{"id":6227,"date":"2019-04-07T16:57:31","date_gmt":"2019-04-07T21:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/?p=6227"},"modified":"2019-04-29T17:57:16","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T22:57:16","slug":"how-product-management-ux-work-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/how-product-management-ux-work-together\/","title":{"rendered":"How Product Management & UX Work Together"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Not all business problems are customer problems. (Customers couldn\u2019t care less that you aren’t generating enough sales leads.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not all customer problems are business problems. (A tech company probably doesn\u2019t care that their app doesn\u2019t work on a PalmPilot.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, how do companies find the right<\/em> problems to solve? They leverage product management and UX frameworks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Product Management vs. User Experience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Growing up in the UX career path, it took me awhile to understand what a product manager does. On the surface, it sounded just like my role as a UX. Talking to users, designing experiences, hey\u2014that’s what I do!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that I have several years of experience working alongside product managers, it\u2019s much clearer now how it differs from UX. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Product managers are responsible for the entire<\/em> product: the user experience, performance, ROI, and maintenance. They partner with other teams such as marketing, UX, designers, writers, engineers \/ developers, QA \/ UAT, analytics, business intelligence, and operations to gather insights, implement solutions, and constantly monitor performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UX designers design the user experience. They might also lead or take part in some of the above activities\u2014but likely not all<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In both cases, the customer is at the center. Product managers seek solutions to business problems by better understanding users<\/strong>. UX designers seek solutions to customer problems that the business can solve<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Examples of Problems a Product Manager Might Solve:<\/th>Examples of Problems a UX Designer Might Solve:<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Increase number of first-time mortgage applicants<\/td>Dissatisfaction with mortgage application experience<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Increase number of in-app purchases<\/td>Poor usability when navigating in-app store<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Decrease shopping cart abandonment<\/td>Cannot remember password<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Increase efficiency \/ productivity at resort check-in<\/td>Long waits to check-in at resort<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n

Taking one of the examples from above, let’s say a gaming company wants to increase the number of in-app purchases. First, the product manager might conduct IDIs with customers to understand what keeps them from purchasing game add-ons. Are they priced too high? Too hidden from view? Not desirable to game play?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A UX designer might then lead a sketching session with the product team to develop multiple solutions, and then get feedback from customers about which concept does the best job of solving their problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, the UX\/UI team creates the polished design while the product manager writes the user stories and works with the development team to build the solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Product management and UX are complementary disciplines, in the same way that UX and development are complementary disciplines. They can be separate roles\u2014or one role\u2014just like a multi-talented developer can also design user interfaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deciding whether to leverage both a product manager and a UX designer depends on the size of your team, skill set, complexity of your organization, and how you want to allocate your resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next week, I’ll talk about which product research methods<\/a> to use during each phase of the product cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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