10 Pitfalls of Modern Product Management: Common Mistakes to Avoid

The world has witnessed enormous advancements in technology over the past few decades that have transformed the way we live and work. Product management has also evolved to keep pace with these changes. However, there are several pitfalls that product teams must be aware of to ensure they deliver products that meet customer needs and drive business outcomes.

Typical Product Development Process

Before we go into the pitfalls, lets take a moment to talk about how a typical product team manage product development:

Step 1: It all starts with an idea. This idea commonly comes from senior management that get passed down to the chains to the product managers.

Step 2: The product manager takes the idea and collaborate with engineers to establish a product roadmap for development. This roadmap then form the basis for the business case that helps senior management estimates cost of production alongside potential profits.

Step 3: Once the business case is approved from top down, then product manager starts defining the product's necessary requirements to achieve success.

Step 4: The relevant solution design architects and UX team designs the product, and engineers construct it.

Step 5: Once built, the product undergoes testing, including surveying consumer feedback, before being released to the market. That's it. We released the product successfully!

Does this process looks familiar to you?

This approach are so often called the top-down approach, or the waterfall method where product features are defined up front and cascade from top to bottom. In first glance, this sounds like a reasonable approach right?

After all, this guarantee that product features get deliver on time, and business have lots of certainties of what gets delivered and how we communicate to the customers.

However, we are assuming that all of our idea works, and we will achieve success in a single iteration. If you are in the product space for long enough, you might agree (to a certain extend) that:

Half of our ideas don't work (no value, aren’t usable, aren’t feasible, aren’t viable).

Even if the idea works, it might take several iterations for things to work and deliver value.

Armed with this, lets go deep into some of the pitfalls of modern product management practices:

Pitfall #1: Sales/Stakeholders-Driven Product Development

Product teams sometimes prioritise features based on internal stakeholders assumptions, personal preferences or direction from senior management rather than on customer needs and desires. This results in a product that fails to deliver real value to the customer.

An example of this pitfall is a software application development team that invested significant resources in developing a feature that they thought was essential but turned out to be of little interest to the customer.

To mitigate this pitfall, product managers must adopt a customer-centric approach to product development. This involves understanding the needs and desires of the customer and prioritizing features that meet those needs. Product managers should also use customer feedback to refine and enhance the product.

Pitfall #2: Limitation of Business Case

A business case is a document that outlines the rationale for initiating a project or investment. It typically includes a detailed analysis of the costs and benefits of the project, and serves as a justification for the investment. However, sometimes it is used incorrectly and can yield limited results, especially when predicting costs.

One of the main reasons why the business case may not be effective in predicting costs is that it is often based on assumptions and estimates.In addition, the cost of product development can vary greatly depending on factors such as the complexity of the product, the availability of talent and resources, and unforeseen challenges that may arise during the development process.

Another reason is that the business case might be written without any involvement of the development team that are responsible to build the product, leading to miscalculated cost that skew the cost benefit analysis.

Pitfall #3: Misuse of Product Roadmap

A product roadmap is a visual representation of a product strategy that outlines the plan for achieving business goals. The roadmap helps management coordinate marketing efforts, resolve salesforce dependencies, and plan for future product development.

However, the problem with roadmaps is not the ideas they contain, but rather the commitments that teams make to building them. Teams may become focused on delivering features that no one wants or that are outdated, simply because they are on the roadmap. This can result in the team becoming mercenaries, rather than missionaries working to bring the product vision to life.

To overcome this pitfall, product managers should consider creating a roadmap that lists prioritised business problems, rather than just a list of features. Roadmaps will still be an important tool as sometimes commitment is necessary. However product managers should minimise commitments to highly strategic ones, and not make them until sufficient product discovery.

Strong product teams focus on outcomes and take a risk-driven approach, iterating quickly and conducting product discovery to test ideas in hours, not months. By staying focused on solving customer and business problems, product teams can deliver successful products that meet customer needs and drive business outcomes.

Pitfall #4: Defining product requirement without tech team

Defining product requirements without the involvement of the tech team can have serious negative consequences. The tech team is responsible for developing the product and bringing it to life, so it's important that they have a say in defining the requirements of the product. Without their input, the product requirements may be unrealistic, impractical or simply impossible to implement.

If product requirements are defined without considering the technical feasibility, it can lead to costly delays, rework, or even project failure. This is because the product may require features that are not technically feasible, or may not consider the constraints and limitations of the technology being used. As a result, the product may not meet customer needs or may be too expensive to develop.

Additionally, involving the tech team in the product requirement definition process can help ensure that the final product is of high quality and meets the required performance standards. The tech team can provide valuable insights into what is technically possible and feasible, and can offer suggestions on how to optimize the product design for better performance.

Pitfall #5: Late Introduction of UX Designers

User Experience (UX) designers play a critical role in ensuring that the product meets the needs and desires of the customer. However, in some cases, UX designers are brought in too late in the product development process, severely limiting their impact.

