I recently finished reading the book "The Steve Jobs Way". Though the book talks about Steve Jobs' management style and what a visionary he was, I cannot help myself exclaiming that he was the best Product Manager that the industry would ever see.
As a budding PM, I got to learn a lot from how he conceptualized, designed and executed the products that revolutionized the industry. As a best PM, he always kept consumers first and always kept on aiming for perfection to please the end users.
Similar to Steve Jobs, a PM needs to be passionate about his Product. It was Steve's passion that gave world such wonderful products like Mac, iPod, iPhones. It was this passion of his which gave him a lot of driving force and he turned a deaf ear to words like 'This cannot be done'. His passion motivated him to push his team harder to get the desired product. His passion made him the best evangelist of his products. Who can forget his great presentations at WWDC evangelizing the new era of music players, phones and tablets.
A PM should always pay attention to every detail especially the ones pertaining to customer experience. This will help a PM in conducting continuous innovation to get closer to an ideal product. There are so many stories dedicated to Steve's attention to details and this blog would be insufficient to quote all of them. And the best thing about him was that he always accompanied details with quality and simplicity. He always wanted the products to be simple to use and never believed in having complex user manuals. This is the main reason behind iPhone having only a single button. Like Steve, a PM should be the ultimate user of his own products He was a master in converting customer's wants to needs.
Often he used to quote Henry Ford "If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me, 'A faster horse'." He used to believe that if we ask a group of users - even those who aren't dissatisfied with a product - how to make it better, they will just end up thinking of things that are wrong with the product. The best that we would get from this exercise is incremental improvements. This won't lead to innovation or dramatically new products. Even I believe rather than asking users for features or solutions, just ask them the problems that they are facing and try to solve them using your expertise. He knew the expertise and strengths of his team well. He believed in holistic product development but at the same time knew when to partner with others.
As a owner of the product, a PM needs to take significant decisions by trusting his guts and insights. Then you need to ensure that you convince all the stakeholders for executing this decision. I cant really quote Steve's example here because he had a full authority on the team and could get things done in his own way, but he earned this respect and position because of the qualities mentioned above.
The best way to keep on improving these skills is by "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish!!"
Steve, thanks for being an inspiration always. R.I.P !!
As a budding PM, I got to learn a lot from how he conceptualized, designed and executed the products that revolutionized the industry. As a best PM, he always kept consumers first and always kept on aiming for perfection to please the end users.
Similar to Steve Jobs, a PM needs to be passionate about his Product. It was Steve's passion that gave world such wonderful products like Mac, iPod, iPhones. It was this passion of his which gave him a lot of driving force and he turned a deaf ear to words like 'This cannot be done'. His passion motivated him to push his team harder to get the desired product. His passion made him the best evangelist of his products. Who can forget his great presentations at WWDC evangelizing the new era of music players, phones and tablets.
A PM should always pay attention to every detail especially the ones pertaining to customer experience. This will help a PM in conducting continuous innovation to get closer to an ideal product. There are so many stories dedicated to Steve's attention to details and this blog would be insufficient to quote all of them. And the best thing about him was that he always accompanied details with quality and simplicity. He always wanted the products to be simple to use and never believed in having complex user manuals. This is the main reason behind iPhone having only a single button. Like Steve, a PM should be the ultimate user of his own products He was a master in converting customer's wants to needs.
Often he used to quote Henry Ford "If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me, 'A faster horse'." He used to believe that if we ask a group of users - even those who aren't dissatisfied with a product - how to make it better, they will just end up thinking of things that are wrong with the product. The best that we would get from this exercise is incremental improvements. This won't lead to innovation or dramatically new products. Even I believe rather than asking users for features or solutions, just ask them the problems that they are facing and try to solve them using your expertise. He knew the expertise and strengths of his team well. He believed in holistic product development but at the same time knew when to partner with others.
As a owner of the product, a PM needs to take significant decisions by trusting his guts and insights. Then you need to ensure that you convince all the stakeholders for executing this decision. I cant really quote Steve's example here because he had a full authority on the team and could get things done in his own way, but he earned this respect and position because of the qualities mentioned above.
The best way to keep on improving these skills is by "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish!!"
Steve, thanks for being an inspiration always. R.I.P !!
No comments:
Post a Comment