Transitioning from executor to team manager in a product manager’s career is a huge challenge. This article will share with you the experience of a senior product manager in the team management process, covering organizational structure design, organizational culture construction, and communication skills with team members.
During this time, I came into contact with many product classmates who had just transformed into front-line managers, and after chatting, they generally had a vague concept of management itself. So here I will share with you the management experience of the product team that has not grown up but has stepped on many pitfalls, if a certain sentence or a certain experience can resonate with you, touch you and take action, then I am very happy.
1. Organizational structure design
“The design of the architecture must be business first, then technology, and then organization. Everything is for the service of the business, and only when the business architecture is sorted out can the technical architecture be sorted out。 Only when the business and technical architecture are sorted out can the organizational structure be sorted out, because the purpose of organizational structure is to allow business and technology to function optimally. The implementation order of the structure is different, and it is necessary to reorganize the organizational structure, then the business structure, and then the technical structure. Because the organizational structure will affect the business architecture, and the business architecture will affect the technical architecture. In addition, many factors are what we need to evaluate when doing architecture, especially value, risk, cost. —— Cai Xueyong, “Architecture Design”
No matter the size of the team, 2 or 3 people or a dozen or twenty people, an organizational structure is needed.A good organizational structure should correspond to your product architecture, which reflects the business strategy you support.Here is the experience of organizational structure design recommended to everyone:
Step 1: Find a relatively stable point in the business, define the product architecture and core goals.
Generally speaking, this relative stability point often comes from business strategic goals, such as market share, such as order volume/GMV or gross profit margin, from which they correspond to the core goals of each module of your product architecture, and then you can find a more determined product organization to improve the capabilities of the core modules. If the business strategic goal is relatively qualitative or the business development is in an unstable state, it is recommended to find the answer from the transaction chain of the entire business or the user journey in the market, generally from the pre-sale, in-sale, after-sales definition of what the core node is, and then combined with the vague strategic goal can define the goal, which may be conversion rate, cost reduction rate, retention rate, etc.
Step 2: Take stock of your team and the relationship between the upstream and downstream teams.
Once you have the prototype of the product architecture, you can start to take stock of the team situation and the relationship between the upstream and downstream of the team. The former allows you to know your team’s capabilities, whether it can be saturated or single-point breakthroughs when achieving business results, where are short-term stuck points, and where are long-term difficulties. The latter allows you to clearly understand the positioning of the team and how to work together with upstream and downstream to achieve organizational goals. Here are two examples.
During the period of taking over the two-wheeler, the business running too fast at the beginning led to the platform construction and the connection between B-end asset management and operation and maintenance operations were very weak, which seriously affected the gross profit indicators in the long-term business strategy. In the early days of taking over, in order to accelerate the construction of the platform and solve the problem of tandem, it was decided to combine the two and find a senior expert as a leader (fortunately, I met a very good product and friend, who taught me a lot of management methods and life experience). After a year and a half of platform construction, the platform construction in the two directions of asset management and operation and maintenance operations is nearing completion, and after the standardized operation process, the data system can be applied to each field to further improve the strategy, and there are 2-3 core backbones here gradually emerged, so in 21 years, it was decided to split the team, develop independently, and improve products on the basis of the original cooperation and trust, and continue to reduce costs.
What does a product manager need to do?
In the process of a product from scratch, it is not easy to do a good job in the role of product manager, in addition to the well-known writing requirements, writing requirements, writing requirements, there are many things to do. The product manager is not what you think, but will only ask you for trouble, make a request:
View details >
To give another counterexample, when I first took over the two-wheeler in the middle of 19 years, I quickly realized the importance of matching the supply and demand of two-wheelers with my previous work experience, so I split an entity organization when the business development had not yet been refined to this granularity, although there were only 1-2 people, but at that time it was still a very advanced experiment for the upstream and downstream. However, in actual effect, the goal of this organization, upstream and downstream business collaboration is very painful, and it often happens that everything can be found to you, and nothing can be found without you, resulting in the early output of this group is very small, and it is also a big pit in the design of its own organizational structure.
