Bridging the Gap in Product Development: The Role of a Product Operations
I’ll explore the role in my previous company, drawing from my experiences in a fishery company job interview and insights gained during a mentoring session with a Product Operations Lead.
The field of Product Management is rapidly evolving, with the emergence of cutting-edge methodologies such as Agile and Kanban aimed at optimizing product teams. The advent of innovative tools and the growing emphasis on data-driven decision-making has given rise to a groundbreaking discipline: Product Operations. This role is transforming the way product teams approach their work, by streamlining processes, leveraging data to inform decisions, and empowering organizations to innovate at a faster pace.
What is Product Operations
Product Operations (Product Ops) lays the groundwork for its core intersection of the product (including product design), engineering, and customer success (CS). Product Operations (Product Ops) is a game-changing approach to scaling technology companies, bridging the gap between research and development and operational efficiency. While not as widely recognized as Marketing Operations (Marketing Ops), Sales Operations (Sales Ops), or Development Operations (DevOps), Product Ops is set to take its place among these industry heavyweights. Product Operations streamline communication and processes throughout product development, launch, and iteration. They enhance alignment between R&D and go-to-market teams, driving the success of product teams.
The definition of Product Operations varies among companies, reflecting differing priorities and outcomes. These are examples of how few organizations defined product ops to give some perspective.
Uber: Product Operations gather insights to inform the product development process and work to execute launches and go-to-market strategies globally.
Stripe: Product Operations focused on delivering value to more users faster, with a focus on strengthening product feedback loops, operationalizing products, and scaling product knowledge.
Comcast: Product Operations, serves as a customer-centric function, providing insight into the end-to-end customer experience.
These varying definitions highlight the adaptability and versatility of Product Operations as a discipline.
The role of Product Operations is to support the work of the Product Manager to analyze and control product development to achieve goals to meet the business objective and user needs, control issues, document processes, and educate customers on new programs or products, it also ensuring a seamless user experience and customer success through cross-functional collaboration, driving innovation through gathering data and insight
From my mentor who works as a Product Operation Lead at a commerce-tools company, product operations is to enable product teams to create the best experience possible for their users, drive impact and operate efficiently & effectively while both the product and the organization continuously grow.
During the job interview at a fishery/marine start-up company, the role of product operations involves coordinating, planning, executing, and tracking product releases, determining user needs, fulfilling tasks and milestones, managing stakeholders, implementing and configuring Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to achieve efficient and automation in operation within the internal team, providing tactical problem-solving solutions, and managing product teams to ensure business success, as well as supports operational management needs. The role is basically to support the internal team, especially in operation or business support.
The Essential Skills for Product Operations
Excelling in Product Operations requires a blend of skills that bridge the gap between product development and business goals. These skills, honed through experience, must be continually sharpened. These are my lessons learned:
1. Data Analysis & Generate Insights
Ability to turn data into actionable insights, analyze information from multiple sources and identify the most impactful information.
2. Cutting-Edge Tools and Technological Advancements
Adept at understanding and utilizing a wide range of tools not limited to daily work.
3. Collaboration Expertise
The capability to be a “collaboration catalyst,” elevating group collaboration to new levels.
4. Strong Business Knowledge
A solid understanding of how a company’s business goals align with product development.
5. Excellent Communication
Exceptional skills in written, verbal, and in-person presentations, with the ability to relay information to various teams.
6. Product-Focused Mindset
Understanding of product development, with the ability to quickly learn the ins and outs of a specific product.
7. Entrepreneurial Spirit
Action-oriented with the ability to structure and clarify ambiguous concepts.
8. Leadership Capabilities
The ability to have a significant impact across different functions within the business, leading by example.
A product operations person is someone need must have a strong combination of technical, analytical, and interpersonal skills. They must be able to analyze data and generate insights, be familiar with cutting-edge tools and technology, and possess excellent collaboration and communication skills. They also need to have a solid understanding of the business and a product-focused mindset, as well as entrepreneurial spirit and leadership capabilities. These skills are essential to effectively bridge the gap between product development and business goals and drive success in the role.
The Difference Between Product Manager & Product Operations
As your product and business grow, so too must your team. The key to success lies in understanding the vital roles of product managers and product operations managers and how they work together to drive your product forward.
Product Managers — Shaping the Future of Your Product
Product managers are the driving force behind a product’s strategy and vision, bridging the gap between customer needs and business goals. Their focus is on ensuring the product meets customer demands and moves the company closer to its objectives.
Product Operations — Elevating the Product Management Experience
Product operations is the intersection of product management and operations, aimed at speeding up processes, reducing friction, and driving alignment across the organization. Even though, not a commonly known field, product operations play a crucial role in managing the product management experience and working cross-functionally throughout the product life cycle.
Together, product managers and product operations leaders create a powerhouse team that maximizes the potential of your product and drives your business forward.
