If you are wondering what a Product Manager does and how it helps you in building your dream software — whether that’s a native or web app, ecommerce solution or whatever else — keep reading.
To put it in general terms, an STRV Product Manager sets the project team up for success. The goal is to get your project to the finish line in the state that you and your customers need while adding some delightful details on top.
But how, exactly, do our Product Managers help throughout the design and development of an application?
Discovering What to Build
During the first stage of your STRV product building journey — the Discovery Phase — Product Managers help with the definition of the product that will be built, working off of the idea that you bring to us and planning several iterations to find the best solution for your customers and your needs.
Product Managers narrow down the specifications — the “napkin idea” — to target a specific market by researching competitors and identifying the main features your application needs to excite your customers.
After identifying what needs to be built, Product Managers pair up with designers. Together, they prepare wireframes and a design concept, which will help further into the app development process.
By the end of this phase, you will have a clearer understanding of what the digital product will include and how it will be functioning.
Working With You + Design & Engineering
Right after defining what your application should include and how it will look, we bring in the Design team to translate the initial wireframes into full-fledged UI and UX.
Through this Design Phase, your Product Manager helps with translating the vision you have of your application and advising on how different alternatives of the design could affect your app user experience.
Of course, there are regular check-ins to ensure that product is headed in the optimal direction for your future customers, and that it is aligned with the best practices of the industry.
Behind the scenes, your Product Manager begins preparing the necessary documentation for the next phase, during which the Engineers and QA Analysts come in.
As we enter the Engineering Phase, the Product Manager continues to orchestrate all of the complex work that will follow.
Depending on the type of application are building together, we may have different approaches to suit the specifics of your product. However, most often, we start with the foundation (I’m looking at you, Backend) and continue building from there.
Here is when the coordination work is key to ensure that the different platform teams are working in harmony while QA analysts do not miss a single detail.
It might seem like the order of the tasks at hand might not be critical, but indeed it is.
In this stage of your application, as a variety of teams work together, the Product Manager has a crucial job of defining — and deciding — which tasks have to be performed in parallel so that development goes smoothly.
What About Client Communication?
Clear, consistent communication of a project’s status is key to ensuring that you and your STRV team maintain a good working relationship while tracking progress, navigating changes and agreeing on the final product release.
Based on what’s set up at the start, the Product Manager can invite you to regular team meetings as well as planning, retro or demo meetings and will keep you up-to-date on a regular basis — from the first wireframes to the release date.
As far as tooling, you will have complete access to the Figma files for the designs, source code in Github, issue tracking in Jira and any third-party software we might need.
Of course, sometimes this amount of information can seem like too much to track. That's where the Product Manager comes in.
The Product Manager helps organize the documentation and shares it with you in a digestible way, making it easier to navigate the various timing, changes and deliverables at each phase. This way, we make sure you have an overview of the project status at any stage, at any given time.
Okay, My App Is Ready. Now What?
After development is completed, it's time to go live. The next steps depend on the type of app we've built together.
In the case of a mobile app, your Product Manager helps you deploy it to the App Store and/or Google Play. He/she also provides recommendations on how to properly list the app and measure its growth, and how you can identify and track various metrics and KPIs you should keep an eye on going forward.
In the case of a web app, your Product Manager ensures that the release — and deployment — is successful by monitoring the app's status and communicating any changes to you immediately.
We know that this stage is a key milestone. Your Product Manager is always there for you to make sure everything comes together nicely, and to wrap the project up so that you receive not only the app itself but also the knowledge and tools that help you keep it on the path of a successful, enduring product.
In Summary
STRV’s Product Managers help define and build an exceptional product for you and your users. They own the process and organize the teams around it, challenging you to take your idea to the next level with an extreme ownership mindset.
If you have an app idea — be it a web or mobile application — we are here to help you develop it. Reach out to chat and see how can we help you.
