Mine for the Value - Introduction to Product Management for Consumer/Retail Banking

The ultimate aim of the book is to reinforce the business management orientation required in product management and also strongly underscore the fact that business is won at the frontlines. The win is convincing when every player in the front-line team has a deepened understanding of the products and services that represent the main arsenal of the business. As will be demonstrated later in the book, it is only when team approach is adopted for most key product and service initiatives that impactful results get achieved.
This book is highly recommended for customer service officers, branch managers, product managers, branch operation managers, call center staff, the analytics team, operational risk team members and IT support crew.how it all starts - client needsIt has always been a burning question. The strategic meetings and board room discussions are laced with it but it sounds quite inconsequential. Truly not high sounding but it represents the puzzle which if it is unravelled perfectly makes all things look simple.
How do you spot the need of the customer so you execute directly to it? Do you need to organize focus meetings, pursue all manner of surveys, administer cleverly crafted questionnaire, synthesize from frontline reports, mine from various client interaction feedback data or just send a direct question to potential clients? Any one of the mentioned tactics to establish client need is useful. And frankly, depending how effective and efficient our expectation of a strategy is, one of them or a combination of all the mentioned items might be helpful.
I would have achieved one of the most important objectives of working on this book if every product manager gets super clarity on his/her work from reading the shared knowledge here. The role of product management can be placed in various levels at the structure of the organization depending on how it helps with the strategic agenda. For some companies it is placed at the tactical level whilst for others it may be the middle level.
For a fews others, it is at the management level. The placement no doubt can have a telling and impactful effect on the value that is eventually created by the product manager. Notwithstanding the different levels of importance that is assigned a role, the key is to have the job holder understand the raison d'être of his job. If the PM fully grasps the knowledge around all the activities he engages and the why of each one of them then he owns his space.
Knowing what to do is not enough in this game but understanding the why puts one really in charge of the destiny of each product.