Internal product management is an often overlooked topic in the product world. If you’re currently looking to deepen your knowledge in this field, or simply look to enter this specific job role, then read on to watch, read, and listen to some of the content that we’ve published on internal product management over the years:
This article by Mark Bailes, Director - Technical Product Management at VNS Health, challenges the traditional perspective that internal products should be treated differently from external, commercial products. It argues for a shift in mindset where internal product managers adopt similar practices and strategies used in commercial product management.
Key takeaways:
- Internal products can benefit from the same rigour and focus on user experience as external products.
- Opting for a commercial mindset can drive better engagement and satisfaction among internal users. In doing so, it increases your visibility across the company.
- The importance of clear metrics and feedback loops for internal products is emphasised.
- Many elements of the commercial product launch checklist apply to internal products. Both types of products need a clear and validated value proposition.
This ProductTank London talk, led by John Wood, now the VP of Product Management at GoCardless highlights the key traits that differentiate the best internal platform teams from the rest. John draws from his experience at GoCardless to outline what makes these teams successful in managing internal products.
Key takeaways:
- Customer obsession: Even for internal products, understanding the internal customer's needs is crucial.
- Technical excellence: High standards in code quality and architecture are vital for long-term success.
- Design data first platforms: Due to the current technology revolution, data is more important than ever. To be successful as a company, you need a data-first mindset
- Design for unimagined future use cases: Focus on providing accessible tools with a universal application rather than a product-specific application. This way, you can avoid having to re-platform in the future.
- Lead long-term strategy: Provide strategic thought leadership at the organisational level, interviewing prospective users to test and create demand for platform capabilities before they are needed, and making platform capabilities easy to adopt.
João Craveiro, Group Product Manager at Remote, led a talk on the common misconceptions for internal-facing products in this ProductTank London talk. He argues that with the right approach, internal products can be just as good as external ones.
Key takeaways:
- There must be a need to prioritise internal products and avoid treating them as secondary so internal teams can build better products.
- Sometimes internal-facing products aren’t classed as products, but the reality is a product only needs to have certain characteristics. They need to be valuable, usable, and feasible.
- Internal products can drive overall efficiency and satisfaction within an organization when developed with care.
Alison Hickson, Senior Group Product and Design Manager at WooliesX explores the unique challenges and skills required for internal product managers. She discusses how the role differs from managing external products and the specific demands it entails.
Key takeaways:
- As an internal product manager, it’s important to remember that your users are on your team.
- Empathise with users but don’t make promises, and create aligned measures of success so that everyone knows what you are trying to achieve.
- Use feedback loops to grow with little bets to achieve success as an internal product manager
Ahmed Sulaiman, Co-Founder of Fragment wrote a guest post for Mind the Product in 2021, providing a review of his key lessons learned from managing internal products.
Key takeaways:
- Make sure you understand people’s needs: Internal or External, the product should solve a problem.
- Communicate and educate team members: Stay on top of the new perspective each of them brings.
- Support your teammates while they use the product internally. Respond to feature requests and bug reports.
In this podcast episode, Emily Patterson, now VP of Product at Finite State, shares her insights on managing internal tools, focusing on the nuances that come with this specific type of product management.
Key takeaways:
- There’s no glory in working on internal tools – no one ever gives you credit for success, it’s almost impossible to recruit for, and there’s never enough time to fix all of the things that are needed.
- Product skills are not that hard to teach, but empathy is something that you either have it, or you don’t.
Developing influence across an organisation allows you to drive products – and transformation – forward. In this ProductTank London talk, Lucia Adams, Group Transformation Lead at Bauer Media Group, goes through examples and learning from her own experience (including all the times she got it wrong) as she offers her personal framework for accelerating change in business.
Key takeaways from the Transformation Engine framework
- Mapping – Specifically, mapping power and influence (stakeholders). Lucia advises keeping stakeholders informed of changes, managing their needs closely, monitoring them where possible and keeping them satisfied.
- Workshopping – Workshop the “how” and “why”, not just the “what” in terms of values and behaviours in product development.
- Expectation setting – Developing great products feels like a rollercoaster ride at times. Lucia says to be prepared for lows as well as highs.
- Storytelling – Tell stories of change to get heard and then “repeat repeat repeat!”
Anything we missed or any further insights you would like us to cover? Let us know by commenting below or by emailing us at editor@mindtheproduct.com
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