How can you identify roadblocks to your product's success?
Product Management
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As a product manager, one of your top priorities is to ensure the success of your product. To keep your product on the right track, you’ll need to identify the obstacles standing in its way. Here are some ways product managers can pinpoint the roadblocks to their product’s success.
1. Evaluate market trends: A product generally doesn't exist in isolation— it's part of a broader market that is continually evolving. Pay attention to market trends and news in your industry to spot potential disruptions before they occur. For example, if a competing product is outperforming your own, or if new regulations are coming into effect that might limit your product's availability, you should be aware of such activity and act accordingly.
2. Monitor customer feedback: Listening to customer feedback is key to identifying problems with your product. Pay attention to customer reviews, social media posts and any discussions with customers to hear what they're saying about your product. If you're seeing consistent complaints about a particular aspect of your product, or if customers aren't using your product as you anticipated, that can be valuable information in adjusting your design and strategy.
3. Reflect on your own processes: Sometimes, the hurdles to your product's success are internal. Take a step back and assess your own processes to ensure they're supporting your product's development. Are you spending too much time on certain tasks that don't contribute to the product's success? Are you neglecting key milestones, or are you focusing too much on one aspect of the product and not enough on another? Identifying these internal blocks can help you prioritize your time and resources more effectively.
4. Talk to your team: Whether you're working with a development team, marketing team, or both, it's important to communicate and ensure everyone is on the same page. Talk to your team about any issues they're encountering that might limit your product's potential success. Are they dealing with constraints on resources, or are they struggling to manage deadlines? Understanding these blocks early on can help you problem-solve together and make the necessary adjustments.
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"It's critical to assess potential risks, understand impact and likelihood of those risks happening, dependencies, other teams involved, and developing a mitigation plan based on those assessments. This is a great way for a Product team to flex their Program muscle in effectively planning and minimizing negative impact when a roadblock does come up."
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5. Engage with industry experts: Finally, don't hesitate to tap into the expertise of others in your field. Engage with industry experts, peers and mentors to get their insights on your product and industry. They can offer a fresh perspective that can help you spot potential challenges before they arise.
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This article was edited by LinkedIn News Editor Felicia Hou and was curated leveraging the help of AI technology.
Program and Product management|Digital transformation consultant| Leadership and Coaching
2yGood topic, love all the insights here. One of the common obstacle to success can occur due to gap between product/feature thats built and the organizational goals..Communicating to all stakeholders about what the product is, end goal and how success is being measured and tracked is key to getting alignment across org and building the right product. Involving some customers and getting their feedback early in the process also helps if feasible.
Technology Coordinator | Team Builder | Innovation Leader | STEM Educator | CleanTech Advocate | Work Culture Champion
2yWe've had some very insightful posts, great topic LinkedIn News. And while much of the focus is correctly placed on internal teams and resources, there is great advantage to removing obstacles when we look at external partnerships with our clients and customers. Considering approaches that look at a #devops perspective, or integration of development and operations, when we work with our and customers to understand their pain points as well as technical obstacles they face, we are able to bring that information back to our internal teams and strategize ways to overcome them.
Product @ Teladoc | AI, Telehealth and Design Writer, Speaker, Mentor | MBA and MS | Co-Founder
2yPotential obstacles can be sensed basically in two ways: Continuous watch on market trends in the domain of your product and continuous listening to what even non-product team members have to say about the future. These things trigger the thought process and can lead us to identify the one.
Product @ Indeed | Keynote Speaker | DEI Consultant | Career Coach & Mentor
2yAwesome topic, love that this is written up. It's vital to assess potential risks, understand impact and likelihood of those risks happening, dependencies, other teams involved, and developing a mitigation plan based on those assessments. This is a great way for a Product team to flex their Program muscle in effectively planning and minimizing negative impact when a roadblock does come up.
Operations/Project/ Product Manager
2yRoadblocks may be born out of internal or external circumstances. Benchmarking against similar products can help illuminate risks. Learn from the past; strong internal communication can make transitions easier- this includes the inbound and out bound logistical teams. Always make sure everyone is aware of their role, and they relay any challenges or distinctions; continuous environmental scanning to help detect new threats early. Avail yourself of information from the wider environment, disasters pandemics and conflicts can impact connected markets. The past three years have exposed some of the drawbacks of globalization as almost all industries have been impacted by events in other territories. Vigilance and flexibility help keep products on stream and avoid roadblocks.