During the first months of studying at University, I often asked myself whether I should find a part-time job in Karlsruhe, the city where I am studying. I constantly drove back to Ulm, where I’m from, to work at my old mini-job, which made adjusting in Karlsruhe complex. However, this was to change with my new working student job.

I began my search by writing down a few criteria, points, and questions that were the most important to me. Is the workplace easily accessible via public transport? Is the working atmosphere hierarchical or more familiar? Would I learn skills at this job needed for my future? Does the employer allow me to work from home, since I travel home often? Am I able to improve my English language skills at this job? 

I applied for various jobs that fit my criteria. Then came the first invitation from Zenkit.

Due to the circumstances of the pandemic, I had a telephone interview. This was challenging to me since my previous interviews were always conducted face-to-face, and I couldn’t gauge how to leave a lasting impression via telephone interview. 

Despite the circumstances, I was soon notified that I had received the job. Following that, I received very good onboarding in my area of responsibility, my tasks, and to the team in general. I have now been working at Zenkit in the Customer Service department for almost two years.

In my job I help and advise interested parties and customers with all product inquiries. I try to process and solve customer problems independently as best I can. In this way, our users are always informed and can carry out their work with our products in the best possible way.

By working in customer service, I was able to expand my knowledge and skills in the area of customer service and customer contact. Since I have many inquiries in English, I was also able to expand my vocabulary in the area of technical and business English.

In addition to my regular tasks and duties, I maintain the Reddit page for Zenkit. There I advise, help, and discuss with customers and other Reddit users who are interested in Zenkit.

Since I work at home and remotely most of the time, I can’t tell you much about working in the office. However, sometimes there is cake, for which, of course, I make an exception to my usual routine and come to work at the office. Even though I’m not in the office that much, I enjoy the camaraderie-feel when working in the small community at Zenkit. Everyone is friendly, always courteous, and helpful.

Does the work help me with my studies? Yes, it does. The insight into IT and, to some extent, business activities, are very relevant both in my degree program and outside my studies.

Personally, I am happy with my choice. The fact that Zenkit has more of a startup atmosphere makes it more pleasant and direct in my opinion. This makes it easier for me as a working student to take a step into the working world.

If you’re interested in working at Zenkit, we’ve got spots open! Send an email to jobs@zenkit.com for more info

The post Internship Insight: Customer Service appeared first on Zenkit.

Your product is the most significant part of your brand. When people try your product, they form an opinion about it and associate it with your company. So be it your first or ninth product, you need to ensure that your customers are completely satisfied with what it does.

For startups, in particular, it is even more challenging because of the uncertainty of how long you are going to stay in the market. The potential customers, in this case, are afraid that their time and money will be wasted if you just disappear from the market. 

Putting the fear aside, there is no shortage of startups that built a product and made millions out of it very soon. What these startups did is something you should note before you start developing a product.

There are a lot of sources that you can use as inspiration, but it is not only the idea of the product that matters. It’s about how you move forward and take care of the execution part. The execution part does not end once you’ve finished developing the product either. In fact, it continues even after that. 

Launching the product correctly is also as important as developing a product. Why? It’s because if your launch fails and you’re not able to generate the required sales to keep your business running,  then it doesn’t matter how good your product is.

So here, we have identified two of the major factors that determine if your business is going to be successful. These are the proper development of the product and the effective launch, which takes place after the development. This article consists of some tips on both these factors to bring the best out of your potential. Let’s begin.

Tips to Build a Product Successfully

If you are in a technical industry, you must have experienced the constant urge to perfect the project before handing it over to the customer. This is a great thought for your customers, but the problem with this is that you can run out of money without catering to the actual needs of the customers. This is where tons of companies go wrong.

Your customers can’t wait a lifetime for you to give them what you’re building. Here are some of the crucial ways to keep things on track for making a triumphant product.

Discover the Unmet Need Of Customers

Irrespective of how much growth we see in the industry, customers always want something better – something that they have not got yet. If you are starting out in the industry, these unmet needs can give you a product idea or feature that can almost ensure that your product will be a success.

In order to know what the unmet needs are, you can create some questions to interview your customers, whether existing or potential. You have to ensure that your questions tell you what the problem of your customers is. 

More importantly, you need to carefully listen to what they say. By listening to their answers, you’ll get to know more about the nature of their pain, which will allow you to come up with a product that a customer cannot deny purchasing.

