Major Challenges Haunting Product Leaders

Building the right product takes more than a strong intuition or mandates from the top of the organization. The building blocks of a great product determine customer feedback and market validation.

Fremont, CA: Leaders of a product management team know how challenging it can be to balance between being a member of the executive team and leading the product managers to create while delivering an excellent product. Also, their job responsibilities include navigating changes in the market, sales fluctuations, and staff turnover.

Let us look at some challenges product leaders face now and then:

Roadmap Priorities

Building the right product takes more than a strong intuition or mandates from the top of the organization. The building blocks of a great product determine customer feedback and market validation. These important inputs also help a product leader prioritize a product roadmap. Product managers often set up product roadmap priorities without considering the basic elements of the product. The most challenging part for product managers is to establish roadmap priorities without real market feedback.

Engineering Dependencies

In project management, dependency refers to executing a relationship between two initiatives in a particular order. If Initiative A is dependent on Initiative B, then Initiative B must be completed first. This situation frequently occurs in cross-functional teams, where development progress in one area is often dependent on the completion of specific initiatives in another. Product-based organizations often face difficulties when they have to be dependant on the engineering team that doesn't align with the direction from leadership. In that case, the product management leader needs to listen to the executive team's concerns while efficaciously communicate the engineering dependency that is at odds. It is not easy to deliver difficult news diplomatically and, at the same time, respecting conflicting opinions.

Managing the Type-A Team Members

Type-A personalities are those who are ambitious, competitive, highly organized, and proactive, who like to challenge themselves with deadlines and hate delays. They are generally associated with high productivity. Every team has the type-A members in it. Though these attributes are often perceived as positive, they can create a fiercely competitive, and sometimes stressful working environment.

Check Out: Top PLM Companies