Last Updated on 2024-10-11
Building a software product is complex, it involves tedious planning and prioritization. Things can easily go downhill if you donโt have the right person to manage the entire development process.
If youโre looking for ways to improve your teamโs development progress or you need someone to take over the nitty-gritty parts of development, here is a good read to learn more about the software development life cycle and how to hire a product manager.
To successfully sell software, a business needs to solve a critical market problem. Hence, there is a need for product management as a core business function in software companies.
Often, creating a software product can get complicated when it is not managed well. Product creation entails a meticulous list of requirements, specific timeframes, constant communication between client and team members, and documentation for each phase of the project.
There are many factors to consider if youโre having problems in product development. You might be doing something wrong or youโre lacking an essential part of your team.
If youโre looking for a way to improve your teamโs performance, then itโs best to learn about how software development works in its entirety. The best way to develop a product is to learn about the most effective strategies to streamline and expedite the process.
Hiring a Product Manager
In hiring a product manager for your company, you need to understand what kind of expertise is necessary for your project. Here are the skills you should consider:
- Leadership skills – to manage the team effectively and evaluate each memberโs skills for task distribution.
- Experience – relevant experience or familiarity with the project and industry.
- Business Analysis – to analyze the market and competitive conditions, lay out the product vision, and find out what differentiates it from competitors.ย
In interviewing a product manager, ask questions about their product management skills: technical knowledge, business sense, leadership experience, and decision-making abilities.
Where to Hire a Product Manager
Hiring people in the software industry is especially difficult if youโre not familiar with the technical aspects of it. The most ideal option is to tap into a company that has first-hand experience in providing manpower for startups.
Full Scale has a roster of seasoned software experts that can cater to all your development project needs. Weโve carefully picked out the cream of the crop and assessed their skills and work ethic to ensure that you acquire the best people to work with.
We can take care of the nitty-gritty process of hiring and managing the staff so you can focus on your product. We can help you assemble your very own development team for your project.
Product Managers in Software Development
Software development follows a certain process that features multiple phases of product creation. It tackles all stages, from establishing requirements up to deployment and maintenance.
The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) serves as a guide for streamlining processes and implementing plans in a systematic and disciplined manner. The Software Development Life Cycle ensures the quality of your product and that it is maintained post-release.ย
The SDLC phases comprise the inception up to the retirement of the software product. These phases include six major steps: requirements and analysis, designing, implementation, testing, deployment, and maintenance. The one who puts these into practice and keeps track of its implementation is the software product manager.
The product manager owns the business strategy of a product. He or she is the person responsible for defining the why, when, and what of the product.
This means they lead cross-functional teams from a product’s conception all the way through to its launch. The position is also responsible for analyzing data and resolving roadblocks encountered during development.
Here are some Key Functions of a Product Manager:
Product Vision
The product manager sets the product vision and pursues a client-centric strategy to reach it. The goal is to articulate the intent and value of the product, giving a clear definition of its desired functions.
The goal is to define the impact of the product on the market. The product manager is also in charge of facilitating intensive brainstorming sessions with the client and the team.
Timeline
The product manager establishes a timeline and coordinates all the activities that will lead up to the productโs release. This includes bridging gaps between different functions within the company and aligning all the parties involved in the project.
Responsibilities also include managing dependencies in and across releases to complete release phases and milestones. A product manager has to resolve problems while keeping the roadmap focused on the outcome.
Ideation
One of the most challenging problems encountered in software development is choosing which ideas are beneficial and relevant. The product manager has to be open to ideas but firm in integrating the clientโs vision for the product.
A product managerโs job is to develop and curate ideas the team or the client pitches in. Once these ideas are approved and promoted into features, they will serve as key objectives for the teamโs development strategy.
The product manager is also responsible for accurately integrating all feedback during the actual development phase.
Communication
Product managers have to work closely with the client and the team. They ensure that the technical requirement and their timeframes are reasonably negotiated. When it comes to making difficult trade-offs about the product, the product manager has to weigh in the user experience and the clientโs vision.
A product manager will listen to the ‘voice’ of the market through research. This comprises gathering, testing, and analyzing data, getting direct customer feedback, and using business intelligence through internal sales and customer service teams.
Offshore Talent
Escape this whole tedious process of hiring product managers when you shoot us a message. At Full Scale, we deliver only the best software development team members: developers, testers, and managers!
Our vision is to give business software development teams fast and affordably. So what are you waiting for? Contact us to learn more about our services.
Matt Watson is a serial tech entrepreneur who has started four companies and had a nine-figure exit. He was the founder and CTO of VinSolutions, the #1 CRM software used in today’s automotive industry. He has over twenty years of experience working as a tech CTO and building cutting-edge SaaS solutions.
As the CEO of Full Scale, he has helped over 100 tech companies build their software services and development teams. Full Scale specializes in helping tech companies grow by augmenting their in-house teams with software development talent from the Philippines.
Matt hosts Startup Hustle, a top podcast about entrepreneurship with over 6 million downloads. He has a wealth of knowledge about startups and business from his personal experience and from interviewing hundreds of other entrepreneurs.