Develop Hypothesis

Now you have made some observations about what your customer’s actual needs are and you know how to align yourself with them. The next step is to make intelligent guesses about the features that you could add to the product to make it accepted on a worldwide level. Moreover, you should work on figuring out what’s the estimated number of users that would use the prototype with those features. When you know what the average customer adoption number is going to be, you get to decide how much you should actually invest in the product.

Define Your Product

Since you have already interviewed people to find out their unmet needs, you have a clear picture of who your target audience is and what it is that they want. Now you just have to give them a reason to choose your product over the others available on the market.

Here you should take tips from successful brands about how they define their product and values, and integrate them into the entire company. Sales, marketing, finance, public relations, and offers – everything works around how you’ve defined your product. You have to dig deeper to find out what your company offers that no one else does. At the same time, you have to emphasize the qualities that make your product effective.

When defining your product, associate it with a story so that the customer can emotionally connect with it.

Prototype the Solution

Now you know what the features that your product can have are, it’s time to move to the next step, and start building a quick prototype with those features. The first version is not meant to completely satisfy the customer; it is more for you than for them. It helps you identify the track on which you should move to minimize the gap between what a prototype does and what the actual product should do to convince the customers to buy it.

Proper Project Management

To make the actual product, you have to go through the prototype. But deciding what the prototype should entail is also not a piece of cake. You have to keep many factors in mind while prioritizing the features of your product. In this case, when you are finding it difficult to decide what should be included, a prioritization framework can be of great help to you.

A prioritization framework consists of certain criteria that product teams of the company can use to rank features according to the business value in the order of priority. The framework allows you to minimize biases, avoid analysis paralysis, and more importantly, support decisions that are made strategically. Because it eliminates these biases, product management also becomes easier. 

With the help of frameworks, communicating the priorities to the leaders and stakeholders also becomes relatively easy.

The prioritization framework that you should choose depends on the nature of your product, the customers served, individual choices and the culture of the organization. Your product team has to pick the one that suits them best, and then apply it uniformly across the product. This takes us to the next part of the article. Here, we are going to share some tips that you can incorporate to successfully launch your product.

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Tips that Guarantee a Successful Product Launch

There are many companies that have made the mistake of presenting their final product to their audience without having any strategic product launch plan in place. As a result, most of them face financial issues and the promotion of products also becomes ineffective. To make a product launch successful, you’ll need proper research from reliable and experienced marketers. Here are some successful product launch tips:

Know The Details Of Your Product

What is the most important aspect of the product launch? Well, obviously, it’s the product itself! Therefore, it is essential that before launching the product everyone has a clear picture of what it offers. You should know how your product will fill the gap and benefit the people using it.

During the launch, you need to connect with an ample amount of people to make the product financially viable. This will only happen if your product satisfies the users in every aspect, like quality, functionality, and price. If all of this is in place, you’ll have a product that sells itself.

Putting forward the features that will most benefit the user is the first step that you need to follow for a successful product launch. You should even highlight these features in the launch.

Identify Your Competition

There is a product for almost everything in the market. Therefore, it is only natural that with time you’ll be up against massive competition. So how would you survive in the market then? It is only possible by knowing what the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors are.

Their strengths tell you about the advantage they have over you. You can use this information to bring improvements to your product and get a step ahead of them. Their weaknesses, on the other hand, can help you make a better pitch in the market.

It is also essential to know how your competitors launched their products and how they do their marketing. It will surely guide you on the path to promoting your products in a way that beats them.

Build a USP and UVP

Now you know who your audience is, what they want, and how you can help them. All that is left for you to do is convince those people that you are the best in the business and so is your product. 

You must show them the benefit that they are going to get if they purchase your product. For this, you’ll need to establish Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and Unique Value Proposition (UVP). These propositions tell everything important about your product to convince the customers that it is the best one available in the market.

Promote Your Launch and Product

Before you get into the launching part, it is essential to ensure that the product is completely ready to be launched on the market. Once everything is sorted about the product, only then should you know how to launch a product campaign.

At some point, you’ll have to create a buzz about the product in the market. You can use ads, press releases, and social media campaigns to reach out to as many people interested as you can. The team must come up with unique strategies to market the product. The promotion of the product should start well before the launch date so that there’s enough buzz in the market for you to gain instant acquisition.

