Buildermind podcast — episode 1: project or product? An unfinished war

The first episode of the Buildermind podcast is out.

In this episode we started from the concept of product and compared it with a project-based approach.

Hosts of this episode: Amirhossein Hosseini Pazhouh and Parnian Seifi

Guest of this episode: Mehdi Hoseini

Podcast notes

Welcome to the first episode of season one of the Buildermind podcast.
Buildermind is a podcast for people who love building. Building anything. Especially digital products. Here we want to learn together how to build a quality product that more people will want. Well… before we go to building a product, we probably need to see what a product even is, what we call a product, and when we need to make our view product-oriented.
We won’t waste time. Let’s see what material Parnian has gathered for us on this. You can find the links to the articles Parnian used in the podcast description:

We hear the word “product” a lot! From food and everyday products to wearables and home appliances. But we also have other products that we might not have known were called “products.” Take a look at your phone… each of the apps you see on it is a product. Like those kitchen appliances, or even something like cheese puffs, there was a coherent system behind it so this product could go from a mental idea to a design, so the market and its need could be assessed, a production line could form, it could be built, marketed, and the market’s reaction measured so later changes could be applied if needed.

In this episode we want to get familiar with a few important topics in the product domain. This episode is not only useful for people with no background in product; it is also useful for people who have worked in this field for years, because it lets them approach the topics they are involved in more systematically and get the most from the path we are on together.
In this episode we define product and talk about product management and its role in software development teams so we can get on the same page and, step by step, learn more about product topics later.

Product is a general word we have heard in many places. From agriculture to industry to software. It comes from the verb produce, meaning to make, create, and manufacture.

We can take several approaches to defining product:

First approach: a product can be an object, an idea, or a service, or even intellectual property:

Let’s open the first approach further:
We are all familiar with what an object means, such as a mobile phone, a tablet, and so on.
A service is a non-material action that creates a measurable change in a customer need.

By idea and intellectual property we mean any creation that has commercial value, such as patents, industrial processes, business methods, and other things.

But
the second approach treats product as two types, tangible or intangible:

A tangible product is a physical product we are all familiar with, and an intangible product is VDGs, or virtual digital goods—the digital virtual objects whose output we use, such as operating systems or JPEG or MP3 files, which were often produced by programmers or artists.

Now that we are familiar with the different definitions of product, let’s look at the definition of product in software development:

In software production, a product is anything you offer to the market to meet a need.
In the software development world some products:
are direct goods such as operating systems, games, and so on.

Some are channels for other products, such as a book-selling website, bank payment apps, or search engines, and so on.

But we need to pay attention to a few points when defining and creating a product:

The first point is that the product definitely exists, but it may not always be recognizable, so we have to identify it.

The second point is that every product definitely has a customer, who can be:
a consumer, whether they pay for the product or not.
a buyer who pays for the product.
or both.

The third point is that every product definitely has an owner who can gain benefits such as earning revenue, reducing cost, social benefits, and other things through the product.

So to define and create a product, in the first step we must know our customers’ needs well—that is, consumers and buyers.
Let’s look at an example together.
Consider a car.
When you think about it, are the wheels and engine and gearbox and other parts products in your view, or the car itself?
As we said, it depends on the customer’s need. If you bought the car for yourself, you are both buyer and consumer.
But if you are a father who bought a car for your child, you are the buyer and your child is the consumer, so both of your needs must be covered: for you there should be safety features such as airbags, and for your child an attractive color and music systems.
So if we recap, before creating a product we must identify its likely customers—whether buyer or consumer—and keep that in mind in designing and defining the product.

After identifying the customer, it is important whether this product has any value at all.

In simpler terms we said that a product is created to meet a customer need, and we also said that to create a product we must know our customers well, so now we have to look at what value our product creates for the customer and constantly review that value at different time intervals.

That work is one of the duties of the product owner, which we will cover in the next episode.

Back to the car example: do you think our customers pay for a seat or a wheel, or for a complete car? It is clear they are willing to pay for something that creates value for them. So we also need to consider how valuable the product is as the second step in defining and creating our product.

Now let’s get familiar with product management and the role of a product manager in producing a product.
As we noted, a customer does not buy a product because they like giving money to a company; they are willing to pay because that product answers their need.
But what is the product manager’s role in the middle of this?
In this game between company and customer, the product manager helps the company score well by offering the product the customer needs. Interestingly, that score does not only mean making more money for the company.

Let’s start from the job title product manager. You have probably faced the question of what the difference is between a project manager and a product manager, or why different companies use different titles such as program manager or product owner and so on for a product manager job description.
Let’s start with the difference between product manager and project manager. The project manager is responsible for scheduling, presenting a Gantt chart, and hitting deadlines in a project; in other words they have no role in shaping the product, identifying customer requirements, or communicating with them, and the product manager provides the inputs for schedules and timelines to the project manager. In some companies these two roles work side by side, and in many companies both responsibilities sit under one job title, product manager or project manager.

As for the job titles used in different companies, the reality is that a job title is only a label and the job description plays the main role. For example, at Microsoft they use the title program manager instead of product manager, and at Apple they use titles such as engineering product manager and marketing product manager.
So it is better that we are familiar with existing job titles but not get caught up in the title and focus on responsibilities, because this concern about job titles seems to exist more or less everywhere in the world.

Product managers need different capabilities based on the product they take on. For example if the product is providing an API, the product manager needs good technical knowledge, and somewhere else the product manager needs good marketing knowledge.
In general the duties a product manager has in producing a product include:
identifying customers’ problems and requirements, knowledge of product strategy and implementing it, proper communication with product designers and marketing people and programmers, and so on.
You have definitely heard in many places that a product manager is a mini CEO. That is because of the set of responsibilities and capabilities they need in order to produce a product.

To produce a product, a lot of work needs to be done:
such as preparing the product vision and roadmap, setting key performance indicators and monitoring them, defining sprints and stories, holding meetings with stakeholders, holding planning and grooming sessions, and so on, communicating with customers and customer-support staff, communicating with the team and defining and transferring plans and requirements to them, testing product performance, communicating with the designer and providing them with suitable documents, and so on.
To carry all these responsibilities, and a set of responsibilities that will exist depending on the complexity of the product, the product manager can either take on all of them or get involved in more strategic decisions, with a product owner alongside them. In the next episode we will talk more about the product owner role.