Step 3: A good division of labor is half the battle.
Generally speaking, there are three ways to divide labor, which are suitable for different business development models.The first type: divided by project. It is common in businesses from 0 to 1 or innovative businesses。 At this time, key projects will generally be aligned, and rapid iteration will be promoted in a virtual organization manner to verify ideas.The second type: according to the target. Common in the development stage of business。 Business development generally has clear strategic goals in the growth and maturity stages, and each product module can be mapped to the corresponding goals (if there is no goal, beware of the waste of organizational resources), and the goal can ensure that organizational resources are invested in core business development needs to the greatest extent.The third type: according to functional modules。 It is commonly used in mature businesses or platform-based businesses. Generally, the business development in the mature period is relatively stable, and each module needs to be developed in depth, constantly learning from solutions inside and outside the industry, and striving for excellence.
These three division of labor will expose different problems in organizational collaboration.
- In organizations divided by projects, the flow of information between members is often extremely unsmooth, and it is easy to compete for resources, which is only suitable for the very early stage of business development.
- Although there are clear guidelines for organizations divided by goals, gray areas are prone to appear between goals, and a better organizational culture is needed to ensure the flow of information and cooperation.
- Although there are fewer gray areas in the organization divided by functional modules, it is often difficult to have a sense of ownership in matters that require multi-module collaboration.
- From an individual point of view, it is more inclined to divide by goal.First, most products require a high degree of collaboration, and it is easier to find the owner (who is most related to the goal is the owner) according to the goal, and it is also easier to see the subjective initiative of the owner in the process; Second, under the traction of clear goals, it actually gives the organization a lot of freedom, which can define specific paths by itself, rely on each other, exercise the core judgment of the product in a relatively small range of module/system iterations, and have experience reserves in team design in the future.
When product managers transition to team managers, the product system is more complex, and uncertainty in business development begins to emerge. I hope you can find the unchanging facts in the complexity and changes, see the essence clearly, and sort out your organizational structure.Let your team and everyone be in the right place, so that everyone can maximize their subjective initiative and stimulate the enthusiasm and creativity of product design.
2. Organizational culture construction
Operate the team as a community product
This is the most important sentence I have said after stepping on many pitfalls. I used to think that management is just a skill alongside project management, interaction design, etc., as long as you read books and learn, and practice makes perfect.
But in practice, I want to be a product designer, not good at management, and I don’t like management. Until one day in a 1-1 communication with my seniors, I suddenly realized why team management should be treated as another skill training, and why not treat the team as your product. Since it is a product, aren’t many methods of product design applied to team building? Therefore, after self-acceptance, there is a lot of thinking and iteration later.
In my opinion, teams are a community product. As a manager, you are his product manager. The user value of the product is to allow the team students to obtain material rewards, career growth and a sense of belonging, and the commercial value of the product is that the students take greater responsibility and efficiently achieve organizational goals.
In the process of management, we can learn from Yang Triangle theory, serve business strategy, and build organizational capabilities. How to establish a win-win organizational culture of mutual trust, how to establish organizational processes, and how to teach students according to their aptitude are also the three important propositions I have faced so far in organizational management. There are many, many books on the market that can be used as a reference, but here I will only share with you what I have experienced and find useful.
“There is no good or bad culture, only whether it is suitable or not”
When I first became a manager, I thought it was a metaphysics for me to determine what kind of organizational culture was, and most organizational culture was naturally brought out by some of the characteristics of the manager’s own behavior.
This is half right and half wrong.
The right part is that organizational culture itself does have a very strong positive correlation with the characteristics of managers, but the wrong part isOrganizational culture should exist to support the larger business strategy. There is no good or bad culture, only suitability。As a manager, define your organizational structure and what kind of organizational culture you need from the long-term strategy of your business.
