Product management guides every stage of a product's lifecycle. It sits between business, technology, and user experience, and connects the work of engineering, design, marketing, sales, and customer success.
The work can include:
- Conducting market and user research.
- Defining the product strategy and deciding what to prioritize.
- Creating and updating the product roadmap.
- Turning business and user needs into clear requirements.
- Coordinating development and collecting feedback.
- Preparing the product for launch.
Product requirements and user stories
Product teams need a shared understanding of the problem they are solving and what the product should do. Requirements turn those decisions into something designers, developers, and other stakeholders can work with.
Business requirements describe the need behind the work. Product and functional requirements define the expected behavior of the product, while user stories capture individual needs from the user's point of view.
Agile product development
Agile teams plan product development in shorter cycles and adjust priorities as they learn. Sprint planning sets the goal for the next cycle and decides what work belongs in it. Sprint reviews and retrospectives give the team a regular chance to examine the result and improve the way they work.
Product documentation
Product development creates a large amount of context that needs to survive meetings and handoffs. Requirements, design decisions, technical specifications, release notes, and other documentation give the team a shared record of what is being built and why.
Agile teams still need documentation, but it should stay useful as the product changes. The goal is not to document every detail. It is to preserve the information people will need to make decisions and continue the work.
Product launch planning
Finishing development is only one part of a product launch. The release also needs coordination across the teams responsible for positioning, communication, sales, support, and rollout.
A launch plan keeps that work connected to the same timeline and gives everyone a clear view of what needs to happen before the product reaches customers.
