.png){kind=tracking}
Product operations (or simply product ops) is a combination of the two terms, Product Development, and Operations. The first part of the phrase describes the work done in development. The second part describes what happens after a product goes live, namely how it is packaged, sold, distributed, and scaled to customers.
This approach aims to create products that are easy to develop, sell, support, and maintain. This approach helps reduce costs by eliminating the need for multiple people or departments within an organization. It also improves team communication, leading to better collaboration, higher-quality products, and less time spent on maintenance tasks.
Product operations is defined as: "The process from concept through delivery of a new product to the customer."
Product operations management is the process of managing the entire build-to-launch lifecycle. It includes everything from planning, organizing, and executing production activities to marketing and sales efforts. Defining all the processes required to create efficiencies across all teams involved in the product launch workflow.
Why is product ops critical?
Product operations help the company achieve its vision by making the product faster, more reliable, and easier to use. A well-functioning product ops team can help reduce feature churn rates and increase customer satisfaction. Product ops also build brand awareness, increase revenue streams, and lower costs associated with managing software products.
Product ops typically encompass three essential activities: design of the product (to make sure it meets user needs), engineering (to create features that meet user needs), and marketing (to ensure users know about the product). As you'll see below, each activity is a critical component for success.
Why does a company need product ops?
In the early days of a startup, product management and engineering are typically separate entities with distinct sets of skills. When that separation is lost, as it often is in startups, companies can need help to optimize their development process. Product operations helps teams stay aligned by assisting them to share data, set up experiments, and iterate quickly on products.
What makes product ops unique?
Product operations roles tend to be very similar across companies, but there are some commonalities among all types:
They require an advanced understanding of software development and, ideally, some experience in product management or engineering (although not necessarily at the same company). They must also have excellent communication skills and the ability to work closely with other teams within the organization.
What does product ops do?
Product ops focuses on the intersection of product, engineering, and customer success. It supports the Research and Development team and their Product Marketing counterparts to improve alignment, communications, and processes around the development. Effective product operations teams accelerate feedback loops, increase efficiencies, and strengthen feature adoption through consistent data and tracking.
Product operations can be thought of as a role (or team) within a broader product management organization. Specific priorities within the product ops function may vary based on company maturity, industry, and the nature of the product itself.
Adding Product Ops to Your Product Team
Product operations is an essential function that can be added to any product team. However, it's critical to understand how product ops should be implemented to ensure success.
The following steps outline a process for adding product ops to your product team:
Step 1: Create the role and assign it to the PM. The role of a product manager is only complete with having someone with experience managing people in the background. Product ops allow PMs time back from their other responsibilities and free up their attention for the most critical tasks.
Why is product operations necessary?
Product operations is essential for the following reasons:
1. Product operations helps ensure that products are developed in a way that allows them to be as successful as possible. Product ops teams do this by facilitating cross-team collaboration, collecting and managing data, selecting software tools, and creating standards and best practices for internal teams, among other streamlining functions.
2. Product operations is an area that can create efficiency because they help reduce the time it takes to develop new features or fix bugs on a product. This approach saves time which could then be used to invest more into marketing or sales so that those areas stay caught up to their competition.
3. Product ops helps ensure consistency between products by letting all team members know how each product works and its goals.
Product Operations Responsibilities
Product operations is responsible for the following:
Designing, developing, and launching products; maintaining product roadmaps and schedules.
Supporting product documentation (e.g., documentation of features, documentation of use cases)
Operations management:
Operations supports teams in designing and implementing new features to help them ship faster and more efficiently.
It facilitates processes that ensure the reliable delivery of software.
Helping ensure all developers are on-task with their responsibilities so they can ship more frequently.
They are creating processes that make it easier for teams to manage their workloads, such as tasks delegated to different people or projects that have dependencies on each other.
10 Key Areas of Product Operations
We identified six key areas of product operations.
The goal is to reduce the time and effort needed to build great products by creating a system that makes collaboration easy for teams.
1. Tools
- Product management tools include product roadmap, Product team role mapping, and product visioning tools.
- Technology platforms and software are essential for the operation of products, e.g., ERP systems and manufacturing software.
- Communication platforms exchange information between organizational stakeholders, such as communication management tools and instant messaging services.
- Technologies that support the customer experience, including user experience design tools, web analytics platforms, and marketing automation suites
2 . Escalations/Issues
Product operations Escalation/Issue management is an essential function of any product organization. It allows for the timely and effective resolution of problems that may arise during product development or in product marketing. The product ops escalation process should include the following:
- Detection of potential issues
- Receiving feedback from team members
- Identifying possible root causes and taking corrective action as needed
3. Feedback and NPS
Product operations refer to the various tasks necessary to keep a product flowing from the development team to the customer. Feedback and NPS can be used in product operations to measure success.
NPS is an acronym for "Net Promoter Score." It's a metric used by companies to measure customer satisfaction, retention, and growth rates. The score ranges from 0-10, where 0 indicates no satisfaction, 5 represents satisfied customers who would not recommend the product or service, 6 means very satisfied customers who would recommend the product or service, 7 means moderately satisfied customers who might not personally recommend
4. Cross-Communication
Product operations is the process of managing product development, manufacturing, and packaging. This includes coordinating activities across teams to create products that meet customer needs. Product operations managers may also oversee product marketing and sales efforts.
5. Experimentation
Product operations involve the management of product development and manufacturing. Product managers work with team members in product development to create a new product or improve an existing one. They may also help market the product.
6. Product Enablement
Product operations consist of the management and execution of product-related activities that interact with the customer, user, or other stakeholders. They include systems development, process improvement, marketing support planning, and execution, as well as product management functions such as product roadmap development
7. Improve internal workflows
Product operations management helps to improve internal workflows and ensure that products are delivered on time, meet customer standards, and are cost-effective. Product operations management can help identify bottlenecks and implement changes to optimize throughput.
8. Promote best practices
Product operations involve the management of the product lifecycle from development to delivery. It encompasses understanding customer demands, creating and refining products, and managing resources and KPIs. Critical success factors for product operation include effective communication, team cohesion, cooperation, and rigorous process management aligned with business objectives.
9. Facilitate data and analytics
Product operations helps drive decisions by automating data management and analysis tasks. Product operations automation tools help organizations make data-driven decisions that support product development and operation goals. These tools can automate gathering customer feedback, analyzing sales data, and building customer profiles. They can also help companies track product performance metrics across time and geography to improve decision-making.
10. Manage the product team tech stack
Product operations manages the team tech stack by enabling all product managers with the best tools. Some tools to support the product team include roadmaps, customer feedback management, Jira, analytics dashboards, and product announcement tools.
IdeaPlan is a tool that can enable road mapping, customer feedback, and product announcement management. Customer feedback software is a critical aspect of product management.