For example, in Qingju’s experience, the characteristics of the long business chain require products in each direction to be thoughtfully considered and coordinated with each other, otherwise it will easily produce 1+1<2 product iterations. For example, some indicators require vehicle production, lean operation and maintenance, investment at the right point, and refined user marketing plans. If some product plans are done first, but other iterations do not keep up, or the strategy comes first, the management methods do not keep up, or the marketing methods are not followed, and the effect will be greatly reduced. Therefore, we will emphasize more in organizational cultureSimplicity and cooperation. Only the more simple students there are, the smoother the information flow in the organization will be; Everyone doesn’t need to look at the overall situation, just look forward and backward in the upstream and downstream of the chain. If you are paired with appropriate incentives, this chain will naturally become smoother and smoother.
“Do real things and do false facts”
If culture is defined, how should it be implemented? Rely on publicity to bring more exposure, or rely on yourself to lead by example, or what other rules and regulations and assessments? “Do real things and do false facts” is the teaching of the former senior manager of the former company (and the current CEO, XD) back then. so-calledDoing things in real terms, that is, very delicate, the more down-to-earth things need to be “valued”For example, every requirement has user value, and every line of code has commercial value.
A successful business is never brought about by one person making a certain decision, but by many people who trust each other bit by bit. whereasVirtual reality means that cultural things should penetrate into your process and daily life through actual perceived things。 I remember that at the end of 19 and the beginning of 20, the size of the team expanded rapidly, coupled with the office in Beijing and Hangzhou, many people were not familiar with each other, coupled with the fast pace of business, many students quickly devoted themselves to their posts when they came, and there were not many opportunities to meet other students.
If we think of this team as a community, then the neighborhood is too unfamiliar with each other, which is not conducive to the connection of the entire chain and the flow of information. So at that time, several things were planned and implemented: one was that all the members of the quarter were together, physically bringing a team together, chatting as a supplement, everyone knew each other, and it was more important to understand each other’s hobbies and characteristics; One is the design of the team culture shirt, so that everyone in the team can participate in the design, submit the plan, and vote for all members instead of the boss designation; One is the organization of internal debate competitions (I also took the initiative to participate); There are also regular birthday parties, Starbucks gift cards, and more. When there is no budget, I pay for it myself, and when I have a budget, I make more cultural shirts to share with my colleagues (I can still see the cultural shirts of the product department in the current company, tearful eyes). On the surface, it seems to bring each other closer, but the logic behind it is that a culture of simplicity and cooperation requires practical things to be implemented. After all, the radiation of leading by example is limited, and the decay is fast, and it relies on some well-designed institutional processes to make culture land for a long time.
“Everyone is a different individual, and the best motivation is timely feedback”
I have always believed that product managers are a creative job that requires everyone to have the necessary space to think to stimulate creativity.
If the team is treated as a community product, then the best incentive is not performance, promotion is forced to create an unfair evaluation system, but timely feedback。 When you find that someone is doing well, encourage them in private 1-1 situations, encourage their behavior in public, and let the teammates see what kind of behavior the community will encourage (which is also supported by organizational culture).
If you think of the team as a community product, everyone in different fields can be KOL, not necessarily a leader or team leader, but also anime, pets, fitness, funny, etc. With more people willing to speak in the community, find resonance, and get feedback, your organization will one day show a strong cohesion that will help you get through the challenges of your business. If your team has more than 10 people, you need to create a hierarchy.
For middle-level students, you must stick to the principle, “assign tasks step by step, and understand the situation across levels”. Respecting the judgment of middle-level students depends on actions, and cross-level assignment tasks are actions that you should try your best to avoid. Cross-level understanding of the situation is similar to user research, which is a very necessary behavior. You can evaluate the performance of the middle management through their feelings during the research process, the situation of the organization, and see what kind of problems are common and urgently needed to be solved inside and outside the organization.
