Competency standards: essential competency requirements for b-end product managers

Let’s first take a look at the role of b-end product managers on the market, as shown in the figure below:

Whether it is a merchant, sales CRM, customer service or payment, or some other Commercial product solutions, or what everyone would call a general mid- and back-end product manager. In fact, no matter what his name is, it just means that the fields he enters are different. As long as it serves the B-end field, I think it is the same. It can be generally referred to as b-side product managers. We try to abstract the roles of these product managers and see what the competency standards of b-side product managers are. ?

Let’s first look at the differences and similarities between b-end products and c-end products, and make some comparisons between b-end product managers and c-end product managers. Let’s start with the low-level - — Product Expert Let’s first look at the differences in its capability requirements.

Let’s take a look at the recruitment requirements of this major manufacturer to see what standards they have for their product managers.

1. Low-level product manager

The first is Alipay’s commercial product manager. This is a P6-b end product manager position. We have all his job descriptions and job requirements. Read it through and mark out some abilities that you think are more b-side or business-related.

The yellow marked part is more about user experience-related capabilities. In the blue part, we abstract several keywords, such as business operations, life cycle integration and standardization, and business scene, which are all related to business. Alipay will also mention that it is responsible for tens of millions of merchants, so it has experience, but its experience may not be based on the user experience we usually refer to, but refers to the merchant experience, so this is A B-side product manager.

We can see that even P6 will require an understanding of the entire business, commerce, and the entire life cycle of merchants. The requirements will be stronger from the beginning, so there will be more blue annotations. This is a requirement of B-side product manager P6.

Then let’s look at the requirements of the c-side product manager p6. This is an Alipay user product manager. Let’s look at his job description. The yellow marks are called S-level promotion, construction of marketing product system, and insight. Consumer needs, then life cycle, user stratification, user mentality, and finally the product experience of the wireless end, the product marketing experience of the wireless end, consumer insights, and some more B-end exploration of the needs of offline merchants will also be mentioned, and then Have some business sensitivity.

So you will see the position of C-side product manager P6. He still takes the user's perspective to gain insight into user needs, the user's mind, and then user stratification, etc. There will be more requirements in these aspects. Then there are relatively few requirements at the commercial level, but he may not mention that many, so this is the difference between the B-side and the C-side.

2. High-level product managers

We see that there are still many differences between the b-side and c-side from the perspective of low-level product managers. Let’s go back to the same level. Looking at high-level product experts and above, let’s look at p8 DingTalk’s commercial senior product experts, which is a b-side product manager role.

We saw several keywords in his job description, including middle platform, commercial link closed loop, ecology and market, business opportunities, and may also involve some so-called coordination and coordination. Among these capabilities, the yellow part also mentions the realization of business value from the user's perspective, and then there is the user experience.

B-side product managers have more requirements for the business itself in p8, and they are also slightly involved in how to achieve business value and user experience from the perspective of user roles. The key here

It talks about how to balance business goals and user experience. The word balance is more critical, so the role of p8 is not only about the capabilities of the B-side, but also about balancing the demands of the merchants and the user experience. And when I went to build this venue, I could see the venue of the platform, and how to make an overall balance between them. This is a B-side P8 position.

Then let’s look at the C-side P8 Tmall Supermarket, which is the position of a user product expert.

From a C-side perspective, he still has natural requirements for consumer demand and user insights, but if he considers it as a product expert, his ability requirements begin to skew towards many businesses, such as profitability. demands, product capabilities, and then the value behind the feel of the product, thinking about the business industry, multi-dimensional thinking, strategy formulation, etc.

We will find that high-end products at this stage will not only talk about consumer demand, but will also return to business, return to commerce, and return to the entire strategy and value level, so let’s take a look Let’s see if we can abstract the differences and commonalities between B-side product managers and C-side product managers based on these judgments.

1. Differences

First: the service objects are different

One is consumers, the other is the many businesses, organizations, etc. we just mentioned Business role.

