How do product managers become product managers?

I am now an intern as an assistant product manager in an Internet company. After the probationary period in July, I officially became a product manager. I am a senior. I majored in material molding, majoring in machinery. Since I was a child, I had been exposed to the Internet frequently. To put it bluntly, I just played games. I was once an avid fan of CS and War3.

When you get to college, you have more time to access the Internet and browse Internet information. It was one day during the winter vacation of my junior year. Because I usually come into contact with a large amount of Internet information through various channels, I have to read mobile phone-related information for several hours every day. In the Internet era, smartphones are the most powerful carrier. So I positioned myself to be an interaction designer. At that time, I didn’t quite understand what Pm was. The reason is that I am very obsessed with the interaction method of mobile phone system and mobile software. For a period of time, whenever I turn on the computer, I will read the relevant reviews of various mobile phones. Download various apps to play when you have nothing to do.

The process of starting to learn is very painful. I decide the path I want to take in the future just based on my interests and hobbies. I am anxious about the future, but the voice in my heart really tells me to choose this path. , I told my mother immediately. My mother was very open-minded and sent me hundreds of extra yuan to buy books. She just wanted me not to give up my major completely and not to devote everything to one thing. But at that time I had decided to devote all my energy to interaction design.

I remember the first book I read was called "Simplicity First". I still remember the experience design of the remote control very deeply. I began to think that there are misunderstandings in interaction design. I went too far. Focusing on the visual aspects of the product UI, while ignoring some functional logic and implementation forms of the product. For beginners, especially self-study like me without anyone’s guidance, it is easy to make mistakes, but I can’t tell whether this kind of mistake is good or bad. , but now it seems that it has become my advantage over my peers.

Because I regard visual design as most of the interaction design, I started to learn to use PS. Because I decided to completely abandon the material molding major at that time, I almost didn’t go to class. Although my roommate didn’t know that I spent the whole day Why are you staying in the dormitory? But you are still very helpful and try your best to help me sign in for class. Learning PS went quite smoothly, and within a month I could imitate most mobile phone UIs. While learning PS, I also read a lot of interaction design books. I remember that one book, "The Essence of Interaction Design", benefited me a lot. At that time, it was almost a book for a few days. I don't know how much I understood. Anyway, I just didn't understand it. I stopped studying, and when I got tired of studying, I went online to search various websites to collect information and materials.

From mid-February to mid-April 2013, I became quite proficient in PS and read 7 or 8 books on interaction design and user experience. It happened that UC was recruiting interaction design interns. I thought I had answered all the questions in a decent manner and emailed them. Then I received the notice, and then I took the train to Guangzhou for the interview.

There was no surprise in the interview results. I didn’t apply, because all my answers were mainly on the visual level, but interaction design should consider the product’s architecture, functional logic, and the method used to implement it. Should I double-click or click on the sliding layout, exit, entrance, etc.? The more important point is that I lack communication with people. I always look at problems from a self-centered perspective without thinking too much about what the users want. , What not to do, some App prototypes designed are always piling up functions. I am very grateful to the sister who interviewed me at UC. She may have discovered that I had many misunderstandings about interaction design from the first sentence I spoke, but she patiently talked to me about my problems for nearly an hour. I will work hard in the future. Instead of saying a few words and then saying "um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, I think I don't think I think I'm suitable, I think I'm inappropriate, please let me go, please let me go". In a sense, she was my first mentor on this path.

I am still very grateful to her. After returning to school from Guangzhou and feeling negative for a few days, I started to learn from that sister who asked me questions and suggestions. She told me that I should communicate more and think about problems from the user's perspective. Only through communication can I make better discoveries. question. So I used all my contacts in school to create a team and started making product prototypes according to the product production process. I have met some like-minded friends, some of whom may be lifelong friends.

Everything went smoothly afterwards. I found an internship at a communications company in Shenzhen in mid-June. The small company had to do a lot of things, including the UI and some interactions of the tablet test software, and some test management systems on the PC. Front-end static interface and partial interaction, I made some simple static interfaces while learning, although the CSS was sometimes really annoying to adjust. My sister is a product manager, and that’s when I learned a lot about products, and then I started reading books on this topic. The internship company is very close to Tencent. One day in August, I was downstairs in the Tencent Building and secretly told myself that I would work hard to recruit into Tencent in the second half of the year. Because I had read a book published by Tencent CDC department before, I was fascinated by it. Tencent’s school recruitment was held in Guangzhou at the end of September. Something terrible happened. On September 10, when I was playing basketball, I was knocked to the ground by a big fat guy while shooting a fadeaway shot. I fractured the scaphoid in my right hand. This made me feel disheartened. Because the recovery period for a scaphoid fracture is very long, one month later you have to decide whether to write or not according to the doctor's orders.

Time passed day by day, and I couldn’t do anything, which made me very frustrated. I received the Tencent Haibi in the afternoon at the end of the month. After thinking about it for a day, I took the high-speed rail to Guangzhou. The written test was about interaction design, and my hands were swollen from writing. I still passed the written test, but my interview status was very poor. At that time, my hand was still aching and swollen. I was one day away from breaking my hand in half a month, and I hadn’t even sorted out my project work. Although I really want to go to Tencent, even extremely eager. But he was still blocked. A week later, I interviewed with the second company, which is also the company where I am currently interning. The difference is that I am no longer an interaction designer, but a product manager. This half-year study and internship has allowed me to master some basic skills of a product manager.

1. Learning of basic software: Axure, Mindmanager, xmind, etc. For example, I muddle-headedly learned PS, AI, Flash, Dreamweaver and other software, and even went to a friend majoring in art and design to learn hand-drawing for a few days in order to make the prototype look better.

2. Reading related books: You can read some books on product managers, psychology, interaction design, and management. You can see the process combined with actual scenes.

3. Communicate more and find like-minded partners with you. Everyone is a product manager. Even people who don’t understand anything will have good suggestions. It’s best to participate in a salon. . I know a brother who works as CTO at Tiger Map, and I benefit a lot every time I communicate with him.

4. Learn to collect information, organize resources, make necessary summaries, and learn to analyze the real value behind the information. This will be intangible wealth for you in the future.

5. Continuously use various excellent apps to draw software mind maps and flow charts to gain an in-depth understanding of the process logic of each function and user needs. Don’t just draw a flow chart when you have a good idea. If you have good ideas, you can jot them down on your phone.

6. Develop good study habits, stay hungry.stay foolish.

In addition, product manager may be different from what you think. It is not a high-level position. Product manager Only responsible for the product. Moreover, I still have a long way to go to develop a sense of the product, grasp users’ pain points, analyze users’ real needs and pseudo-needs, and write high-quality requirements documents and technical documents. ***Mianzhi. The friend who joined my team in his junior year is now an intern as a product manager. He grew up with me and he majored in electrical.

Looking back now, if someone like this had shared this with me at the beginning, I would have taken less detours. The beginning is always the most painful. Not to mention wealth, at least I got through it.

I hope you understand that if you truly love doing something, no matter what happens, no matter what happens, you will definitely succeed.