Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on the Pendo blog.
プロダクトマネージャーの役割が曖昧であることは否定できません。また、職務の基礎ができあがった後でさえ、常に相反する意見にさらされます。たとえば、「常にお客様の声に耳を傾けるべき」と「お客様は常に正しいわけではない」とか、「ロードマップを守るべき」と「ロードマップに固執しすぎるな」などが挙げられます。
さまざまな考え方がありますが、どうすればプロダクトマネージャーはプロセスや要件に縛られることなく、正しい道筋を進むことができるのでしょうか？
Jeremy Saenz is the VP of product at Kajabi, an all-in-one platform that empowers entrepreneurs, experts, and influencers to achieve success in their online businesses. Jeremy led a session at Pendomonium this year where he shared his path into product management, advice for establishing processes that fuel — rather than stifle — innovation, and his experience using these tactics at Kajabi.
最も重要なポイントは何でしょうか？プロダクトマネージャーは必ずしも、仕事の進め方を示すための完璧なステップバイステップのフレームワークを必要としているわけではありません。彼らが必要としているのは、良いツールと、（さらに重要なのは）それらのツールを使って成果を上げるための良い習慣です。
ここでは、サエンス氏の継続的なプロダクト発見のための5つの習慣（これを実行するなら、あなたはフレームワーク反対派ですね）をご紹介します。
1. Framing
Product managers are always looking for problems to solve. Jeremy emphasized the importance of discovering, understanding, and falling in love with your customers’ problems — and then centering those problems around your existing business objectives. This begins by making a point to talk to your customers, in whatever way and cadence (weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.) that works for both sides.
2. Ideation
Although coming up with creative solutions to problems is a large part of the product manager role, Jeremy made a point to remind PMs this: you are not the only “ideas” person.
実際、アイデアはさまざまなところから得ることができますし、そうすべきです。たとえば、あなた自身、チーム、お客様、ステークホルダー、会社の他の部門などからです。あなたがプロダクトのエキスパートだと見なされているからといって、あなた以外の人からのアイデアやインスピレーションには得るものが少ないということではありません。
Jeremy’s biggest piece of advice is to collect as much product feedback as possible and set up a feedback management system (both internally and externally). Start by writing a product feedback policy to ensure processes are clear and the expectations are set. This way, you’re not promising your constituents a “yes” to every single request — but you’re making it clear that you value their opinions, and want to ensure each bit of feedback is captured, reviewed, and (when applicable) implemented in an effective way.
3. Validation
This habit helps answer the question: how do I know if I’m building the right thing? Jeremy offered four questions to ask yourself, and some ways to get the answers you need:
Is it valuable? This isn’t necessarily a yes or no question — your answer could be nuanced. But, two good ways to find out if your product is valuable include desirability interviews (qualitative and quantitative questions that assess users’ attitude toward your product’s visual appeal) and collecting customer feedback.
Is it usable? According to Jeremy, the answer to this question comes from booking usability tests with the right people — aka make sure you’re testing the UX with a variety of users and not conducting a test that will give you skewed results.
Is it feasible? It’s important to talk to your tech lead and understand if the product you want to build is within the team’s scope. Make sure you’re asking well in advance and giving this person enough time to assess feasibility accurately.
Is it viable? For this question, you’re really trying to determine if you have buy-in from your leadership team and other departments — and if what you’re building aligns to company values.
He also suggested using guides and polls in Pendo to validate new products and features with customers as they use your product. This offers a way to immediately know if what you’re putting out there is resonating with your users.
4. Execution
言うまでもありませんが、プロダクトを出荷するプロセスでも、継続的な発見が可能です。毎週出荷し、納品後に学習することで、継続的な発見プロセスを育てることができます。そうすることで、タイムラインにコミットするだけでなく、目標を達成したときに、大小にかかわらず、お祝いすることができます。
And lastly: communicate, communicate, communicate. Make sure your customers and the rest of your company have visibility into what’s being shipped. This helps build trust with your customers and in the end, everyone (no matter their role) is better off when they’re informed about what the product team is building.
5. Iteration
The work doesn’t end once you’ve shipped that new product or feature. Make sure you’re regularly circling back on what you’ve shipped and measuring results, for example through NPS or CSAT surveys. Jeremy noted that as your company scales and the product becomes more important for the business, product lifecycles are extended — making it crucial to continuously monitor, adjust, and ultimately improve the products you build.
