10 Key Product Management Terms You NEED to Know (In a Nutshell)

Check out this product management 101 video to become familiar with 10 key terms we think everyone should know!

Product managers are the new must hire for companies, and with a base median salary of $115,000 dollars it’s a pretty good opportunity.

So what do you do if you want to get a foot in the door of this lucrative career? Learn to speak the lingo of course!

Product management is so closely linked with project management that they’re often seen as one and the same thing. This isn’t true – although some aspects of product management do cross over they need to be treated separately.

I’m Rhona Aylward – Deputy Everything Officer at Psoda. In this video I’m going to cover 10 key terms that I think all product managers need to know. But before we begin, don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and hit the bell to get notified!

1. Product manager
This is probably the most fundamental one to get right and shouldn’t be confused with a project manager.
The product manager is the person who owns a particular product or group of products within the business. They are responsible for the overarching strategy or direction of the product, defining its features and functional requirements and eventually sunsetting of the product.

2. Product strategy
A product strategy is the road map. It covers the end-to-end vision of the product and gives a big picture context of what it will become. It should cover the following topics:
• Target Market
• Positioning
• Features
• Design
• Usability
• Technology
• Quality
• Branding

3. Market requirements document
This is a document that a product manager produces to show a specific market’s demand or requirements for a particular product. It’s not a highly detailed analysis but it will contain information about the competitive landscape, product vision, requirements, potential market size, high level product features.

4. Go to market plan or strategy
The go to market plan is an end-to-end map of how an organisation will deliver their product. It’s not to be confused with a market requirements document or a product strategy, although those documents will feed into this plan. It should cover the product release, promotion, sales strategies & channels, pricing and marketing campaigns. It should be a living document that is updated regularly as more information becomes available.

5. Minimum viable product
A minimum viable product is the absolute minimum set of features that the product needs to contain to attract early adopters.

6. Bill of materials
This is a complete list of raw materials, components, parts and the quantities of each that will be needed to build a particular product.

7. Cannibalisation
This is the reduction in sales or market share of a particular product that is a direct result of the organisation introducing a new product. Organisations usually have a product manager be responsible for a suite of products to keep this to a minimum.

8. Release notes
These are the documents that are provided alongside a new or updated product. They tell the users what has changed and if there is any new functionality. They might also contain any know issues.

9. Product marketing
This is the team that’s responsible for marketing the product to the world. This includes launching the product, providing the sales team with the marketing collateral and leading the various marketing campaigns

10. Sunsetting
This is a controlled way of taking a product out of circulation. It usually happens when a product has been superseded by a newer version or it is no longer profitable. In the case of software it means that that version is no longer supported.
One last thing, these terms apply equally to internal and external facing product managers.

I hope you’ve found this list useful, if you have please give us a thumbs up!

There are obviously loads more product management terms so let us know in the comments below what other terms you think are key.

If you’re looking for a great tool to help you manage your products that will also seamlessly align with other parts of your organisation sign up for a free trial of Psoda at:

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