Explaining Product Management to a 7-Year-Old Kid
When I visited my brother's house on the last weekend, I was asked by my 7-year-old nephew, “What kind of jobs do you work, uncle?” I would proudly say, “I am a product manager, and I’m doing product management.”
Then I explained more about product management with three close examples of 7 years-old eyes. First, it is a job that makes everyone’s jobs more organized. It is like a choirmaster (in Indonesia we call it dirigen paduan suara). When you are following the flag ceremony in your school, you must always notice one person standing facing the choir group, swinging his hands, so that the choir may sing with a harmonic cadence. The choir group knows when to start, and when to end. That’s what I did. I facilitate people working in a harmonious rhythm.
The second one is, let’s take a look at your mobile phone app and launch that MMORPG game app. You know how to play, right? Do you have any acquaintance with the features inside that game? If yes. That’s the result of product management. So as a product manager, I’m deciding what features will be released on your game app, so anytime you play the game, sometimes you are required to renew the app, but that’s okay because I learned how you play inside this game. I’m responsible for bringing more joy and excitement to your gaming experience.
The third one — let’s go further to know my day-to-day activities. Because you are asking me that question, I will treat you to lunch at the nearest restaurant. Let’s pick one you liked the most.
Okay, we are arriving at your favorite restaurant. Let’s choose some foods from this menu. If you are finished with the menu selection, I will call that young lady. Is that okay? Great!
So, take a look at that young lady; she always brings paper and a pen and is taking notes of what the customers want to order, sending them to the cooking team, and then putting the notes well-ordered. Then the cooking team will cook the dishes that come first, then go to the last.
So what she does is quite similar to what I did as a product manager. Every day I bridge the communication between us (the customer as the stakeholder) and the cooking team (as the developer), with the notes as the documentation (we called it the “PRD: product requirement documentation”). Imagine if there is no product management guy to bridge that, it must leave chaotic results. For example, in this restaurant, the cooker may make a dish that is too spicy or too salty for people who don’t like spicy or salty food. Same with me, a product manager, I have to rally my team to deliver a feature that suits our stakeholders (users).
