Introduction
A master’s degree in business administration has changed its nature, course, and form over the last few years. MBA is the most holistic degree in the business domain that covers a wide range of topics. It is in this context that various specializations have emerged under the umbrella of this broad management degree. One of the most notable specializations in this domain is an MBA in product management. This specialization is extremely important from the point of view of interdisciplinarity as it involves a juxtaposition between engineering, management, and marketing domain.
It needs to be noted at this point in time that an MBA in product management does not only entail the knowledge of the product management life cycle but also gives you sufficient and exact acumen to predict market dynamics.
Changing career orientation
When you pursue an MBA that is integrated with product management, it develops core competencies and skills that are necessary for understanding the product life cycle as well as other requirements. Such a course infuses core competencies that allow you to conduct trials related to the successful launch of a product. It allows you to launch a demo campaign, design novel types of products as well as understand the requirements of various stakeholders that are involved in the process of product manufacturing and marketing. Such type of a course changes your career goals and develops skills like the comprehension of market dynamics.
Benefits of the specialization
There are three primary benefits of the specialization in product management that accompanies a Masters in Business Administration. The first benefit is that it provides a very specialized skill set that allows recruiting managers to cherry-pick the perfect persons who can demonstrate the ability to successfully launch the product into the market.
The second important benefit of this course is that the comprehension of resource allocation becomes easy. This means that some of the products are allocated sufficient resources while some of the resources are also devolved towards marketing and advertising campaigns. In simple terms, the categorization of resources allows their optimum allocation.
The third important benefit is that product managers can incorporate valuable feedback in the product life cycle so that the product meets the market as well as the client requirements.
This course develops the skill of emotional intelligence
It needs to be noted at this point in time that product managers require emotional intelligence to cater to various challenges that are thrown at them by different business situations. Practically, emotional intelligence is not a single skill but a blend of five different skills that are mentioned here.
The first important skill is self-awareness which is developed in product managers related to the functioning of a particular business. In simple terms, this allows individuals to understand their role related to a particular business and execute it with optimum efficiency.
The second important skill is related to self-regulation. Self-regulation can be defined as the regulation of one’s emotions so that they can be properly utilized for a particular activity or attaining a particular goal. In the context of business intelligence, emotional intelligence allows the management and regulation of team members so that various deadlines and targets can be met in time.
Furthermore, the third important skill related to emotional intelligence is motivation. This is the most important factor that is present in business managers who are highly successful. Motivation enables business managers and product managers to dovetail their personal aspirations with the aspirations of the organization that they work for.
The fourth important attribute related to emotional intelligence is empathy. Empathy is a skill that allows product managers to imagine a business situation or a business scenario and act in the wisest manner possible.
The fifth and the most important skill that product managers develop by virtue of emotional intelligence is called the Social Skill. Social skill allows product managers to understand the social scenario of people including their liking of particular products. Not only does this skill allow the product manager to predict if a particular product would be successful in a particular social setting but it also allows them to alter the social settings in such a manner that organizational objectives are met.
The way ahead: Harnessing technical skills
It is extremely important for product managers to harness technical skills so that they understand the client requirements, the market dynamics as well as the product requirements from a quantitative perspective. This means that the short-term courses related to statistical analysis can really help the product managers from a mathematical standpoint. Such skills would allow the product manager to develop and comprehend the product life cycle with the help of visualization techniques. This would have two important benefits. Firstly, this would allow the product manager to sketch out a graph of future predictions from past performance. Secondly, it would also allow the product manager to communicate their findings to the stakeholders in a very lucid manner. Meanwhile, a number of business managers need to be trained in the domain of product management to reap outstanding benefits.