Every time I visit my parents we seem to have the exact same conversation.

It is initiated in various forms like “You are a Project Manager right?” or “What do you do in your work?” or “Why do you only do meetings?”.

And every time, I take them on a journey through what I really do.

“Mom, Dad, I figure out what to build next and then work with other people to make it happen.”

“So you don’t build Products” No.

And I could almost see the confused look that they are not voicing out.

Engineers specialize in, well, engineering. They Build.
Project Managers keep the Project going, and on track.
Sales folks specialize in, not surprisingly, selling.
And they are good at it.

But what do Product Managers specialize in?

And then I came across a brilliant Podcast that tells us that Product Managers specialize in, well, Productizing. :)

So, What Is Productizing?

What’s the big deal in making Products? You listen to customers, get their requirements, build Products to address the requirement! Done! Was that not easy?

But consider a few additions to the consideration.
You are not listening to one person. You are not discovering the pain points of one entity.
Every month you talk to many customers, many users. And all have different problems.

Let's exaggerate it and say that there are thousands of problems to be solved on your list.

Customer A wants an On-Prem solution. Customer B wants an extra customized solution. Customer C likes features X and Y but abhors feature Z.

And you need to keep them all happy.

All right.

You managed to make everyone happy.

Two months down the line, you decided to add another interesting feature. But the previous architecture would not support it. Whoa, rearchitecting everything? where’s the budget for it?

Productization is building the right Product, to solve critical user Problems in a scalable and forward-looking manner.

What do we talk about when we talk about Productizing

When we talk about Product Managers, we hear the terms logical thinking, and problem solving a lot.

Unfortunately, these do not necessarily make someone awesome at making Products.

Connecting the Dots

Product Management is about solving problems. But the distinction between a good product manager and a not-so-good one is the creativity they include in their solutions.

But where do inspirations come from?

Even the biggest artists get their dose of inspiration from sources — near and far.

A Product Manager, over time, typically develop an eye for spotting trends in Products, latest innovations in and across industries.

Connecting the dots across walks of life, across industries and across Products is what helps a Product Manager, really Productize!

A good example is the famous Swiping mechanism that many Products across industries borrowed from Tinder.

Scalability and Repeatability

Of the long list of problems your users face, you decided to focus on one. You designed an extremely elegant solution.

But would the solution help/disrupt solve the next-in-line problem?
Is the solution too targeted or generic enough?
The solution might now handle 100 users, but would it also work for thousands?

In a cab-hailing app, you provided users the option to select cars (while there were cars of just 3 make and models). In a few months, there were hundreds of makes and models. Would your feature scale up?

Product Ideas always need to be tested in the crucible of Scalability and Repeatability before meeting their makers.

Legs in Present, Hands in Future

If you are too focused on today, you will be too late for tomorrow.

This might not apply in life, but it does in Products.

It is not only Product Strategy that requires you to have insights into trends. Where the industry is going, and what you might likely be making in the future also inform your team’s architecture decisions.

Every feature is an investment. Investments are always made with future in mind.

You are managing a cab-hailing Product. Today you created the perfect single-click cab booking experience. Tomorrow you decided to become a one-stop solution for booking any vehicle.
Booking trucks for shifting houses might not be as simple as booking cabs.

Unnecessary Experience overhauls creates a high cognitive friction for users.

In Conclusion

Productizing is a skill and a specialty. In my opinion, it is extremely difficult to teach but given time and experience Product Managers internalize and make up their own framework for the same (consciously or subconsciously).

If you have some more ideas on what contributes to a Product Manager honing her specialization further, let's discuss. Connect with me on LinkedIn here, follow me on Twitter, subscribe to my blog on www.aditi-priya.com.