Read Time: 5 minutes
Before we land into the article, I’d like to share briefly about my background and my passion!
I have worked in the Internet industry for many years, writing code, making sales, and being an executive. I started a business, sold a company, and made an investment.
Beside so many things I’ve done, I would say, being a product manager was the best for me. Why? Because I think product ability is an underlayer ability in life. Having product ability can let you have a kind of self-confidence and down-to-earth, grounded feeling.
PDMA BoK has cited some insightful quotes from Kahn (2013) regarding the critical factors on the product level that are contributing to the success of product innovation, such as: Unique, superior products; Strong market orientation; Pre-development homework; Sharp, early, and stable product definition; Planning and resourcing the launch; Quality of execution of key activities from idea to launch; and Speed — but not at the expense of quality of execution.
In the following lines, I’ll be happy sharing my reflections on the enablement journey during product development and innovation management process.
1.1.1 The product ability is our base ability
We all came from nothing.
I still remember the feeling of being at a loss.
Because there is no cognitive framework, so we face a variety of positive and negative information every day, let it impact our emotions, but do not know how to deal with it.
Is this information relevant, and how should it be identified?
We are afraid that our talents will not be appreciated; we work hard, but we are always fearful for dissing by others; we are worried that we will not get positive feedback and that our efforts will not be rewarded.
Some of you feel sorry for yourselves and have no family background or backers.
If I am asked to give you a suggestion, it is to develop their own product ability in this day and age. None of the above is important. Product capabilities will give you confidence. Wondering?
Product ability is to train a person to judge information, grasp the main points, integrate limited resources, package one's own value into a product to deliver to the world, and get a return.
Don't be afraid of being confused, don't be scared of being dissing, don't be scared to scrap it and start all over again.
Because the process from an ordinary person to a product designer is actually a process in which a person learns to establish a cognitive framework. First, establish the order of information and then develop your own inner order. Amid the chaos, you will know which points to give up, which points to grasp, and slowly establish control. In the process, you will encounter countless diss, being complained, criticized in the face, knocked down and started all over again.
This is the normal life of a product manager. “If You're Going Through Hell, Keep Going” --Winston Churchill
The life of the product manager is to be lashed out every day. Since this is the normal state of life, don't worry, you will be strong in the blow. Therefore, you will have an essential ability of the product person: the ability to resist setbacks and blows. Besides, don't be afraid to "I have not good family background or backers."
Because to be a product person, we only accept a law, "user-driven."
1.1.2 From your first user to your first pot of gold
Today, we can see companies with the highest market capitalization in the world, including Microsoft, Apple, Google and Facebook, in the United States, Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu in China who had no mineral land resources and no blessings from senior officials and dignitaries.
In the rented office, just a group of young people rely on their own brain, rely on their own creativity, in the space of the Internet, "out of nothing" to create a space and experience that did not exist before. It has not only changed our lives but also changed the face of the world.
In less than 20 years, they have grown into individuals with the most wealth and social influence in the world today. Young people with nothing, starting with a user, get the first bucket of gold in life, and then build their own world. Ma Huateng, Jack Ma, Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and others almost all changed from ordinary people to industry bigwigs.
- How do they do it?
- How do they have users?
- How to build a "user-driven"?
1.1.3 What exactly is product thinking?
Let’s visualize the journey of how to see the user, listen to the user, validate the user, establish a connection with the user, and iterate and optimize in the user's interactive feedback.
In my opinion it’s a journey of reflections around:
- How to build a system capability to deliver certainty to the user?
- How to build interaction and then deepen your relationship with your users in constant connections and iterations?
- How to make a product based on the perception of the relationship among people.
Products are just the medium you use to serve your users. Technology will advance, products will iterate, and the shape of the company and organization will change. But the person you end up serving, his unmet needs, and human nature has not changed that much.
Being a passionate product practitioner, I would always offer assistance to enable others with:
- How to develop a curiosity? A keen eye to find the pain point and where you can break into it.
- How to impose optimization?
- How to develop the sense of empathy with insight into human nature? Through knowing yourself and users, and the sense of satisfaction, confirmation, and dependence given by every detail of the product.
1.1.4 A book with a message!
My book “Brave New World” is a piece of passion that has been delivered to empower others.
This book can help so many people who used to be as confused as I am.
With 30 chapters and exercises, you will be able to find a sense of reality that is truly connected to the real world, know how to distinguish the main points, establish a sense of control, and no longer be at a loss and passive. I hope this book can help those who want to have a skill and live a down-to-earth life. Believe in your hands, believe in your hands-on ability, there are more secure than anything else. I hope this book can help those who feel lonely in the world.
The world is so unknown and uncertain, but we can deal with and digest this uncertainty through our systematic capabilities. It is also a kind of warmth to provide a little certainty and dependence for other people's lives, talk to and connect with people through products.
I hope this book will help those who are determined to optimize the world and leave a mark on it.
The world is so wonderful that we certainly can't stay on the sidelines. I hope the world unfolds before your eyes, and everything becomes clear. May you be able to establish your own certainty and depend on others in this uncertain world. May you deliver your value to the world and get something in return.
Related Content
#product-ability#success-factors#passion#reflections#personal-story#ProductInnovationManagement#ViewpointBlog