What is a product development manager?
A product development manager, commonly abbreviated as PDM, is an engineer tasked with user experience (UX) designing or quality assurance (QA) testing. These are individuals, majorly software gurus, who conduct, research, direct, and evaluate a new product development.
They manage existing product improvements and developments to meet customers’ needs. These managers also conduct market research through industry trend monitoring and direct communication with customers to ensure that new results are viable and centered on customer needs.
Difference Between Product Managers and Product Development Managers
Despite these two experts being in the same field and having overlapping tasks, their jobs are different in scope and focus.
Firstly, PMs come at the start and hand over to PDMs. A PM will discover a problem and give a PDM to solve it. Alternatively, a product manager finds the problem while a product development manager provides a solution.
Ideally, product managers are single-focused. They trail their guns on one product, client, development, and product improvement. On the other hand, product development managers concentrate on developing and conceptualizing a good.
What Makes an Effective Product Development Manager?
There are some must-have qualities if a PDM will be effective in any field. For PDMs, the following apply.
Open Communication and Collaboration
PDMs are probably some of the company’s employees that have to communicate and interact with every department frequently. They have to have good communication skills, keenness, and be easy to relate to for an adequate job. They should also be friendly when talking to clients and have good communication skills.
A Good Time Manager and Organizer
PDMs are always busy, and most projects are timed. They need to be intelligent, organized, and good time managers to ensure all tasks get done. Their cross-cutting job nature of dealing with clients and colleagues and carrying out research calls for someone who is a good time manager for prompt task completion. They should also know which urgent projects are and which ones can wait.
Expert in Software Handling
As with any other job, expertise in the field is a prerequisite for excellence. Without it, the job will be below standard or take longer. A PDM should understand the software and troubleshoot when a problem arises. A PDM should also be knowledgeable in testing, general design, research, and UX design.
Critical Thinking and a Problem Solver
Excelling in these fields requires you to be a critical thinker for solution purposes. As identified earlier, PDMs bring solutions to a company’s products. This means PDMs should be on their toes thinking about where the following solution will originate.
Product development managers offer solutions to companies concerning user experience, product development, and modification. They are an integral part of any business that needs to scale the product and business cycle lows. Even if you find one lacking skill, it doesn’t mean they can’t make good PDMs. Some skills can be nurtured until perfection, thus creating a reliable and great product development manager.
