Even if you feel confident in understanding the product management function, do you know when to use product management as a solution and what it means to successfully execute those strategies? Understanding how product management affects your business can take its product-making to the next level.
In this article, we'll:
Indicate when to use the product management process
Identify three product management example use cases
Share four product management case studies, examples of successful product management execution
Note: While we'll use the term product management, we'll speak primarily about digital product management for this article because of the rise of business digital transformation, it’s currently the most used product management system.
When should you use the product management process?
The time to use the product management process is when you desire to create and launch a new product. If you build a product, you need the method to care for it throughout the entire product lifecycle, from product development to product marketing. In other words, if the purpose is to deliver great products to your customer, then you need the product management process.
For some companies, product management is the reason for their existence; they live and breathe product development. Others might only produce a product as a branch of their services. In either scenario, from finding the best product-market fit to creating the best customer experience possible, product management helps you get the most out of investing resources into your product.
Product management example use cases
Product management use cases give us specific reasons or situations where product management is used. Here is currently how the product development industry typically uses digital product management:
Software development: Standalone-, web- and mobile-device applications and software as a service (SaaS)
Analog products extended with digital services: Wifi-connected thermostats, security cameras, games and gaming systems, and internet of things (IoT) products.
Digital versions of legacy products: Musical instruments, like USB turntables, news media, like The New York Times and The Washington Post, and even electric vehicles like Tesla and the new Porsche Taycan, capable of receiving updates over-the-air
Product management use cases are virtually endless
The irony about product management use cases is that the PM process includes the development of use cases. So, use cases can increase from the implementation of the product management process itself.
This part of the process aims to identify end-users, customer needs, and how they could use the product by developing user personas. Sometimes product teams create personas from the product's case studies because the case studies might have identified a new use case and customer.
Product management example case studies
Previously, you read what types of projects or products you could use the product management process on. Now, let's look at examples of how product management was used successfully through the following case studies or user stories.
Helping musicians learn songs by ear
Overview: CEO and founder Bobby James of EasyTracks wanted a way for musicians to isolate the stems in songs, so they could hear their part alone and play along with their instrument's part turned off. (Stems are discrete or grouped audio sources mixed downstream as one unit or track.)
This ability helps musicians learn and practice new tunes while playing with them without overlapping their instruments over the recorded ones. The effect is that the customer gets a clean and open sonic space to hear their playing clearly, which better provides an opportunity to improve their performance.
Challenge: EasyTracks was a new product with a limited budget. Additionally, the usual top-down coding approach to making the app compatible with iOS and Android wouldn't work for isolating audio tracks.
Outcome: Overall, customers loved the product features. Product management helped a successful product launch with positive user reviews pouring in within the first two weeks, providing an average rating of 4.5 stars on the Apple App Store, a quantifiable metric directly from the customer. PM also defined the project's scope, from identifying the resources to building a product roadmap (a product plan), and it managed the product during the development stage.
Read more: "How EasyTracks Built an App That Lets Musicians Learn by Ear."
Aiding used car dealers buy inventory faster at greater profit margins
Overview: Tyler Hill, CEO and founder of Drivably, wanted an app for used car dealers to buy inventory faster, at the best profit margins. The app would also give dealers and buyers insights into the stock for better car-selling and buying decisions.
Challenge: Although Drivably had an internal development team working on the solution, it wasn't fast enough. For example, nine months into the project, Drivably wasn't ready for launch. Customer feedback during testing also revealed a major pain point: end-users found the product would break almost immediately, rendering it unusable. Hill determined that the internal team and technology stack were unsuitable for Drivably's needs.
Outcome: DevSquad's product management team, through a truly agile process, developed a prototype during a design sprint—a two-day minimal viable product (MVP) and prototype workshop. Then, they launched the product within 45 days, ready to acquire paying customers.
Overall, the product management process helped Drivably go to market faster. It has also begun iteration to improve the product with new features before the marketing team implements a marketing strategy to enhance user experience and customer retention.
Read more: "How Drivably Went to Market in 45 Days."
Enabling new employees to hit the ground running on day one
Overview: John Allen, a senior software engineer in the productivity department at Box, was tasked with easing the burden on IT for onboarding and offboarding team members and for account security. "When a new employee gets their laptop on their first day at Box, we want them to be able to hit the ground running with little to no action on their part," says Allen. From a technical aspect, Box needed to automate tasks between HR and IT to ensure information flows seamlessly and accurately.
Challenge: Box's previous onboarding and offboarding system relied on the IT department to field every request. In addition, the security team depended on IT, too, every time an incident occurred, like a lost work device or compromised credentials. To help all stakeholders, the company needed a solution that worked for its cross-functional teams. Moreover, Allen's human resources were limited, and time was of the essence.
Outcome: DevSquad developed a push notification feature for Box's multi-factor authentication application using the product management methodology. It's a messaging system that helps employees reset passwords. Then, Allen, the product manager, and the development team tackled the automation projects, automating workflows for onboarding, offboarding, and security incidents that reduced manual effort for the HR, IT, and security teams.
Overall, DevSquad's product management team helped Box gain an immediate return on investment by producing product features that reduced friction and boosted productivity.
Read more: "How Box Improves Employee Productivity Through Custom Automation."
Prototyping a new mortgage solution for homeowners
Overview: Tony Davis and Naveed Bhurgri, cofounders of Atlantic Home Mortgage, wanted to go nationwide with a new product that helps make the home mortgage process easier for buyers.
Challenge: As business owners, Dave and Bhurgri were cautious when approaching development services. They wanted to choose the right partners to develop the solution, and they found few who they felt they could trust with their investment during their search.
Outcome: Davis and Bhurgri discovered DevSquad and booked a date for a design sprint workshop. Here they could vet DevSquad's development process, like their approach to the product's backlog creation and product timelines. They ensured everyone understood the core features needed during the MVP, leading to a high-fidelity prototype.
"Our favorite part of the workshop was the story map process. We thought that was really useful because we were able to distill the product down into something that we could go to market with quickly, instead of getting stuck in development forever trying to make something that has too many parts for an initial launch," says Davis.
Overall, the prototyping part of product management gave Davis and Bhurgri the confidence to develop their product further with a partner they trust.
Read more: "How Atlantic Home Mortgage Innovates Without Fear."
DevSquad can supply you with a product management team
Whether you're a startup business owner, product owner, or even a chief product officer, you can trust DevSquad's deep understanding of your product management initiatives. We can help you create your product vision by developing the right:
Product strategy
Project management (Agile, Kanban, and Scrum methodologies)
Prioritization
Give us the product requirements, and our talent and robust tech stack helps create great products with usability and a positive customer experience in mind. Our teams have technical skills in:
Laravel
VueJs
Node.js
React
Angular
Electron
And DevSquad developers, or engineering teams, specialize in product management services in:
MVP development
API development
Prototyping development
Web application development
Mobile application development
Ready to develop and launch a new product or add a new product feature? Let's talk.
