May

Product Management and Communication

A product development life cycle is governed by deadlines and to successfully deploy all the developments in the stipulated time period all the parties involved in the process should be on the same page. Communication is key for any process and product management is no exception.

Chain of success

Here are some tips to ensure proper communication

Plan in Advance – The product manager needs to discuss with the technical lead about the resource availability before planning for any new development. The requirements should be planned accordingly

Clear and informative requirement document – Requirement documents are the recipe book for any successful development. The Product Manager needs to think through the complete process and complexities that unfold during the development cycle. All the nitty gritties needs to be documented from error messages to validation rules.

Pictures do the job well – where ever possible use pictorial representation of the end product, nobody likes to read lengthy requirement document.

Designing the right product – the UX designer and the web designer need to have a great rapport. In smaller organizations the product manager dons the role of UX designer and primarily directs the product designs towards interaction impacts. Web designers are more concerned about the aesthetics and simplicity of the product. A combination of interaction design and aesthetic design will ensure a near perfect product.

Explain the purpose of development – It is very important that the developers understand the purpose and business motive behind every development; this will lead to greater participation and minimal communication gaps.
Test extensively – don’t rely on software testers always, user acceptance testing is very important to get vital and practical feedbacks from the user point of you.

Feedback – A developer should always be proud of his development, a tester should always be proud of his bug, a designer should always be proud of his design and product manager should always proud of his product. Hence feedback should be passed on carefully and as politely as possible as this is expected to test the ego of the parties involved.

Appreciation – After the big day when the ideas are converted into reality, open up for a get together. Appreciate and thank everyone involved in making the reality. Clear the air and make way for better bonding of the team members. This completes the development cycle and the communication flow so far.

Hope you enjoyed this post, do let me know your feedback and thoughts as comments!

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About Antony Chacko

Antony Chacko is a web enthusiast and blogger who is madly in love with the internet. His constant flow of opinions and ideas on social media, SEO, user experience design and his love for data analytics power this blog. A firm believer in educating businesses and individuals about the possibilities of internet can also make this world a better place to live. He also loves making like minded friends, feel free to drop by and say hello to him on Google+ Twitter or LinkedIn

http://www.reqqs.com Bruce McCarthy

Hi Antony,

I think your most important point is explaining the purpose of each requirement. Engineers (and designers as well) need to understand the requirement from the point of view of a specific type of user trying to accomplish an important task to realize some kind of value or goal. Without that perspective, it’s easy to produce something that meets the spec and fails to meet the need.

I disagree, though, about encouraging too much politeness in feedback. People are naturally polite and they don’t want to call your baby ugly. So I find I often have to ask customers to be brutal with me when giving feedback. Otherwise I don’t hear their real feelings and I miss opportunities to improve my product.
http://www.formulaplastica.com Bridget

thanks for this, i find it very important.

384 days ago Short URL 2 Comments

UX Design