Identifying Customer Problems is the Fundamental duty of Product Managers.
No, The customers do not know their problems. Henry Ford quoted once: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
It is the job of the Product manager:
- To observe the customer behaviour in their natural environment and identify their problems and needs.
- Educate and spread awareness to the customers first about their problems and needs
- Define customer problems to the Engineering and Design teams in the Software companies so that Solutions can be built to address these problems
- Educate Marketing and Sales about customer problems so that it is easy for them to communicate with potential customers.
Hence,
- A product manager is also a Problem Manager.
- Every Product is built to solve a specific problem.
- Product Management resides in the problem space and Engineering resides in the Solution space.
- An innovator should have an understanding of one’s customers and their problems via the observational method.
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