Agile Product Management Best Practices

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Agile Product Management Best Practices

The role of Product Management has significantly evolved over the past few years. A product manager is responsible for making key decisions while collaborating closely with engineering and design teams, a practice often referred to as “3-in-a-box.” This approach is widely adopted in the tech industry and has led to the formation of strong, high-performing teams that drive exceptional results.

However, with the rapid pace of technological advancements, companies must adapt more swiftly than ever. Consequently, we are now witnessing a shift where companies that traditionally served enterprise industries are increasingly focused on becoming more accessible to small and medium-sized businesses.

Two IBM product managers are sharing insight on the type of projects they’ve worked on, the tools they use, and the agile approach that’s helping them along the way.

 

The role of Agile Product Management

Iveta is a Growth Product Manager specializing in enhancing and implementing Product-Led Growth (PLG) strategies for IBM MQ. She began her career in Digital Sales, transitioned into product management in Watson Health, and is now focused on Software.

Just as she has experimented with her career, she believes it’s vital for product managers to hone that curiosity in their work.

“At IBM, a culture of experimentation is fundamental to how we release products to end users. Our teams operate with the primary goal of driving change, achieving success, and realizing strategic outcomes aligned with IBM’s objectives,” said Iveta. With technology evolving quickly, she says user perceptions are changing along with adaptations to our products.

“Through experimentation, we gain deeper insights into meeting customer demands and habits. Employing methods – such as A/B testing, user interviews, and usability testing – we generate valuable hypotheses. However, the true determinant of success is the qualitative data we gather. Together, these elements form the foundation of continuous improvement and product iteration. At IBM, we embrace failure as an opportunity to learn, helping us identify what works and refine our approach accordingly, she said.

Iveta works with IBM Software, where experimentation is key for successful product management.

“For instance, with our IBM MQ SaaS product, we are currently experimenting to identify the causes behind the significant drop-off rate among users who only complete the first section of the required sign-up form. The onboarding experience is crucial for users to reach the trial phase and experience the product before making a purchase,” said Iveta.

“Our data shows a substantial number of users land on the registration form, but progressively drop off, indicating that the form needs to be streamlined. By reducing the number of steps, we aim to improve user retention during the onboarding process. We will continue to analyze user data to monitor how these changes impact their interaction with the onboarding experience,” explains Iveta.

 

Emerging trends in Agile Product Management

There’s no doubt that AI is playing an integral role in many jobs, including that of a product manager. Iveta says it’s improving product performance by enhancing processes within agile methodologies, and impacting product-led growth, and go-to-market strategies.

“For example, we have integrated GenAI capabilities into our product pages using our watsonx virtual assistant. Traditionally, end-users visiting a product page on ibm.com would need to fill out a form to reach a sales representative or read through documentation to learn more about a product. Now, watsonx allows users to get their questions answered quickly and efficiently, significantly improving the initial customer experience,” said Iveta.

She says an optimal experience is vital to retain users as they navigate through product pages and make decisions.

 

Effective stakeholder engagement

Iveta is a Product-Led Growth (PLG) Product Manager. Part of her role is to ensure effective stakeholder engagement to meet business needs, achieve results, and drive revenue.

“My responsibility is to align the team on our experimental initiatives, identify gaps, and assess what is working or needs improvement,” explained Iveta, who works with a variety of stakeholders like program directors, product managers, sales leaders, and marketing product managers.

“For example, we are currently focused on increasing the number of unique visits to our IBM MQ product page. This involves improving the messaging, page layout, and client engagement elements to enhance user interaction with our content. By analyzing performance data, we can measure our progress against established benchmarks and make data-driven decisions to refine our strategies.”

How does she ensure effective stakeholder engagement? She uses consistent communication, structured tracking, and data analysis. She’s able to do that thanks to several productivity tools: she provides live updates using a team communication platform; she uses a project management software to track the team’s activity, their goals and deadlines; she also has weekly meetings to review performance data of those ongoing activities.

“Each stakeholder brings a unique perspective from their field. For example, our sales leader understands customer questions and needs, while our marketing lead knows which messaging will resonate globally. By integrating these diverse insights, we can create a unified strategy that reduces silos and establishes a clear end goal,” said Iveta.

 

Prioritization at the core

Gurpreet is a Product Manager responsible for IBM’s Cloud Pak for Applications offering (Runtimes, Modernization tools, Platforms, etc). He has nearly 20 years of working experience and says a core part of the Product Manager’s role is prioritization using the Funnel and Firewall approach.

  • “Funnel the requirements from various stakeholders into high-level finite prioritized backlog of features. The product manager achieves this by a series of workshops with the stakeholders to get deeper insights on the product: KPIs, Unique Selling Points, Value proposition, high level estimates, timelines, etc. Then the PM start the discussions of the backlog with the development team to slice and dice the backlog into actionable epics and stories (through backlog refinements and sprint plannings).”
  • “Firewall the team to focus on the sprint goals to achieve the product delivery in small iterations. The PM and the team do regular demos of the done items to the stakeholders. This enables a faster feedback loop. This reduces the surprises at the end of the product and enables an easy pivot in case of changed priorities.”

Gurpreet says this cycle is repeated for each feature until the product is complete.

 

Delivering value-driven and customer-focused products

Who is the customer?

And what customer-problem are we trying to solve?

Gurpreet says every discussion for new requirements or features always starts with asking these questions. This way, product manager can focus on value propositions, user personas, and the customer.

“For this, we use Outcome Based Roadmaps (OBRs). This connects the product vision and business objective with the high-level features, ensuring that we don’t lose track of the overall objective of the product in our day-to-day jobs,” he said.

“When solving a customer-problem, the product is broken down into small epics and stories by closely working with UX, design and development teams.  The continuous feedback loops (demos, design thinking workshops, , etc.) to ensure that we are working on the right priorities and solving the right customer problem,” Gurpreet highlighted.

 

 

Discover your potential as a Product Manager at IBM

Ultimately, product management is all about creating products that are easily navigable. If you’re considering a career in product management, Gurpreet recommends you take the leap.

At IBM, we’re always on the lookout for talent in the expanding field of product management.

 

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