An associate product manager has similar responsibilities to project managers, but the role is more related to an internship, with lower expectations. Associate product managers are often responsible for four core tasks: producing small features in a product, assessing the scope of changes in product features, discovering and analyzing product success metrics, and collaborating with key stakeholders.
10 Things Every Associate Product Manager Should Do
In most cases, associate product managers focus on a certain feature of a product rather than the full product, which requires certain skill sets.
1. Meet everyone
Product management is about relationships. It’s a good idea to plan meetings with everyone to find out who does what and obtain a bird’s-eye view of the current situation. Chatting with your team and colleagues allows you to ask questions, listen to complaints and suggestions, and evaluate what works and what doesn’t.
Your supervisor, stakeholders, and anyone else who has time to talk should all be included on your meeting schedule. It can lead to a lot of meetings, but it’s a good idea to use coffee breaks, lunches, or walks around the block to get to know everyone. Each product manager should meet with their team within the first 30 days.
2. Learn the process
Product development may be a highly complex process, particularly for teams with special considerations, like internationally spread development teams and several feature teams, and every company has its own unique methodology.
Sure, you’ve been brought in to fine-tune that process, but you’re unlikely to succeed if you had no idea how things worked before you started. Consider this your first product. What are the “customers” saying about it? Why do they need it? Where can you prioritize some significant wins?
3. Reserve judgement
Some things may appear unusual at first. You might have immediate suggestions. You may explain how you solved X problem at your previous company or offer a new tool for the product stack.
There are some amazing reasons why things haven’t moved forward on a specific feature. Or, why hasn’t anyone applied a simple solution on the tip of their tongue? Give yourself time to obtain a sense of the situation (and for new colleagues to add context) before rushing to resolve each problem right away.
4. Take notes
This will help you review later and may be useful to others in the future. For example, I spent a significant amount of time with one of our engineers going over all of the user access settings for roadmap viewers and editors. That in-depth Q&A session, in which I dived into how permissions are supposed to work, will be significantly useful to me as I try to describe how they will work in the next feature set.
5. Take advantage of your fresh eyes
You’ll never be in a better position to understand the viewpoint of a new customer than you are during your first 30 days on the job. You have not yet developed a set of expectations or discriminations about your product, which you should take advantage of in the very beginning. Keep this in mind as you work on your product and communicate with customers.
6. Audit customer calls
Participate in sales, support, and customer success calls, as well as any other planned conversations with your end users. Learn how colleagues communicate with clients and discuss the product’s features, benefits, and value proposition.
Customers are likely to quickly realize what is currently missing from your offering. Current customers provide feedback on how the product is used, what new features they’d like to see, and what other problems they’d like to resolve. Empathy for your customers is important and should begin early.
7. Talk to the customer yourself
Once you’ve gained a general understanding of the product, speak with several clients on your own. Conduct a few customer interviews. Ask them when and why they purchased your product.
8. Survey the landscape
Both in terms of your function and the new product. First, figure out how you’re going to fit into your new corporate landscape. At certain companies, the product team has significant power. Product managers own their product and control resource allocation, marketing initiatives, and so on. Other companies’ roles are far more limited. You must determine how your company relates to your position and how much flexibility you have to extend or decrease your responsibilities as needed.
Secondly, learn about your competitors and the rest of the market. You can get inspired right away and want to entirely restructure your product or add a great deal of new functionality. However, this may not be consistent with the company’s objectives, your clients’ needs, or the rest of your team. Often, who you are not is more essential than who you are, and discovering this early on will be beneficial.
9. Measure twice, build once
Find out what is being measured and why. This begins with the business. What are the strategic goals for this year? How are they measured? How do product KPIs relate to those goals? The company may have tracking professionals who cover all of the important success measures you’ll need.
Alternatively, they might not be tracking anything. Alternatively, they may be tracking everything but have no idea how to filter, eliminate unnecessary details, or incorporate this data into future development cycles, design sessions, and prioritization efforts.
10. Set some personal goals
The first month will be an infusion of information. To be successful in your new role, you must have an in-depth knowledge of your product, the procedures involved in its creation and introduction, the company, and the customers. Setting and fulfilling personal goals is an important way to ensure that you feel like you’re making progress right away.
30-60-90 Day Plan for Product Managers
Your first 90 days as a product manager in a new role may be both stressful and exciting. This is when you have the opportunity to make a long-lasting impression and set the groundwork for future success, so make the most of your first three months.
Let’s start by breaking down this timetable to have a better picture of what milestones you could expect to hit during your first three months in a new product management position.
First month as a product manager
This first step is mostly about acquiring knowledge. It’s time to learn how things work and build the foundation for the adventure ahead.
Second month as a product manager
Moving forward, spend the following 30 days going deeper into the minute details of your work, clarifying specifics, and celebrating small achievements.
First 90 days as head of product
This time is about leaving a lasting impression, introducing products, and making an impact in your new career.
PW Skills Product Management Course
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Associate Product Manager FAQs
Q1 - What is the most crucial function of a product manager?
Ans - Product managers examine a product's success and direct the group in charge of its ongoing improvement. This is a crucial organizational function, particularly in IT firms.
Q2 - What is the required number of product managers?
Ans - Scalability is key to product management. One person cannot handle everything; as businesses and goods expand, so do the time requirements. As a result, a single product manager turns into two or three, each trying to do everything is required to make the product successful.
Q3 - What is the job description of an associate product manager?
Ans - APMs help Product Managers in their work by doing market research, collecting quantitative product data, and analyzing consumer research. Working with teams including Product, Engineering, Design, Marketing, Customer Success, and Sales, Associate Product Managers get experience in cross-functional cooperation.
Q4 - Can someone be an associate product manager?
Ans - For those who are interested in business strategy, product development, and working across functional boundaries to implement product ideas and further their career in product management, the position of Associate Product Manager (APM) is a great opportunity.
Q5 - Who makes a good product manager?
Ans - A good product manager prioritizes the demands of their clients. More value should be created for customers and the business overall with each new or enhanced product, not only to momentarily increase sales. You must gather information about your consumers and their motivations as a product manager.
