy to dream big when it comes to creating and improving a product — in fact, doing so is part of any product manager’s job. However, creating something big takes a lot of time and can require a great deal of work that your team might not be capable of doing.
Instead of aiming for the stars and ending up disappointed, have realistic expectations of what can and can’t be done with your product. Your developers will feel far more motivated working towards a clear, realistic goal than chasing something that’s always out of reach.
Listen to developer feedback
One of the most common complaints of developers is that their product managers expect them to achieve the impossible. Under pressure to produce results, they spend time working on new features that simply can’t work, or code that’s impractical and ineffective.
As a product manager, one of the most important things you can do is listen to developers if and when they provide feedback or objections. If a developer suggests a different path, listen to their explanation and consider changing your request to something more manageable.
Set clear milestones
Without a clear milestone to work towards, it’s hard for developers to take action and put their skills to work. Far too many projects end in development limbo not because they’re impossible, but because the manager responsible for progress didn’t set achievable goals.
From new features to product updates, break down major objectives into clear milestones that your team can work towards completing. The more defined your milestones are, the easier it is for your development team to track progress and remain aware of where they are at any time.
Be transparent about mistakes
Even the most successful product managers make mistakes. It’s far from uncommon for a great product manager to request a change or new feature that doesn’t turn out as they expected due to a communication problem or poor planning.
When you make a mistake, be transparent about it and focus on solving the problem instead of avoiding blame. Developers are used to revising code, and they’ll far less likely to feel frustrated by an innocent mistake than by a product manager passing blame or never admitting fault.
Establish a thorough QA process
For a product manager, nothing feels quite as good releasing a new product or update ahead of schedule and under budget. However, it’s always better to spend some extra time on QA than to rush towards release with a product that isn’t as good as it could be.
The earlier your QA team can detect bugs, the easier it is for your development team to fix them before release. Establish a clear QA process that gives your development team plenty of time to fix bugs and you’ll avoid the usual last-minute development headaches.
With these six principles in place, you will find a clearer direction where the business the product road-map should go.
