Among other things that have changed this year and will continue in 2021 is the adaptation of working from home. Product managers have now to learn how to build and sustain productive virtual teams. Unlike previously, when collaboration and physical meetings were much more straightforward, remote teams call for unique variations of what can work for everyone from wherever they’ll be connecting from.
Some of the roles of a product manager include:
- Leader of the product development team.
- Leading product development process across multiple lifecycle and strategies.
- Reviewing user interviews to discover their requirements.
- Charting the product’s vision and position
- Establishment of vibrant timelines and feedback patterns.
- Generate and manage the product roadmap.
- Ensuring unified development and delivery process through collaboration with different teams.
- Quantitatively and qualitatively ration the success of the product and adjust specifications as needed.
Perhaps, what should bother every PdM is how to make the team achieve milestones and goals through efficient collaboration and leadership. If you have a virtual environment team or you’re looking forward to managing one, this blog will help you become a completer and more competitive remote product manager.
Success Tricks for Product Managers
1. An Enthused Team is a Productive Team
Fundamentally, we think that the morale and inspiration you instill in your team is key to establishing a top-notch product team. How do you do that? Well, start by building the much-needed trust. You can quickly achieve this by being a reliable, dependable, and caring leader. Proactive support in the form of check-ins and personal informal meetings can also help consolidate the team members while building trust. Go further by being the one who’s asking where to offer support without waiting for them to come to you. This creates a healthy relationship where everyone in the team will feel comfortable approaching you freely when there is a problem or issue.
Celebrating achieved milestones works like magic by increasing enthusiasm in the team. Do so by scheduling special achievement sessions or/and acknowledging the significant strides (no matter how small) the team has achieved from the last time you had a meeting. Finally, be ready to always go out of your way to lead by example, especially when there’s a deadline the team is struggling to meet.
2. Introduce and Establish a Communication and Collaboration Tactic that Works Best for Your Team.
The core for successful remote teams is efficient communication and collaboration strategy. Effective communication channels that reliable offer day-to-day interactive channels should be adapted. With different collaboration tools like Slack, zoom, google meetings, emails, and the list continue, you can decide which to use and how often. For example, PdMs can schedule virtual meetings (e.g., via Zoom) weekly to review the progress and use Slack for sharing and team management.
Be sure every member of the team is in the light concerning any changes in the company. However, while over-communicating is good, maintain the balance to avoid overwhelming the team with meetings when even the topic would’ve been better if communicated in written forms.
3. Feedback Matters
Building great products involves a clear feedback loop in all stages of the development lifecycle. As a remote product manager, be intent on requesting feedback at every phase and always keep the team involved.
4. Be Result-Oriented Leader
The tendency to focus on the number of hours the team is working rather than result-driven deliverables is negative energy in remote teams. Micromanaging the members can be damaging. As a product manager, the focus should be on achieving specific goals and milestones within the specified time limit.
5. Assessing Risks and Plan Requirements
Having a detailed plan is one thing, and frequently checking it to access the needed materials and tools ahead of time is another thing. Stay always refreshed with what the team requires to deliver and what might delay the next development step.
As a result, you’ve got the upper hand in addressing urgent needs, managing crises when they hit, and, more importantly, averting most of them ahead of time.
It takes to understand the team working under you and building awareness & responsibility in a progressive process until you achieve a success-driven remote product development team.
Experienced Remote Developers Available
Undeniably, PdMs have little stress integrating and managing members who have previously worked remotely. DevReady community has ready expert developers who can easily integrate and collaborate in a remote team. Our rigorous vetting process has ensured that only qualified developers get hired. Schedule a call today to learn how to employ DevReady developers.
