This episode of the Experience Design Strategy podcast is an interview with Dave Scott about his career in Product Management.
As an experience designer, product managers are a key part of the team, one you should work closely with. Both the experience designer and product manager work closely with customers. Dave provided some great insights into how the roles might complement each other.
Here are a few highlights from my conversation with Dave.
Dave described the role of a product manager as listening to customers desires and needs and then ensuring they are defined in a way that is understandable and buildable. A product manager needs to stay abreast of the competition and industry trends. They work with development, marketing, and sales to help guide the product to a successful launch.
A key attribute of a product manager is optimism. People look to you as the leader – the face of the product. You must always see a path forward. Competitors often release new features. Don’t blindly follow what everyone else has done. Not all new features are helpful. Lots of new features never get used. Ensure you are focused on things that are useful to the customer.
Dave’s advice for a successful product manager is to always keep learning. Dave uses Gartner as a source of research and it is a good one. However, his learning extends well beyond. Dave recommends using Audible to help enable listening to books. One of his current recommendations is Catching Big Fish by David Lynch. Dave says there is no reason not to learn new things all of the time.
The best way to connect is Dave on LinkedIn.