If you've read my previous post, you already know how we prioritize features and issues, and how we build the NativeScript roadmap. You have also read that the NativeScript Community Survey plays a significant role in the roadmap priorities so make sure you fill it out and share all your thoughts.
In this article I'll focus more on my personal experience as a PM and what I learned from being in the role the last three months.
Being a developer, you always have some planning with the team and a set of tasks to complete for a specific time period. The Team Manager role requires being a bit more self-organized, but still the scope of the role is the team, its priorities and day-to-day work. I would say there is still some freedom, but the impact one has is mostly on the team level. The Product Manager role though is empowered by freedom, but comes with a responsibility for the whole product, and relies on:
So, in order to make sure all sides are taken care of and the initiatives you drive are not stuck, it requires self-organization and correct prioritization. I still have a lot to learn to be even more effective, but as of today I can say that I manage to handle all the above to a great extent.
As I said, the role gives a lot of freedom and responsibilities, but it's absolutely impossible to do everything alone. Rule number one in this case is to know the team, the expertise of everyone and to use it effectively when it's needed.
Being in Developer and Team Manager roles I was never afraid to share ideas, but didn't always pay attention to the arguments of why an idea is a good idea. I always counted on the experience of my manager or the PM to evaluate the idea and find the right arguments to include it in the roadmap. But now I'm in the position where it's my responsibility to build the roadmap and it's my turn to research and require strong arguments for why a feature needs to be built and why it is more important than another. That's why we deal with all sorts of analytics and data – Google Analytics, community surveys, GitHub issues, etc. This helps us deliver the most expected features and fix the most critical issues.
When in the Product Manager's role of an open-source product, the community is an important source of feedback and information. The good thing is that it's very accessible – Github, StackOverflow, Slack, Webinars, Blog posts – there are many ways to connect and validate. I really love exploring the community, how the developers use the technology, what kind of projects are built with NativeScript and what the biggest pain points are. I'm doing that by following Github, Slack and Twitter. Also, there are certain members we call Developer Experts we keep close connection with. So, I would like say:
🙏 THANK YOU 🙏
to our experts and our whole community for being active and helpful!
Stay tuned for more posts from the PM Confessions Series revealing the life of the NativeScript Product Manager. 😉