I’ve been in a few PM interviews lately where candidates ask how I get from idea to shipped product, and what role the PM plays throughout.

Here’s my understanding of that process in 7 steps.

Understand the need.

PMs have a subjective understanding of our users’ reality. Gut is important, but it shouldn’t be what drives product strategy.

Leverage quantitative data, and complement it with talking to people. You’ll end up with more feature ideas than time to build.

Define the Job-to-be-done.

This one’s hard. Once you’re ready to take an idea and try to build it, think through what it’s actually trying to accomplish.

Is the job of lawnmowers to cut grass or keep the lawn looking pretty?

Define equirements.

This step is crucial in setting your design and engineering teams up for success.

Translate everything you’ve learned into clear-cut user stories and acceptance criteria. Of course, you don’t want to limit creativity, but you want to establish a foundation.

Design.

This is where the feature comes to life. Encourage designers to start bold & free. After testing & scoping with engineering, there will be plenty of time to think about feasibility.

Understand why designers have built what they have & provide constructive feedback.

Develop.

PM the heck out of those Jira tasks, and make sure you’re playing quarterback for the team. Answer questions, find those assets from the deep black holes of Google Drive, and help test whatever you can.

Don’t sit idle.

Learn, test, iterate.

Run qualitative user tests, quantitative A/B tests, etc.

These learnings will help you understand if the needs you hypothesized were correct or not. Remember, it won’t always work. It's ok. By iterating, you build a more complete and fulfilling solution.

Ship.

Woohoo! Time to share with the world.

Everyone’s worked hard - celebrate your wins.

Don't forget to learn, test, and iterate some more.

Product/design Twitter, what did I miss? What's your process?

#productmanagement #productdesign #design #ux