Let's say a software application team is working on a retail stock trading platform. They put all their efforts into building the most sophisticated engine to trade stocks and shares. However, the UX designers were brought in only after the product was almost complete, resulting in a product that was very powerful but extremely hard to use for retail clients. As a result, the product was not adopted much, and the powerful backend engine was rendered useless. After all, what good is a powerful engine if there are no users using it?

Pitfall #6: Lack of Customer Validation

Product teams can sometimes assume that they know what customers want, without testing these assumptions. This results in a product that does not meet customer needs or expectations.

Imagine a product development team that is building a new social media platform. The team has a vision for the product and has spent months working on it, adding all the features they think users will love. However, they never tested the product with real users to get feedback on what they really want from a social media platform. When the product is finally launched, it fails to attract users because it doesn't solve the problems they have or offer the features they need. The team's lack of customer validation results in a product that doesn't meet the needs of its target audience, and the investment of significant resources is wasted. To avoid this pitfall, product managers must conduct regular customer testing throughout the product development process. This enables them to gather feedback and input from customers and incorporate these insights into the product development process.

Pitfall #7: Delivering Features Rather Than Business Outcomes

Product teams often rely on internal metrics, such as feature release dates and project timelines, to measure progress and success. However, these metrics do not always align with customer needs and can result in a product that fails to deliver value. As Stephen Covey once said,

"If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster."

So if the product is not meeting customer needs, then every product feature that we build is not going to help us gain more customer. To avoid this pitfall, product managers must focus on business objective and key results, ensuring that the product features build deliver value to the customer and solves customer problems. More will be written on this topic to explain how companies like Intel and Google uses the OKR (Objective and Key Result) methods to measure successes based on business outcomes rather than effort.

Pitfall #8: Failure to continuously iterate

In the waterfall example above, the process ends when a product feature are successfully deployed. However, it is extremely rare that an idea achieve successfully market fit, or what we call product market fit in one iteration.

Product managers should not stop after the product is deployed, but rather, they should continuously seek feedback and iterate the product to ensure product market fit. By seeking feedback from customers and continuously iterating the product, product managers can ensure that the product is meeting customer needs and delivering value. This also helps to identify areas for improvement and provides opportunities for innovation.

Moreover, continuous iteration can also help to uncover new business opportunities and revenue streams. For example, by collecting data on customer usage patterns and behaviours, product managers can identify new features or services that can be added to the product to increase customer value and generate additional revenue.

As such, product managers should not view the deployment of a product as the end of the product development process. Instead, they should view it as an ongoing process of improvement and iteration. By seeking feedback from customers and continuously iterating the product, product managers can ensure that the product remains relevant, competitive, and delivers value to customers.

Pitfall #9: Limited Collaboration and Communication

Product teams often work in silos, with limited collaboration and communication between team members. This can result in a lack of alignment and coordination, leading to a product that fails to deliver value.

Let's consider a scenario where a software company has two product teams working on different parts of an application - one team is responsible for developing the front-end user interface, while the other team is responsible for developing the back-end database and API.

If these two teams don't communicate with each other, they could run into several issues. For example, the front-end team may assume that the API has certain features and functionalities that are not yet implemented by the back-end team. This could lead to delays in the front-end development process, as the team has to wait for the back-end team to catch up.

On the other hand, the back-end team may not be aware of certain design or usability considerations that are important to the front-end team. This could result in a disconnect between the user experience and the back-end functionality, leading to a poor user experience and potentially dissatisfied customers.

In addition, without effective communication, the two teams may end up duplicating work or implementing features in ways that conflict with each other. This could lead to wasted time, effort, and resources, and could result in a product that is riddled with bugs and inconsistencies.

Pitfall #10: Resistance to Change

Product teams can become entrenched in their ways, unwilling to change their approach or process. This can result in a lack of innovation and a product that fails to meet customer needs.

Let's consider a hypothetical scenario where a leading software company has a product team that has been developing and maintaining a legacy product for several years. Over time, the team has become entrenched in their ways, following a set process and approach to product development without considering new or innovative ideas due to their lack of competition.

As a result, the team has failed to keep up with changing customer needs and market trends. The product they are developing is outdated and lacks the features and functionalities that customers are looking for. In today's face paced environment, it won't be long before start ups come by and scoop up market shares quickly because they are adapted to changing customer needs and market trends.

To overcome this, the team needs to be open to new ideas and be willing to embrace change. They should adopt a culture of continuous improvement, regularly seeking feedback from customers and exploring new approaches to product development. This can help to drive innovation and ensure that the product meets the changing needs of customers and the market.

Conclusion

Product management can be quite a daunting task, with many moving parts that need careful coordination and execution. The good news is that by being mindful of the issues that we discussed, product managers can hopefully identify and avoid these common pitfalls and deliver products that truly resonate with customers and drive meaningful business outcomes.

Remember, avoiding these pitfalls can be the difference between a product that is successful and one that fails to hit the mark. So, let's work together and make sure that we're aware of these pitfalls, and take steps to avoid them!