Final Thoughts

For any company to succeed in making effective products, it is essential to follow a certain framework. Once you have everything in place, from idea to execution, develop in parts, and get instant feedback from the customer about the performance of each part. 

Once the product is completely developed, jump right into the promotion to create the necessary buzz. The buzz, in addition to various marketing strategies, will help you get customer acquisition. All of these factors, when placed together, enable you to create a successful product and launch.

About the author: Vibhu Dhariwal is a Co-Founder & Director of Marketing at Digital Gratified, a Digital Marketing & Web Development company. He likes sharing his experience in product marketing, SaaS marketing, content marketing, and SEO with readers. To know more about him, you can connect with him on LinkedIn.

The post 9 Tips to Build and Launch a Product Successfully appeared first on Zenkit.

As a growing company, we’re always on the lookout for talent. With plenty of room to gain hands-on work experience, our door is open to students and graduates alike. To give you a glimpse of the variety of jobs needed to make your favorite project management tool sparkle, we had a chat with our product management intern on his experience working at Zenkit.

Name: Alex

Role: Product Management (Hypernotes)

Explain what a product manager is. What kind of tasks do product managers typically handle?
As a product manager you are the contact person between the product and the different departments in the company. I mainly focused on online marketing and PR tasks during my internship, but the beauty of product management in combination with a small company is that you will get a look into a lot of different areas.

Tell us one thing you found challenging during your internship.
I was working on various tasks from day one. Within the first month, I was responsible for various projects. For example, creating and handling the social media accounts for Hypernotes.

Tell us at least two things you have learned while working at Zenkit.

1. 1. How to effectively handle online marketing strategies without spending a ton of money on ads.
   2. How the release of a new product is handled internally.

What brought you to this role?
I was searching for internship opportunities and uploaded my resume to the website Cyberforum. Zenkit reached out and scouted me for the position.  

When you’re not working, what are you doing?
Different things: Playing online games with friends, following Esports leagues, and enjoying time with the family.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
Teleportation, because walking is boring.

What is your next step?
Finishing my bachelor’s degree. I start writing my thesis next semester.

Cheers, Alex. We wish you all the best!

If you’re interested in working on Zenkit, we’ve got spots open! Send an email to jobs@zenkit.com for more info

The post Internship Insight: Q&A with Alex appeared first on Zenkit.

Customers play a crucial role in how successful your product becomes. They determine the lifespan of your product, how much profit it can make, and whether or not it develops into something bigger. But how do you keep on top of all of that? Well, that’s where product management comes in.

In this article, we’ll show you what makes an effective product manager and how it differs from project management.

Here are some of the things you’ll learn:

• The 4 stages of product management
• The role and responsibilities of a product manager
• The key differences between product and project management
• 7 ways to become a more effective product manager

What Is Product Management?

Product management describes the process of overseeing a product from its inception up until the after-effects of the initial launch. Commonly comprised of product development and product marketing, it is led by a product manager and follows the stages of the product life cycle.

The product life cycle is split into four stages: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline.

1. Introduction: the first stage is when an approved idea turns into an actual product and is marketed to consumers of its existence.
2. Growth: a successful product will grow and see an increase in demand. It’ll be made more accessible.
3. Maturity: if a product reaches the maturity stage it means it has become profitable. It also means there will be a rise in competitors and its market share may start to decrease.
4. Decline: the last stage of the product life cycle sees the collapse of the product. This can be due to high competition or a lack of demand.

Knowing where the product falls in the life cycle helps the marketing and management teams make better business decisions and determine how to sell the product.

The Importance of Product Management

Compared to others, product management is one of the newer established professions within a company. In smaller organizations such as startups, it is a role that sometimes isn’t made a priority and is filled by other professionals such as software engineers or marketers.

But product management is significant. It’s important because it helps the rest of the company understand the value of a product. It’s essentially about knowing what will sell and how to turn a developed product into revenue. And it does that by understanding the customer. As a customer-centric field, it pinpoints customer challenges and manifests solutions in the product. Product management not only figures out what customers like and don’t like but also why.

Without product management, different departments would struggle to come together to figure out what they need to provide in order to create a successful product. This is why a product manager’s role is second to none.

What Is a Product Manager?