Second: Different fields of entry

Especially for the role of P6, the ability requirements of the field that everyone is directly responsible for are differentiated from the beginning. One is more biased. Marketing is done from the perspective of user traffic, and then starting from the level of user mentality and user stratification. For the B-side, it is more from the perspective of merchant supply and commercial revenue. The latitude of entry is different, and the capability advancement is naturally different. For example, the core of the c-side is based on user needs, while the b-side is more focused on the entire business scene and is based on business logic, so it is only the evolution of capability advancement. Different, it seems that we have also discovered some common points.

2. ***Common point

The first one: In fact, no matter whether it is the same business model or not, the essence of the business here has not changed.

So we mentioned e-commerce or new retail before. In fact, the concept of people or goods has not changed. From this perspective, the links of the business itself, the logic of business existence, and the evolution model of the business have not changed.

Second: The nature of this evolutionary change has not changed.

In the process of upgrading high-end products - the process of upgrading from low-level to high-level, in fact, it is not only responsible for a certain field, a certain page, a certain system, but also ultimately To be responsible for business results, so to be responsible for business results, he must continue to approach the essence of business and the essence of business. Therefore, the requirements for this ability are becoming more and more consistent. This is a place where high-end products are most popular. Although the starting points are different, all roads lead to Rome.

Finally, the requirements for the capabilities derived from product managers, product experts, and product directors are essentially the same. For example, if a product director finally achieves product vp, it is impossible to say that he only understands the B-side or You only understand the C-side, so what you have to look at is the entire product, the entire business, and the entire business. In the end, the nature of the business and the ability requirements are basically the same, and the so-called ceiling of the product or the ceiling of the B-end product , in fact, it may just be that you will encounter a ceiling at that stage, but it does not mean that your character cannot break through. There is no upward path for that character itself. In fact, it is not the case. As long as you continue to grow to higher levels, in As you grow, you will find that you have broken through the ceiling, but in fact you will have new room for growth.

Then let’s give an example to illustrate the different entry points, and then we can try it in a big business picture. For example, what I am taking is a trading platform business. In the big business picture, everyone The starting point may be different.

First of all, there will be users in this trading platform. From the user's perspective, we will do user marketing and operational growth, and there will also be merchants. For merchants, we have the ability to attract investment and collect revenue based on the merchants. , then after the users and merchants are generated, there will be a relatively abstract and simple core link - transaction performance and settlement, and finally the entire business model. Ultimately, we hope that they will continue to upgrade the business itself and grow the business. This is our core business objective.

Everyone’s starting point may be different. C-end products are first introduced around users. The lower the level, you may just play here or play in a certain part here, but after playing around, you will find Later on, you have to work on the growth of the entire business? Because in the end you are not just in one field. In this field, how is the system being built and how is the page doing? You still have to keep in mind the value and business goals of the business. Binding. During the binding process, you can't just look at this part, but also look at how to drive the merchant from the user's perspective, whether there are any core capabilities in the entire transaction link to the final process, and how to do it in the end. To enhance the growth of this business, or commercial upgrade. The starting point of the c-end is different, but everyone’s goal and end point are similar.

The b-side is similar, but the cost threshold is relatively lower from the perspective of starting from the user or understanding the user, but the b-side products are actually the business itself. , are those representatives of commercial organizations and businesses, such as speakers, enterprises, bosses, and representatives of merchants, so if you come in directly, you are actually learning the invisible things behind the business. The natural requirement is that you must have The closed loop of business is to be close to the business and then serve the enterprise, so this is what makes the B-side product manager different from the beginning.

Let’s summarize the differences and common points:

· The entry points are different, so the service objects are different.

· The business links of the core services are consistent with the business essence

· The high-level upgrade process is all about achieving the business essence to achieve the ultimate business goal

Therefore, whether it is the C-side or the B-side, there is a certain degree of convergence in terms of high-order capabilities.

Let’s try to compare the capability requirements of B-side product managers and C-side product managers. Then let’s take a look at the specific ability requirements. Let me look at this formula first.

For B-side product managers, the first part is the general ability of a product manager, and the second part is our business ability.

In terms of general abilities, you need them no matter what role you are, and the more solid your basic abilities are, the more conducive to upgrading your overall abilities, but business abilities determine how far you can go. If you lack commercial ability, you will easily go astray.

