How product management can drive tomorrow’s most innovative products and experiences

This article is part of a VB Lab Insights series paid for by Capital One.

For most people, naming their favorite tech product or service is easy. The opposite is also true — there are lots of infamous examples of products that have failed. Why? When a product isn’t successful, it’s almost always because the team behind it lacked clarity of thought and a culture of unconstrained thinking. Great product development is the sum of many parts coming together to achieve a vision that maps back to a real customer need. Today’s product managers help inspire and bring all these pieces together, typically via influence versus direct management, and their role is becoming more and more important as both customer expectations and technology evolve.

From new advances in areas like generative AI to data engineering and software delivery, there’s massive potential to deliver innovative customer experiences like never before. It’s good timing, as customers are saying they expect brands to deliver more and more personalized experiences.

McKinsey research shows that strong product management is one of the top drivers of business performance and customer value across industries. But research also shows that at least three quarters of product managers think their organization’s product functions are either non-existent or not up to par. This signals a clear shift in the type of environment and skill sets needed to unlock the power of product management today.

Product managers often serve as the lynchpin of delivering immersive products and experiences to both internal and external customers. They sit at the intersection of engineering, design, marketing, strategy and many other areas needed to ship products. As with any of the top innovations you’ll see in product and tech today, the most effective product managers operate within a culture of experimentation.

But just like technology and customer expectations, the role of product management has evolved, along with the skill sets and environment needed to be a successful product leader. Today’s product managers are all-purpose athletes, bringing an entrepreneurial spirit, curiosity, flexibility and an ability to lead through change. They understand how to use technology and leverage data to make informed decisions, while looking around corners to where the world is going. They experiment to challenge assumptions, identify risks and understand where to make smart bets on where the most leverage is for the customer and the business.

Leading product practitioners excel in a few key areas that, when combined, add up to world-class capabilities:

• Human-centered: They use best practices, research, insights and design craft to understand their customers’ fundamental needs.
• Business-focused: They understand the business, its goals and how the product will map back to meet those goals and drive value.
• Technology-driven: They have a deep understanding of the underlying tech stack and speak the same language as their data science and software developer partners.
• Integrated problem-solving: They can analyze data and leverage anecdotes to probe deeper and identify points of leverage, mitigate risk and anticipate future business and global trends.
• Cross-functional leadership: They are strategic problem solvers who can navigate complexity and adapt to change.

With these factors, today’s product managers are better able to help organizations align on strategic priorities, define intent and land on an end-state vision to drive impactful product results. It requires high judgment and an inordinate amount of perseverance to stay true to the customer and the end vision. And underlining all of this: the ability to research, test and experiment, iterate, build, test again and deploy — and repeat.

At the end of the day, a company can have the most sophisticated technology in the market, but without a product mindset as part of their culture, where problem solving on behalf of customers takes priority over working back from a solution — and where product managers or related teammates help bring it all together — it can end up going nowhere.

To build lasting connections with customers, the first step is to build beloved products and experiences that address real customer pain points. To build lovable products, it all starts with an environment where product managers and teams “fall in love with the problem, not the solution.”

Rob Pulciani is Chief Product Officer, Enterprise Services at Capital One.

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