Malte Scholz at airfocus, explores the challenge in the light of some timely new research.
As customers continue to vote with their feet, or clicks, for the experiences they value most, the product is becoming a critical driver of business growth – a trend that is particularly prevalent in FS. To capitalise on this and deliver more of what customers want, product managers must be able to tune in to their feedback, link it to business outcomes, and use this to prioritise planning.
Digital market disruption, which has seen new entrants and tech startups turn sectors upside down with sharp product propositions coupled closely to the evolving priorities of customers, has created a shift towards product-led business growth. It’s a trend that pervades many industries, but it is particularly pronounced in FS, fuelled too by the pandemic which has placed new emphasis on remotely-accessed services.
It is no coincidence that analysts are predicting that, by next 2022, businesses geared to product-centric delivery will experience twice the average rate of success in recovery and renewal from the economic downturn.
And it all starts with customers and the ability to track and respond to their evolving needs, something many product teams are remarkably ill-equipped to do as things stand. These are the findings of new independent research conducted for airfocus in the UK and in the US. The survey, conducted in September 2021, polled 300 product managers/owners/directors across sectors, about their changing roles and requirements.
Reflecting the shift towards product-based business growth, four in 10 product managers said they believed the role of product management was becoming more prominent strategically, and its value is now better understood by business leaders. Yet this hasn’t yet translated into adoption of appropriate tools to equip product teams to better balance their time and priorities.
Compared to other ‘project managers’, product owners have been sorely neglected
Today, almost as many product owners/managers/directors rely on a system of Post-It notes on the wall (30%) as have access to dedicated product management technology (31%).
Even where product teams do have access to relevant technology, these solutions typically have been found to be inadequate – particularly during the continuing pandemic. More than half cited a lack of relevant features and functionality, and poor usability.
Other common issues are poor provision for the way product teams work, a lack of support for collating feedback centrally, failure to enable easy collaboration with the different business stakeholders, and a lack of integration with other enterprise applications.
For more than four in 10 product managers, dedicated product management tools will be critical for rising to some key challenges that are expected to intensify over the next 12 months. Most notably these include the pressure for companies to adopt product-led growth strategies, and the growing requirement for product teams to become more ‘business outcome’ focused.
Pronounced points of pain
To understand more about product managers’ pain points, the survey looked at the tasks currently occupying the most time. These are:
- Collecting and consolidating/centralising customer feedback
- Day-to-day liaison with internal stakeholders (which could range from 12 up to 20 in number)
- Collating and centralising internal feedback
- Preparing documents and presentations for other departments
- Locating product information within the organisation.
By contrast, just 28% of respondents said that formulating product strategy was the task to which they devoted the majority of their time – albeit that this is crucial to business outcomes.
Specific needs identified in the survey
In the survey, respondents named the following capabilities they needed from relevant, modern software offering to support them in their roles:
- An improved ability to innovate
- Greater visibility for the team
- Easier communication and alignment with stakeholders
- A holistic view of product strategy.
Part of the requirement around innovation is linked to the ability to prioritise product development requests. Now more than ever, product teams must be able to reliably and impartially assess which requests for new features should be channelled into next releases, to deliver maximum value.
System simplicity & flexibility considered essential
In the survey, the main qualities product managers look for when choosing a product management platform were support for easy and effective prioritisation; the ability to create clear roadmaps; easy adoption by users; modularity/flexibility to choose appropriate features; and seamless and easy integration with everyday office applications.
Overall, simplicity emerged as a particularly strong priority. Certainly, the need to address the current capability gap is felt quite keenly now. Almost four in 10 product managers cited the rising awareness that ineffective product management will lead to poor products, when asked which factors would most shape the future of product management.
FS is becoming too product-focused and customer-orientated for organisations to not take product management seriously. A failure to factor in customer requirements when developing products could see customers taking their business elsewhere – it really is that important.
About the author
Malte Scholz is the founder and CEO of airfocus, the creator of the world’s first flexible and modular product management platform, supporting product strategy and management in firms of any size or sector.
