Product Management

WIKIPEDIA – Product management is an organizational life cycle function within a company dealing with the planning, forecasting, and production, or marketing of a product or products at all stages of the product life cycle.
As per Aha.io -Product management is an important organizational role. Product managers are typically found at companies that are building products or technology for customer or internal use.
Product Management as we understand and simply put is the planned steps within organization to conceptualize and then build the product into the reality for consumer use. For service industry service offered is product management and design by use of technology.
Product Management is one of the hot topic of discussion and there are many takers in these days. Companies are now realizing the importance of this department in a new or different way. Product managers are no longer working in silos and are the center of discussion in the world of converging technology.
Traditionally companies used to define products and services, and the product was sold mostly due to brand value and reputation of the organization in the market. Today it is different, products and services define a company and perception of a great organization is set by the products available for consumption. Products are valued as per the design. Design Thinking is a now a part of product management and is the tool or way products are conceptualize keeping the design aspect in mind.
Product Management – setting the right prospective
Product management has many layers and process before a final product is in place for use. These steps are the milestone department in an organization which form part of overall product management. These are –
1. Conceptualization
2. Planning
3. Development
4. Qualify
5. Launch
6. Maintain
There are subversions of the above 6 steps which a key to product success. Specially Planning stage is key for successful product development. Planning has few sub stages and they are –
• Market research
• Competitive Analysis
• Analytics &Forecasting
• Pricing
• Market Strategy
• Business Model fit and financial

Though it is not fixed rule that organization follow the same pattern to develop products. There are different models applied to bring products to market. There are several modular approaches and different innovation business models are defining product development. For few sectors it has become a complex to bring product to market.
Product Management is also dependent on few external factors, which also helps organization to restructure its strategy of product management. These are –
Workforce
Technology

Market maturity (Geo political, demography, infrastructure, etc.)
Workforce is a very important matter of discussion and organizations are talking in length and breath on Workforce Management. Companies are getting ready for the 2020 workforce, and is defining its diversity and inclusion policy to bring the innovation mojo back in the company.

In conclusion Product management and design is the central force to reckon with and organizations small and big cannot ignore to deal with it.
We in ExpandNext help brands or individuals in different stages of product management. In past we had done few projects under the Planning part of product management. For business queries please write to us at [email protected]