Background Nobody is born a product manager. In the technology space many of us have grown into the product management role after being software engineers, software architects, marketing specialists, or similar roles. Different academic backgrounds can help in the role, some product managers have engineering degrees, others business degrees, and there are numerous examples of product managers coming for many other disciplines. The challenge is that Product Managers require to pay attention to a wide range of concerns around the product, ranging from market research, to business analysis, to software/hardware development, to UX design, to project management, to pricing, to commercialization, and others. Making it difficult to strike a good balance between wide visibility and deep expertise. We will talk about this in the following paragraphs but my experience tells me that the secret is to dynamically switch gears on-demand between the high-level wide vision and deep-diving in
This article mostly contains public knowledge, however seeing the data compiled all together in this way may help to rationalize it and apply it in a more rigorous way. I hope this express catalog helps others the same way it helps me. By running new hypothetical product concepts or existing offerings through these "filters" helps to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Which monetization models would you add to the following list? Selling IoT devices for end users I this case the device in itself delivers the key functional capabilities, with enough customer value to pay for its price tag. Many time these products leverage existing infrastructures such as Wi-Fi, a Smart Phone, etc. Even if this model centers around the IoT device, a software and/or cloud service may be necessary as a companion for a rounded UX. Software and/or services put more pressure on R&D and ongoing operational cost, and consequently in the product margin; which usually has alread