To Be A Product Manager | Week 22

01-29

This journal helps me improve 1% every day…

Welcome to Week 22 of

To Be A Product Manager

This is the first post after I switch product journal from daily to weekly updates, and the past 5 days have been super intense for me.

I』ve been working 4 different project, and each of them takes me a lot of effort and energy every day.

Over communication

CMS is the first system product I get my hands on, there』re many needs we gather from the operation team, and I need to cut them into pieces and analyse them from a product perspective, then label them with priorities.

My mentor at office gave me a lot of advice and information, which helps me a lot of with my product planning meeting.

Don』t vote to make product decision

Then I want to talk about H5 player, this is one of the products I started, and has been updated couple times in the past months.

There』s been an argument on the wording on our new design, and both me and my mentor have given some possible wordings. Because the due date for the task, at the last minute I finally post all the wordings in product group chat to ask people for voting, which is the most silly thing I』ve done since I joined this startup.

My mentor called off the voting immediately, then he talked with me about this:

Throwing some options and asking for voting to make the decision is an act of running away from responsibility. You are the guy who』s in charge of the product, and you should always make a decision with a reason. Even it is not the best decision, you can change it over time.

What I accomplish

CMS product update planning
Mini program wireframes
H5 VR player test
Showstage live streaming product definition
1on1 with boss

What I』m pondering

So I also had a 1on1 meeting with our VP of product, talking about my recent feelings and how I see myself in the next 6 months of 2017.

I talked my concerns of losing passion on my life and hobby, and how should I balance work and life with a better method. She acknowledged my strengths of showing great interest in VR industry, my curiosity, creativity, the great desire to learn, but some how I miss a lot of experiences in life.

She encouraged me to go out and experience more, make more friends in different states, because

being a product manager is not about satisfy your own needs, but provide better experience for others, especially when you are nothing like majority.

She also suggested me to learn to set my mind free after work, you cannot 100% focus on something all the time.

In the next 6 months, she expects me to grow faster and take more responsibility for products and creativity, eventually working out something that will blow people』s mind away.

My name is Zake Zhang, a VR product manager based in Shenzhen, China. I write weekly product journal and reflection.

Thanks for reading and let』s keep on hacking!

Warm Regards,

Zake

be so good they can』t ignore you.