Product management is built around 4 cardinal factors: promotion, price, product and placement. This notion is not necessarily the domain of R&D. The first comprehensive book on the subject, “The Lean Start-up” by Eric Ries, theorized the modern product approach. It introduced the concepts of Design Thinking, Lean Start-up and agility.
No fewer than 50 professionals and experts in the field gathered at TECH IN France for the R&D Workshop devoted to the subject. A packed room provided the opportunity for valuable exchanges with a panel of leading figures and companies in the field. The aim of the event, organized by TECH IN France, which brings together over 350 companies from start-ups to multinationals, SMEs and major French groups, was to identify best practices in this field, particularly in a context of internationalization.
Blaise Vignon, Head of Product at Oodrive, explains: “The idea of lean management is to propose extremely measurable short cycles, which correspond perfectly with the development of a software publisher. On the market side, these same short cycles are not present, which creates an imbalance between these two elements”. In other words, the first innovation cycle is used to iterate at market level, while the second is carried out at R&D level. Logically, therefore, the gap between the people who design a product and those who develop it should not be too wide.
Blaise Vignon adds: “Currently in France, there are two types of product manager. Many are native developers who have taken an interest in the business aspects of their profession. Others come from the design world, but we also find that many people come from the business world and work in marketing or sales divisions”.
There is thus a natural separation between these two teams, leading de facto to the implementation of a dedicated policy. From an initial conception as “CEO of the product”, the product manager has lost some of his power to become the guardian of important execution levers. Provided, however, that the manager’s functions are properly framed around the management of authorities (by hierarchy only), the observance of activity rhythm and the proper consideration of KPI’s.
Antoine Diekmann, Product Manager at software publisher Lucca, adds: “There’s no such thing as a typical career path to becoming a product manager. Some come from tech, others from sales. The transition from a first experience is possible. You have to develop your own desire to learn and discover the field. The best quality is to be curious, because that allows you to develop your skills.
Generally speaking, the founders of a company are responsible for the product’s vision. This can put the product manager in an awkward position, particularly in a small company, when faced with the vision of a senior executive. However, the manager must define his or her own vision, listen to customers and keep an eye on market developments. The key is to be able to challenge oneself and listen to and convince the customer.
Antoine Driard, Managing Director of RowShare, explains: “The solution may be to replace a technical manager with a developer profile with a more business-oriented profile capable of listening more closely to market expectations and being less self-centered. The challenge is to maintain a balance between the vision and the features backlog. The idea is to maintain coherence between the different releases around a product, to offer faster and, above all, more intuitive iterations”.
To achieve this, the publisher’s constant ambition is to base its own decisions on facts and measurements. All in all, a permanent focus at a time when many companies are tempted to rely solely on analytics, the contours of which may still appear vague.
