9 technologies that a B-side product manager needs to know

B-side product managers need to understand technology, which is already a consensus in the Internet industry.

After all, the Internet industry is only a subdivision of the software industry, and it cannot escape some inherent laws of software development. Just say, "understand" the form and depth. And, depending on the industry and product background, the types of technologies that need to be understood are different. However, there are also some general technologies that need to be mastered by all B-side product managers.

"Understanding" technology, more bluntly, should be called understanding technology. This is not to require our product managers to fully master the technology and be able to write code to meet the requirements like a technician.

Rather, we need to understand the results that technology can bring to us and what it can achieve for us.

More importantly, only the B-end product manager who understands the technology can design a reasonable product, which is closer to PMF (product market fit).

Because the design of B-end products is not only the design of functions, but also the architecture of the business system. Therefore, knowing technology helps strengthen the ability to understand and analyze business and requirements. Especially the B-end products are very deeply tied to the business.

In the process of product development, the product manager will also assume certain project manager responsibilities, and will play a series role in the project. Therefore, technical product managers not only have stronger project risk control capabilities, but also have more reasonable control over the project schedule.

At the same time, in all kinds of reviews and daily work, cooperation with technology will have empathy.

Technology is a very large and complex field. When the B-side product manager understands, he must choose the right direction. Although, it doesn't hurt to know more deeply. However, the time cost must also be paid attention to.

If it is for product work and career development, don't put the cart before the horse. It's not a bad idea to "understand" for a brief taste.

In the following, I summarize some technical directions that can be understood. We can make reference based on our actual situation.

One, the technology that product managers need to know

Software engineering

Although we all call ourselves the Internet industry now, we cannot escape the essence of the software industry. Therefore, we must also master many methods and theories of software engineering.

Software engineering is a summary of predecessors' experience and methods of software design and development. This can help us to develop products systematically and more standardized. Understand the rules and goals pursued by software in the design of technology.

You also need to understand the concepts and differences between process-oriented and object-oriented. In the process of understanding this, everyone can also get in touch with the development process of software technology.

Among the methods of software engineering, waterfall model and agile methods are important to understand. Many companies are still adopting the waterfall model, which is an incremental development model. Agile is now the mainstream method for the development of connected products. The starting point of an agile method is the product manager.

Design Patterns

Design patterns are best practices of code in the context of engineering. There are currently 23 design patterns. Each design pattern represents an abstract model of code design.

The B-side product manager can use design patterns as a reference when designing product functions and systems. For a small example, when designing an order system, it can be designed as an order factory to match various types of orders. Under the guidance of the factory model, the order system will have greater scalability and compatibility.

database

The database technology is very complicated. We can understand databases from several comparative dimensions, relational databases and key-value databases, file databases and memory databases. Understand the differences and application scenarios of databases in these two different dimensions.

We also need a deeper understanding of a relational database. Such as MySQL. Also need to learn some basic data operations of the database, be able to query and export data. In some business contexts, product managers may need to go to the database to query and extract raw data from the database.

If you are a BI or AI product manager, you must go deep into the data warehouse and data mart based on the database. Until skilled use. This is already the basic requirement for BI and AI product managers.

The internet

For product managers, the network does not need to know much. Mainly TCP, UDP and HTTP. Understand the differences between these three protocols, the difference between long and short connections.

On the basis of HTTP, one must master the knowledge of HTTP error numbers and URLs.

platform

In terms of platform, it mainly refers to Android, iOS, PC and Web. The platform mainly needs to master the design specifications of the platform, common controls, open interfaces and specific technical knowledge under the platform. Most of these contents are necessary for the basic skills of product managers. Therefore, product managers must also be very aware of the differences between platforms.

Specific technical knowledge under the platform refers to the characteristics of some platforms. For example, cookies and sessions on the Web platform.

You can also look at the current mainstream open platforms with the same requirements. For example, the WeChat official account and mini program ecology. If the product in charge depends on the ecology, then we need to be familiar with its specifications and requirements, and what capabilities have been opened. Simply put, what can be done and how to comply.

test

Mainly the difference and process between black box and white box testing. Black box testing requires in-depth understanding, which is conducive to our design and acceptance process.

Technical tools

Technical tools refer to simple tools that technicians will use. I personally use the debugging tools of Navicat and Chrome.

Navicat is mainly used to operate Mysql database. Chrome's debugging tools can view the error report of the Web site and the data returned by the API.

Sometimes, you can quickly check the cause of the error. You can also use Chrome's debugging tools to download pictures from some websites.

Documentation

The B-side product manager needs to master the way of reading some technical documents. Mainly system design documents, data design documents and API documents.

For product managers, only after reading these documents can they detail what needs our technology can achieve. Reading these documents is equivalent to doing technical feasibility analysis when researching and designing products.

For example, the product manager of WeChat Mini Program. Only when you are familiar with the API documentation of the WeChat applet can you understand what capabilities WeChat provides to the outside world and achieve more powerful functions.

Reading technical documents is not complicated. When reading, the product manager does not need to fully understand various parameters and relationships, just read the introduction and precautions of each module.

Background technology

According to the products and modules we are responsible for, we may also need to learn the corresponding professional technology. If, we are as the BI system product manager. Then you need to learn some BI data analysis algorithms.

If the original data of the BI system is crawled external data, then you also need to understand crawler-related technologies.

If you are a web product manager, you generally need to understand SAO/SEO. App product managers need to understand the application market norms and ranking mechanisms of each platform.

If, the core competitiveness of our products lies in technical advantages. Or, the core business of the product depends on a certain technology. Then the responsible product manager must be proficient in this technology.

Summary

If you want to deepen your understanding of technology, it is best to choose a language to play with, and actually write a few lines of code to try.

I highly recommend all product managers to learn Python. In addition to the benefits mentioned before, it can also improve our efficiency. For example, write a small code to pull some data and do some data analysis.

With the support of Python's powerful tool library, this is a super super super simple thing.

For technical learning, product managers should also be moderate. If too much time is invested in technology, it is easy to turn the cart before the horse. In the team's product development process, don't just arrogantly dominate because you know the technology.

Product managers only understand technology, not to replace technical personnel.

Although for the position of product manager, technical knowledge is not necessary. However, not knowing the technology is definitely not good. For different product backgrounds, there may be different technical requirements. On the whole, knowing technology is gradually becoming a basic requirement for product managers.