A product manager manages the production process and leads the product team, which is comprised of individuals from various departments such as engineers, business development, analytics, and design. 

They are cross-functional and must have the required knowledge of the product to make the best strategic decisions. Product managers define the customer problem space and their main responsibilities include the following:

• Develop product strategy which includes the scope, roadmap, and KPIs
• Have a deep understanding of customer base, competitors, and market trends
• Communicate and launch feature requirements
• Lead and work with cross-functional teams

Product managers connect all aspects of a business together so that a successful product can be put together. While technical skills are often favoured, you don’t have to possess them to a high degree in order to be a good product manager. The skills and expertise that you do need, however, are the following:

• Product knowledge
• Industry knowledge
• Planning skills
• Strategic thinking
• Decision making
• Attention to detail
• Great communication

People who become product managers come from various backgrounds, from engineers to consultants, to analysts to project managers. To become a product manager, you don’t necessarily have to study it at college, although there are product management courses available online that would be worthwhile to do if this is a field you wish to enter.

Product Management vs Project Management

Product managers and project managers are two roles within the tech industry that often get mixed up. Sure, their titles sound similar and they have interchangeable skills such as time and team management, but each role serves a different purpose and comprises different responsibilities.

The core difference is the very thing they manage, product managers manage products and project managers manage projects. A project is a task that has a goal, and once the goal has been achieved, the project is closed and the project manager moves on to the next project. A product, in comparison, is never-ending. A product manager’s job does not end once the product is launched. They continue to oversee the product and monitor customer feedback and market trends to make improvements based on them.

Product Managers

Unlike a project manager, a product manager’s job doesn’t end once the product is developed and shipped out to the public. They continue to work on it and make improvements based on the challenges they face. It’s also not uncommon for a product manager to work on multiple products.

Project Managers

A project manager is in charge of projects which are often temporary. They help deliver business objectives through the planning, procurement, and execution of a project. They are also responsible for implementing project methodologies and guiding teams throughout the process.

A common misconception is that a product manager and a Product Owner are the same thing. Au contraire. A Product Owner is one of three main roles of a Scrum team, along with the Scrum Master and the Development Team. Also a product expert, their role is to manage the backlog and is specifically tied to a project that follows the Scrum framework. A product manager can be a Product Owner.

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Part of your job is to lead a cross-functional team made up of individuals with different skill sets. To ensure success, you have to make sure everyone is on the same page and working towards a common goal. Make it a priority to get to know everyone so you can develop meaningful relationships and create a better working environment.

3. Listen to what other teams have to say

For valuable customer insight, look no further than your sales and customer support teams. Customer support is at the forefront of customer questions and problems and sales execs have first-hand knowledge of what customers want and don’t want. By spending time with these teams, you’ll be able to understand common issues customers experience and know where improvements can be applied to your product.

4. Research, research, research

Product management involves a lot of market and competition analysis. It’s imperative to stay in the loop with market trends and follow what your competitors are doing so you can keep up. Evidence-based research is worth its weight in gold as trends are constantly changing and you can’t always presume you know certain demographics.

5. Don’t be afraid to revise your roadmap

One of a product manager’s main responsibilities is to build the roadmap, which is basically the plan of action and something to refer back to when working on the product. It’s likely that changes will be made throughout the life cycle process and so your roadmap should continuously reflect the progress that’s being made.

6. Understand your software stack

The level of technical skill a product manager should possess is a hugely debatable topic in the industry. While you don’t have to be a tech connoisseur, having a bit of a technical grasp can help, and understanding the software stack of your product can go a long way. This will not only help you to identify any potential risk, but it can give you a better understanding of how the development team work.

7. Share your knowledge

Knowledge sharing is an important element of any successful business. It can increase collective brainpower and keep your whole organization in sync. As a product manager, there is always room for improvement, and sharing what you know can help you gain further skills and expertise from others. Communicating your viewpoints can help to solidify or refine them, and you can do the same for others.

Final Thoughts

An important aspect of business, product management oversees the lifespan of a product from the beginning up until the very end. It focuses on the customer experience, finds solutions to their challenges, and keeps up with market trends so that the business doesn’t fall behind.

Whether your product succeeds or fails can come down to the level of product management you invest in. Having a quality product manager on your team can help ensure your product achieves a more preferable outcome.

What is your number one product management tip?

The post Product Management Explained appeared first on Zenkit.