Guide: Don't worry, is this state reasonable for the first three years of work? Because at this time, you often don't know what your core competitiveness should be. Let's take a look at experience sharing: Why don't I want to be a product manager anymore?
At the beginning, I just took bing, a product where everyone is a product manager, and was deeply shocked and tempted. After stepping into the product pit, moral integrity was a passer-by, and tears ran back.
Fire and ice of product manager?
As we all know, product manager is a hot post in recent two years.
Many newly graduated college students dream of changing the world and trying to enter this professional field. Most of these college students, full of feelings and entrepreneurial passion, read a few articles from the platform of science and technology and internet media, and were taken away by this in an instant. Tall? I am attracted by my career: as long as I have a user-oriented mind, and then draw prototypes and write documents, it seems that I can influence and improve the lives of tens of millions of China people. What a violent and seductive sense of accomplishment!
There are also some non-product Internet practitioners. Seeing that the product manager's daily job is to draw prototypes, write documents and urge progress, it seems that he can complete the task without running business in the wind and rain, and coding before the chicken and later than the dog. Is it simply comfortable, relaxed and well paid? ! As a result, they also began to cultivate users' thinking and find various materials to learn Axure and Xmind, just for a successful transformation and a comfortable and happy life!
Everyone who wants to be a product is actually dreaming of being the next WeChat. Master Zhang is Jobs of our group and our collective spiritual idol.
But on the contrary, many product managers with relatively rich experience are slowly but firmly taking the initiative to transform: either going upstream in the same industry and transforming into suppliers; Either move downstream in the same industry and transform into a channel side; If it really doesn't work, you can also change your job on the spot, be a designer, R&D or operator, and then continue your Internet career.
The present situation of ice and fire makes us at a loss. Finally, I believe that many products have the same confusion as me.
Responsibility and reality of product manager
Every time I hear that my friend wants to switch products, I can only laugh it off with all kinds of inexplicable envy, jealousy and hate. ? People in the city want to go out and people outside the city want to come in? Mr Qian Zhongshu won't bully me! The product manager's hard work, without personal experience, will never have such a painful experience.
In internet companies, product managers generally have to bear it, right? Efficiently aggregate information, export solutions, and connect departments? Responsibilities:
Efficient aggregation of information: product managers need to collect information from users, leaders, operations, markets, sales, design, R&D and other information sources, then clean, screen and integrate them, and finally aggregate them into readable information to reflect the current situation and assist decision-making.
Output scheme: The product manager needs to deeply interpret the aggregated information, balance the input and output of each department, and finally output the optimal scheme to solve the existing problems and meet the short-term or long-term development needs.
Connecting Departments: The product manager intersects with all departments at the same time, just like the overlapping part in venn diagram. Through the implementation, refinement and splitting of the scheme into multiple tasks, it is output to various departments, and at the same time, the output of each department is followed up and reorganized to finally solve the problem or meet the demand.
The product manager needs to cooperate with all departments to complete the task. But he doesn't belong to any department. In a big company, there is at least a product department, and you at least have a sense of belonging to the department; But in the Internet industry, startups are everywhere. If you are in a startup with less than 100 people, you may not have a product department, so your career orientation will be very embarrassing.
When you are needed, you should be everything; In normal times, you are nothing. This is the most real status quo of product king's professional survival.
Without technology, the demand you want cannot be realized; Without design, your function is ugly, and you have no friends; Without sales, the products you make can't be sold; Without operation, what you do cannot bring users.
This is the reality of the product. Cold and cruel reality.
Without technology, design, sales and operation, you can't do well; But they are all fine without you. After all, you rely on soft power. To make a good product, the waist should be hard. There are too many indicators to measure a good product: beautiful UI, cool technology, high sales volume and large number of users? Your success indicators are held in the hands of this group of people one by one. Technology and design play hard skills, while sales and operation play with contacts and channels, and are not directly affected by products.
Product manager? Self-satisfaction? In the workplace and in life
After hearing this, you may feel more sorry for the product manager than dead: mom, are you trying to switch products just to be trampled on by various departments? ! It's so fucking humbled!
But, you know what? The gains experienced by product managers can benefit you throughout your career and even feed back your life.
First of all, working as a product manager in your career will improve your ability to withstand stress. As long as you have experienced several parallel iterations of the project and carried it on successfully, your ability to withstand pressure has definitely far exceeded that of your peers. Before you retire, as long as you are still working, you will always do more than you can. Therefore, excellent pressure resistance is definitely a soft ability that can run through your career!
