Effective Documentation in Product management: A key Aspect of Product management.
Documentation is essential to quality, setting standards and process control. It plays a vital role in helping businesses, and organizations run smoothly and efficiently.
One of the key skills a product manager should have is Documentation skills.
“Efficient and organized product management is key to a successful product, and the key to organized product management is product management documentation” — TCGen
It is very important that these documents are thoroughly, and timely accessible as it cuts across different sets of cross-functional team members (Developers, Designers, Clients, stakeholders, marketers, users etc).
Why is effective documentation important in software Product development?
• Embraces effective communication: A good documentation process embraces communication and collaboration amongst the cross-functional team. With proper documentation, information and details are being communicated properly to team members and drives less time consumption.
• It acts as a record for all key decisions: Effective documentation helps to keep track and manage essential discussions made on projects or products such as; key details from stakeholders, features, strategic objectives, change requests, and other decisions made throughout development of a product.
• It serves as a key tool for retaining and transferring product knowledge: Documenting all the necessary processes throughout a product life cycle also helps in retaining product knowledge when necessary. In situations where the original team members leaves a company or moves to another project or product, New team members or hires can find it easier to gain deep knowledge of an existing product when proper documentation has been done. It then saves time and also makes accessibility to product knowledge easier.
• A reference for future projects: Good documentation helps to record and keep information easily accessible across one project to another, making it easier to learn from past experiences and to avoid making the same mistakes in the future.
Types of Product management documentation
The Product manager is basically the glue that keeps the Product together throughout a Product life cycle. PMs are responsible for all the necessary documentation involved in ensuring a product is successful in the market.
Key documents written by Product managers are;
Product Proposal
Product Requirement Document
Business Requirement Document
Product Roadmap Document
Market Requirement Document
Go-to market strategy
Business Case Document
Feature Requirement Documentation
Release notes and FAQs
User guide Documentation
Documentation of these documents is subject to level of experience in the Product management field. However, it is important to note that even less experienced product managers can still produce effective documentation by following best practices and seeking guidance when documenting.
In this article, I’ll be writing briefly on key documents an entry level product manager should know how to write. Which are;
Product roadmap ( Here’s a link to a brief article i wrote on this — https://twitter.com/ameenhassana/status/1541351236544372739?s=46&t=YMwFXMmEnvlhElpEF-Pfbw)
Product Requirement Document: A PRD is a document containing all the requirements for a certain product. This document is used in the product development process to communicate what capabilities must be included in a product release to the entire development teams. PRDs are usually termed a living document which has to be updated at every point in the development lifecycle of a product. Though, not only the product manager. works on a PRD as it is regarded as a collaborative document with responsibility and accountability covered by the cross — functional team. A Product requirement document should contain the following;
Overview
Objective & Goals
Assumptions
Product timeline
Project scope
Team members
Background
User personas
Use cases
Functional and Non Functional requirements
Metrics
Go-to market strategy Document: A Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy is a comprehensive plan that details how a company will launch a new product or an existing product in a new market. It aims at providing the tactics needed for delivering goods or services to the end users while considering factors like price and channels for distributions. It’s. also an important document written by either a product manager or a product marketing manager, or both managers working together to come up with the document (Depending on the company type and size). It is essentially created to help the product drive market-fit, gain more awareness, understand the market and help increase growth potential. This document contains the following;
Target segmentation
Value proposition using Business model canvas
Pricing strategy
Market strategy
Sales & Distribution channels
Positioning and performance
Key takeaway: Effective documentation is a key aspect of product management that can help ensure that a product is developed efficiently, that key decisions are recorded and communicated effectively, and ensures that product knowledge is transferred effectively.
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References:
Image source- Google
Read- Product plan, TCGen, Product school