For example, for example, you may have done a lot of work on B-side products in the past, which was supported by general capability drives. However, if your business capabilities are relatively weak, you will not be able to do so when you reach a certain stage. If a bottleneck occurs, you may even go astray. Because you don’t know what to do and what not to do, when making trade-offs, you must have business ability. Without this ability, it will basically be very difficult to do things.

Let’s take a look at general capabilities first. You can simply look at the picture above for general capabilities. I won’t expand on them one by one. The most important thing I understand is that they are divided into two parts, one is called hard power and the other is soft power. .

1. Hard power

If you directly drive and influence everyone from the beginning, it will be more hard power. For example, your professional knowledge and skills will be more focused on the most powerful ones. Basic product planning, page design and other abilities, including some of your so-called understanding of people, some basic computer technical abilities, etc. I think these are relatively basic abilities, and of course include some logic. Deduction and thinking ability, or professional adaptability, communication skills, time management and other abilities. The easiest thing for new employees to see when they join the job is hard power. It is also the easiest to be directly verified immediately and the easiest to see. Then the ability is the easiest to visualize.

2. Soft power

What is soft power? On the one hand, soft power is based on some of your individual characteristics. The overall quality is more focused on mentality or some of your own experiences, such as stress resistance and other drives, which will ultimately affect your entire influence and external performance. All of them are soft power, and in this growth process, the higher the level, the more you want to make some breakthroughs, and if you want to upgrade your abilities, you need to improve your soft power, so this is a universal ability.

Now we first know what capabilities we must have whether we are doing B-side or C-side, and then we will go on to talk about the business capabilities. The business capabilities include three parts.

1. Business understanding - business logic and business overall situation

Business understanding includes our understanding and judgment of business logic and business overall situation. How To gain insight into the industry and business model you are currently in, as well as the path and core of business development, what are some difficulties currently encountered, how to develop in the future and the key roles in it, and then the key Where is this core link? This is the so-called business understanding.

2. Professional ability - abstraction and insight

The second part is professional ability in business, that is, your abstraction and insight include closed-loop capabilities, product architecture and abstract nature ability, so this part can help you solve all the troubles, that is, after you collect a lot of information, based on the understanding of the information and business, how can you solve it from the product architecture and product planning, and then output the product? Continue to build some foundations and future framework systems.

3. Implementation capabilities - business team collaboration

When we have business understanding, product planning and product solutions, and then output specific product solutions, what will happen in the end? How to implement it?

Implementation will require relatively strong collaborative control capabilities, full-link control and multi-role and multi-business collaboration capabilities. The requirements for all of us here will be relatively high, abstract. There is a saying called building business capabilities with rationality and improving user experience with sensibility. What does this mean? That is to say, through rational business judgment, by controlling the pain points of the business and standardizing the business development path, we can continue to build the business structure of the entire product.

Just now we also mentioned that the core service areas are business functions and business itself. In fact, many times it is still very rational and logical. We have to do this, and finally abstract it and call it the essence. Then we gain insight into the pain points of the business. We need to be able to ensure that when the entire business system is built, its foundation is solid, scalable, and future-compatible. This does not mean that the system is just a framework to be seen by others. , in the end you will still fall on people, because in the end you will use these system-level abilities comprehensively, and then you may use the C-side, and you may also directly use them for various characters on the B-side. For example, you Give it to the boss, to sales, to the front desk, to finance, to operations, to all roles. When using it, you still have to respect his experience, so experience cannot be ignored, especially for us. Many times when we make B-end products or internal business systems, we often ignore that just being able to use it is enough. We don’t necessarily have to be beautiful. We must first ensure that it is usable, and then it will be easy to use after it is usable. In the end, we have to improve it. Efficiency, at the end of the business or the business model reaches the next stage, it is necessary to improve efficiency and increase revenue. Improving efficiency is very critical.

How can our capabilities ensure efficiency? Either I need to use the system to liberate people, or I need to use people to implement it and get results through people. Then how can I ensure that my system capabilities are finally used by people, whether it is physical sensation or operational efficiency? There is a relatively good experience on all levels, so I think this dimension will be more critical-that is, business capabilities.