Secondly, your emotional control ability will be greatly improved. You know, you often need to cooperate with multiple departments at the same time, which also increases the chances of disputes and frictions with other departments. When you gradually get into the habit of solving problems first instead of bringing personal emotions into your work, you can slowly control your emotions and truly become your own master.
Then the product manager will become more or less cheerful, lively and infectious in his work no matter how silent and introverted he is. Because you need to play Party B for a long time at work, it is essential to smile at others. Rely on your appeal to push others to help you, and finally achieve your goal.
Finally, when you become an experienced and senior product, your information collection and aggregation ability will definitely exceed that of non-product practitioners in the same industry, and even explode peers in the non-internet industry. You can collect the information you need through various channels and ways, and then get the best solution through data processing and aggregation. This ability, whether at work or in life, is the fastest and most effective way to solve problems.
However, product dogs also have occupational diseases. Every time I talk to a friend about a topic, if this topic is of interest to the product dog, the product dog will talk involuntarily, and then analyze it from various angles, only hating that the information given by him is not enough.
Every time I go to the supermarket to shop, go to the hospital to see a doctor, or visit a scenic spot, I can always attribute some unhappiness to complaints? Bad user experience? Then I am very happy to fantasize about various optimization schemes, so happy that I only hate that I am not the boss of this place!
How's it going? Dear Pinwang, do you feel the same way ~ ~
The product manager chooses to start and stop.
When should the career of a product manager begin and end? I've been thinking about this for a long time. When should we start? I can offer some ideas of my own. But when should it end? Sorry, I don't have a clear idea. But I can enjoy some of my ideas. I hope that friends who have the same confusion and thoughts can think with me.
Someone once asked me: When should I be a product manager?
I think this starting point is very clear. It should be when your skills and knowledge are not extensive enough to know what you want to do and what you can do.
Because at this time, your skills and knowledge are often a little bit, but nothing is fine enough. But don't worry, three years before work, is this state reasonable? Because at this time, you often don't know what your core competitiveness should be. Therefore, choosing a product manager is an absolutely foolproof choice. Because the profession of product manager requires extensive skills and knowledge, as well as excellent information acquisition and integration ability, and you will have more opportunities to communicate and cooperate with people with various skills and knowledge. You can try everything you think you can do when making products and get enough information to help you make the final choice.
But after the age of 30, most professionals will have more or less extensive knowledge as long as they are self-motivated. The product manager's breadth of knowledge at this time is not enough to form a significant longboard advantage.
Therefore, when the breadth reaches a certain range, you must determine the core competitiveness that you need to focus on according to the existing information. Only in this way can we gain the core competitiveness that others can't surpass in the deep competition of resources, knowledge and skills after the age of 30 and win a high premium for ourselves.
So, when should I leave the professional field of product manager?
My experience is that from graduation to two years as a product manager, you have basically developed the ability to acquire and integrate information. At this time, you will have more or less questions? The longboard is missing? Worried.
Two years later, if you are lucky enough to meet a leader who can help you adjust your way of thinking (result-oriented+business thinking), you can still be a product manager until your way of thinking suits your life and you realize the importance of channels and capital; But if you are unfortunate enough to be on your own, please think carefully and make your choice.
Some recent experiences have made me deeply realize the importance of funds and channels. At the same time, it also makes me feel soberly that it is impossible for any profession to rely on a certain professional skill for a lifetime, especially in today's ever-changing world.
Someone asked: So, according to you, is the job related to capital and channels the best choice?
I want to say that, as far as my current knowledge and information aggregation ability are concerned, it is true. But for us ordinary young people who are mostly struggling, how can we get capital and channels? I don't know yet. But what I know is that after 80s and 70s, I worked hard in big companies, and it was not until my thirties and forties that I had the capital and channels to serve myself.
However, a friend who worked in an investment bank a while ago gave me a good inspiration: what you need is not capital, but the right to use it. The closer to the money, the greater the possibility of obtaining the right to use capital. Then, will finance companies and investment companies be the shortcut for us to obtain capital at present?
In addition, in the field of channels, I suddenly had an idea: the role of channels is nothing more than making some people realize what they could not have perceived. Then, the more specific people gather, the greater the possibility of becoming a high-value channel. From this perspective, self-media in various vertical fields, as well as various products and small circles that gather specific audiences, are all good channels. Then, if you are good at something, will it be the most effective shortcut to get the channel by trying to attract a specific audience in this area and then establishing your own channel?
I haven't verified these ideas, so I can't give an accurate conclusion. But I will find opportunities to try, and I hope all my friends will not give up the motivation to try. After all, every man of Xiupin King hides a desire to change the world and climb to the top!
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