The Strategic Nature of Product Manager
A Product Manager is a trailblazer, charting the course for future product development. They possess a unique combination of skills, spanning multiple disciplines, to drive their products toward success.
With an unwavering focus on the customer, product managers leverage market intelligence to craft a long-term vision and strategy that meets the needs of their users. By uniting cross-functional teams around their roadmap, they prioritize and build impactful features that deliver measurable results.
As the cross-functional leader of their product team, product managers are responsible for managing both internal and external stakeholders, setting the product strategy, and executing a long-term vision. They touch every aspect of the product development lifecycle, ensuring both business and customer success.
The Impact of Product Operations Professionals
Product operations is the unsung heroes of a successful product strategy. They build and manage the systems, processes, and tools that power a product manager’s vision.
Product ops specialists wield their influence in five key areas: people, processes, tools, data, and stakeholders. They work to advise cross-functional teams and senior leadership, create streamlined processes, manage the product tech stack, provide valuable insights, and ensure clear communication and alignment.
Tasks commonly tackled by product operations teams include market research, process development, user interviews, product feedback loop optimization, product quality assurance, release note documentation, go-to-market strategy, data analysis, and experiment management.
The ultimate goal of product operations is to enable outcome-focused teams and deliver a high-quality product. To do so, they must align their efforts with the product strategy and understand the why behind their actions. By doing so, product operations professionals provide a solid foundation for development teams to meet their goals and bring the product vision to life.
The table shows more or less distinction a clear distinction between the roles of a Product Manager and Product Operations in my previous company.
Although there may be instances where the responsibilities overlap, particularly in regards to stakeholders, it’s crucial to understand that the role of Product Operations is centered around supporting the efforts of the Product Manager and ensuring a seamless delivery of the product, to the end-user. The essence of the Product operations role is to strive for the ability to effectively execute these responsibilities and consistently exceed expectations. It’s important to note that the nature of the Product Operations role may vary from company to company, noticing the role needs versatility and adaptability to excel in any setting.
The Importance of a Product Operations Team in the Organization
Reflecting on my journey, the answer to the question of whether you need a product operations team in your organization is a resounding depends. While smaller companies may not have the resources to establish such a team from the outset, they can start with a single product manager and grow organically. However, for businesses where a product operations role is feasible, the benefits are numerous.
Accelerating Feedback and Efficiency: With a product operations leader, your product team will save time, allowing your project manager to focus on strategy rather than being bogged down by operational tasks like data management and process setup. As a result, your team can execute their tasks faster while maintaining high-quality standards.
Owning Data and Processes: Without a dedicated person to manage data and processes, you may not be leveraging your full potential. Product managers are often too focused on developing the product vision and managing the roadmap to give these aspects the attention they deserve. With product operations, you’ll be able to harness the power of insights, tools, and systems to inform your decision-making.
Improving the Customer Experience: Product operations play a critical role in improving collaboration among cross-functional teams, leading to better optimization of the product experience. This, in turn, results in happier customers, improved satisfaction, and higher retention rates.
The Possibility of a Product Manager Simultaneously Holding The Leadership of the Product Operations Team
In most organizations, the role of product management and product operations are interlinked and often performed by the same person, back to the need and size of the company, especially in smaller businesses. The lead product manager, who is responsible for both strategy and execution, is often the first hire in a product team. As the team grows, dedicated product ops roles may be added to manage processes, tools, and data.
In larger organizations, the product ops team provides support to the product management team, allowing them to focus on strategy and decision-making. The product ops team takes full responsibility for process development, tool selection and implementation, and data analysis.
It is important to note that a product ops manager cannot exist without a product manager, and the two roles are not interchangeable. The product manager sets the vision and direction, while the product ops team ensures that the processes, tools, and data are aligned with the overall strategy and goals.
The synergy of the Product Manager and Product Operations
Collaboration between product management and product operations is vital to the success of a product organization. While the specifics of the collaboration may vary between organizations, there are some common themes that emerge.
Product management sets the vision and strategy while product operations put the systems and processes in place to realize it. For example, if the product team aims to involve customers early in the development process, product operations work with account management to identify the right customers for focus groups and beta testing. This coordination leads to a repeatable process for customer engagement, which product management provides ongoing feedback on.
Product operations managers focus on problem-solving while product management prioritizes ineffective activities. Product Operations build, maintain, document, and promote the systems and processes, while product management provides feedback on their effectiveness.
Product teams communicate with internal partners and provide opportunities for feedback and learning. Product operations act as an intermediary, handling regular interactions and providing consistency for internal stakeholder relationships.
Product operations also manage data and provide it to product management in a consumable format. This includes collecting, updating, synthesizing, and analyzing data to extract actionable insights.
Product management and product operations work in harmony, each leveraging the other’s strengths to create a more efficient and effective product organization. Like a chef and sous chef in a kitchen, they work together to prepare the best dish possible. Product operations handle the preparation while product management takes care of the cooking, creating a seamless workflow that leads to delicious outcomes.
