How our Product Manifesto changed my journey as Product Manager

Have you ever thought of becoming a Product Manager in the tech industry? In November 2022 (not that long ago) I started in the M.CIP (Customer Individual Prices) team to get a taste of what being a Product Manager is like. A great opportunity I got from my manager to experiment in my career, besides my original role of a Domain expert.

Almost the same day I started this new assignment, I came across the Product Manifesto and it came as a perfect guide in my journey. The Manifesto is all about supporting teams to ''become empowered in delivering successful products that realize business value sooner and focus on what matter most''.

While the Manifesto has 10 values, Maintaining focus & Measuring results were my main two mottos for this first period.

For me, maintaining focus is about choosing your battle, and making sure it is a battle worth fighting for because you know it will create value, speed or any other desired outcome, like clarity for the team on the way forward.

And here, the keyword is 'focus' - focus on the next iteration but maybe even shorter, focus on what you can deliver and what will create value in the next 1 or 2 sprints. Check, measure, repeat and see if what you are building is having the impact you want and if not, ask yourself ''why''?. Talk to your users, talk to your team. When was the last time you questioned something?

Besides maintaining the focus, knowing what to measure might seem very logical but my team didn't even define our North Star or have other metrics in place, so our internal Product Coaching team supported us with that. Their first question was what our mission and vision are. Let's just say those were not in the best shape, so we decided to review the current mission and vision during a workshop with the full team, to have a better direction for the metrics.

Focusing on short-term achievements does not mean losing sight of the bigger picture. You should understand the direction you are going, and the North Star can lead the way. Small steps can get you very far, when you know where you need to go...

And M.CIP is on its journey. With our eyes on the North Star, we are looking forward to what the next months will bring to light.

If you want to join us in the Product Revolution, check out our Product Managers job positions!