To be a good product manager, we should work hard from five aspects: the overall view of products, the use of product tools, the comprehensive ability, the analysis of industry products and the accumulation of personal works.

How to change careers as a product manager:

First, the overall view of products

Read books related to products.

Personally, books are always one of the most direct and effective media for us to learn or understand a certain field in a structured way. Some books are considered by many people to be required books for product managers to get started, such as Revelation, Networking, Everyone is a product manager and so on.

subscribe to websites related to product information.

There are abundant learning resources about product managers on the Internet. You can form the habit of subscribing, viewing and thinking, and you can constantly cultivate your own product feeling subconsciously. For example, there are many articles under the product vertical community such as "Zhihu" product manager related topics and "Everyone is a product manager".

watch product launches and interviews with people.

Watch the product launch of mobile phones or software, from which you can learn the stories behind many products and the product values of these mature enterprises. At the same time, I also like to watch dialogues and interviews with relevant product leaders, and I can also learn a lot from my predecessors.

Second, product tools use

Axure

as a professional rapid prototyping tool. Axure is one of the most frequently used softwares by product managers, which helps us to quickly create wireframes, flowcharts, prototypes and other contents of products.

office

As the most famous set of office software, several of them are commonly used by product managers. Word is generally used to write product requirements documents, excel can be used for data analysis, ppt is often used for project communication, and visio is very practical when drawing product flow charts.

mind mapping

Product managers should also learn to use mind mapping tools such as mindmanager, which can help us to think about product structure and other issues in a structured way.

The above are just some representative softwares, and there are many softwares with similar functions. You can gradually learn their advantages and disadvantages, so as to better use them for yourself. Of course, as a product, don't forget the most convenient tools at all times, that is, the paper and pen in your hand.

Third, comprehensive ability

Product manager is the core communication hub in teamwork, and needs to cooperate with multiple roles. Therefore, product managers are required to understand all aspects of knowledge, but they don't have to be as proficient as professionals, which will require higher comprehensive ability for product managers than other positions. Therefore, in the process of preparing to join the product manager, you can first improve your ability in all aspects.

Learning ability

This is a very important basic quality of a product manager, and you need to keep a curiosity at all times.

Visual UI design

Knowing some basic UI knowledge can not only help you communicate with visual designers more smoothly, but also help you to better control the visual presentation of products, improve your design aesthetic feeling, and greatly improve the output quality of requirements documents, PPT and even resumes.

Basic technical knowledge

A product manager who knows technology will definitely have a unique competitive advantage, which will be helpful in communicating with developers and considering product design and implementation schemes. With the front-end basic knowledge, I can directly "F12 and then adjust the parameters" for the adjustment and optimization of the presentation style of the web foreground, and try to communicate with the front-end engineer when it is satisfactory.

In addition to the two items listed above, there are many knowledge-worthy product managers to learn, including interactive operation and so on.

IV. Industry Product Analysis

"Product Manager" is a very vague job title to a certain extent, and only when it is implemented in a specific industry or project can it be discussed in a specific way, because the product quality required by different industries will be quite different in some aspects. Therefore, when we decide to be a product manager, we also need to think clearly about our understanding of different industries.

if you are a big shopper, maybe the products of e-commerce industry will be more suitable for you. Then, before you really enter the business, you can conduct a "competitive product analysis" on the mainstream e-commerce products in the market, try to write some product experience reports, or provide some solutions based on the pain points of your usual shopping process and product thinking.

If you are keen on making social products or other products in a certain direction, it is the same. Going deep into a specific industry to do product analysis can not only help us understand the shape of this industry, but also exercise and cultivate our product feeling from the overall product dimension. At the same time, for those newcomers with clear industry goals, they can also show their unique advantages and opinions in this industry to recruiters when applying.

V. Accumulation of Personal Works

As mentioned above, product manager is a post that requires high comprehensive ability, and one of the best ways to show his comprehensive ability is to output his personal works, and at the same time, he has been well trained and promoted in all aspects in the process of conceiving and completing his own products.

If you are interested in a certain industry and you have many idea, you can try to ask yourself to output relevant materials as a product manager, such as PRD documents and interactive prototypes. If you have a certain understanding of UI design, you can also try to design a visual draft. If you still have certain technical ability, you can even write a simple product demo.

Summary

The entry threshold for product managers is indeed relatively low, but it is not easy to become an excellent product manager if you want to do well. Product managers should always keep an open-minded attitude. Through project actual combat and reflection and summary, their product depth ability will be continuously improved, and at the same time, they will constantly find their own limitations in product cognition. Only in this way can they walk on the road of product managers and continue to grow.