At lastAlthough organizational culture should be adapted to business strategy, organizational culture still has a strong relationship with the manager himself. Therefore, in addition to the continuous improvement of professionalism, managers themselves also need to continue to move forward and iterate through personal cultivation.
“If we give our classmates more freedom instead of making rules that prevent them from exercising their judgment, they will make better decisions and be more responsible”. ——”Eclectic: Netflix’s Freedom and Responsibility”
3. The method of 1 on 1 with the team
GROW feedback model
The most frequent scene in daily management actions is to communicate and give feedback to the teammates, here is the general model I commonly use; GROW feedback model.
- GOAL:What do you want? / What is the result you expect?
- REALITY: What is happening now? / Know the facts, clarify and understand
- OPTIONS selection: What can you do? / Find alternatives and ask for advice
- WILL: What are you willing to do? / articulate action plans/measures/establish self-responsibility
Generally speaking, the best result of team management is to match the goals of the business or team with personal goals, which can maximize the subjective initiative of the team students. This requires managers to understand what kind of abilities and challenges are required for business/team goals, and also needs managers to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each student and their development needs.Through the GROW model, you can guide members to think inwardly about the status quo and the path of consensus change when they express their demands.
Give some common management scenarios: Team classmate Xiao Li comes to you and hopes that the next window can be nominated for promotion. For such a clear goal, we can go directly to the second step of the GROW model to understand what the current situation looks like from Xiao Li’s point of view, such as which facts meet the requirements for promotion and which facts still have gaps.
Managers need to pay close attention to these two aspects, on the one hand, the facts that meet the requirements should be actively affirmed, and on the other hand, for the facts that Xiao Li currently does not meet the requirements enter the third step of the inquiry, “What do you plan to do to change these things”, guide students to look inward and find feasible solutions. In this process, there may be feedback that some project practice or some sharing routines are needed, or it may be some achievements, this OPTIONS process is the process of consensus between the two parties, and it is also the key to achieving Xiao Li’s goal.Managers should listen attentively.And provide some path options to Xiao Li.
The last step is to ask Xiao Li about some of the willingness to act plans he has made in these paths, in the processManagers not only ask for results, but more importantly, promise to give Xiao Li enough security and support in the process, such as predicting some risks, helping to clear obstacles in organizational cooperation, etc. When you complete a cycle of the GROW model, Xiao Li expressed his desire for promotion, and also agreed with the manager on the development path and made his own commitment, be a manager who does what he says.
In daily management actions, students will also infiltrate some small demands in some large personal demands, which can find solutions through the application of the GROW model again and again, and continue to cycle and find consensus. Of course, the most important thing is not this inquiry routine, but whether you, as a manager, are sincere enough in the feedback process and whether the promises in the feedback can be fulfilled.Don’t promise easily, but promise to do your best.
FEW questioning model
You can try this when your teammates come to express a certain emotion or express a certain wish to youFEW questioning modelfinish
- FACT: Emotions or intentions often come from the occurrence of a fact
- EMOTION emotions: “Unhappy” / “Unhappy” / “Unfair” / “Happy” / “Very Powerful”…….
- WILL: “I want XXXX because I’m unhappy” / “I feel like XXXX”
The key to applying this model is to identify how much of the feedback from your team and your classmates is fact, how much is emotion, and how much is willingness. As long as it is the latter two, you can patiently ask the other person: “What happened” or “What happened to make you like this” in order to find specific key facts, and then you can borrow the GROW model mentioned above to ask the other party what the goal is, what the reality is, what kind of options they have, and try to solve the problem of feedback from classmates.
Of course, if time permits, you need to ask the feedback why such a fact brings such emotions or intentions to the TA, so as to further understand the other person’s values and the reasons for their choices, understand the other person’s choices, and help him reduce similar effects as much as possible in the future teamwork process.
