SaaS product management is one of the fastest-growing roles in software product development.
In the SaaS industry, the product manager plays the essential role of conductor at the intersection of user experience, technology, and business.
The product manager has become a high-value player at SaaS companies by advocating for the customer and working with the designers and developers to ensure the result matches the customer’s needs.
Though traditional product management may overlap with SaaS product management, there are key differences that require a SaaS product manager to take unique approaches to product development, pricing, delivery, customer relations, and overall business strategy.
In this article, we’ll dive into what SaaS product managers do, the key skills required for the job, and how to take your SaaS product management strategy to the next level.
Table of Contents
- What Is SaaS in Product Management?
- What Does a SaaS Product Marketing Manager Do?
- How SaaS Product Management Differs From Other Industries
- Key Skills a Top SaaS Project Manager Should Have
- AnnounceKit Can Help You Take Your Enterprise SaaS Product Management to the Next Level
What Is SaaS in Product Management?
With SaaS revenue expected to grow by 19.30% annually and reach a market volume of $793.10 billion by 2029, the opportunities for SaaS product managers continue to grow.
SaaS product managers are at the center of demand in an industry experiencing a booming rebirth.
Software as a service (SaaS) product management guides the end-to-end process of designing, launching, and continuously expanding software products that are delivered to customers as a regular service, rather than as a one-time purchase.
Whether launching a new SaaS solution or modifying an existing one, SaaS product management directs operations to ensure optimal usability and customer satisfaction.
What Does a SaaS Product Marketing Manager Do?
The SaaS product manager oversees the entire product lifecycle. From product strategy to product development and decline, a SaaS product manager works closely with teams from engineering, design, marketing, and analytics.
Some SaaS companies can have multiple managers, with separate experts administering different aspects of the tool. A product manager collaborates with each department manager to steward the product through the process while maintaining product vision.
Conduct Market and User Research
At the core of any successful product, is a true understanding of your target audience. Product managers are hands-on from the early development stages to identify user needs and how to best meet them.
SaaS product managers gather information on market trends and conduct user research by completing competitive analyses and studying customer behavior.
This information helps product managers:
- Effectively run ideation sessions
- Design user surveys
- Build buyer personas
- Prepare materials for customer development interviews
While conducting user research, a product manager looks for gaps in the market their product can fill. Generally, when a product can address customer needs and cover a large market gap, a faster adoption rate can be expected.
Create a Product Vision and Strategy
Product vision is the long-term goal of what a product aims to achieve over its lifespan. A SaaS project manager can identify market and customer pain points and cross them with the company mission to create alignment with the product vision.
A product manager must then be able to break the product vision down into smaller, achievable strategies, complete with detailed steps moving the product from ideation to creation, evaluation markers, and resource planning.
Collaborate With Other Team Managers
SaaS product managers collaborate with team managers of the engineering, marketing, design, or data analytics departments.
Product managers have in-depth knowledge of the product and its target market. They work closely with managers to share expertise, manage product strategy alignment, and help investigate or solve complex problems.
At the end of the day, the product manager works with other team managers to ensure a cohesive result in the big picture.
Prioritize Product Features
A product manager must prioritize features that are crucial to the product. Failing to do so can drain resources and crowd the product.
SaaS product managers will create a features roadmap that utilizes user feedback, market demands, technical feasibility, and business impact to determine which features get built and when.
Making adjustments along the way based on shifting market needs, new data analysis, and user feedback, skilled product managers can navigate a living, breathing product roadmap.
Once new features are ready for rollout, SaaS product managers can easily engage users with AnnounceKit’s in-app notifications.
In-app notifications from AnnounceKit allow you to:
- Reduce churn by driving user education
- Grow your product by converting users from one plan to a higher plan
- Stay up to date with sector needs by requesting direct user feedback
- Increase user engagement by reminding users about new features and updates
Create Opportunities for Growth
A SaaS product manager should always be aware of potential areas for product improvement and growth.
Industry trends and user feedback help a product manager determine areas worth pursuing. Product managers should constantly be on the lookout for ways to add value or attract new customers.
Whether running additional product discovery sessions or analyzing the activities of competitors, they should constantly seek opportunities for product-led growth.
Follow the Product Life Cycle
A SaaS product manager oversees the product throughout its life cycle. As the product moves through this series of stages, from inception to diminution, its role typically evolves alongside the product.
The traditional model of the product life cycle has four stages:
- Introduction
- Growth
- Maturity
- Decline
In the introduction stage, product development and launch are most important. A good product manager will dedicate ample time to testing and iteration. Rushing to market with an unsubstantiated product could stall the product from ever reaching the growth stage. A solid foundation built on market need and effective delivery can bolster a product to withstand future challenges.
The product lifecycle can serve as a guideline, but it’s not a guaranteed forecast. There is no predicting when a product will pass through each stage. A SaaS product manager should carefully observe the product life cycle, but refrain from making decisions based on the product’s position within the cycle.
Make Data-Backed Decisions by Studying Key Performance Indicators
Making decisions based on a hunch or invalidated feedback can also land product managers in a tough situation. Every decision must be backed by data, whether it’s developing a new feature or changing the placement of the logo.
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are the drivers of the decision-making process through the various product management stages. KPIs ensure cross-functional teams remain in concert when making decisions that could improve the product and increase user value.
Data-backed decision-making allows product managers to successfully direct limited resources and minimize costly mistakes.
An effective feedback loop improves customer engagement and provides an effective KPI for gauging how users feel about the product, new features, and pricing.
AnnounceKit, a software for developing creative dialogue, offers solutions that help strengthen customer engagement and inform important product decisions.
Tracking customer engagement KPIs and deploying them based on your goals can enhance growth rates for your SaaS product.
Quick Setup, Easy to Use, and Many Integrations
Manage your product announcements from a single place and easily distribute them
across multiple channels.
Oversee Development and Design
Although SaaS product managers don’t code or design, they collaborate with engineers and product design teams. A SaaS product manager will oversee the creation of intuitive user-centered interfaces to guarantee they are reflective of data from in-depth research.
SaaS product managers are highly involved in the development process. They also manage key player expectations of technical deliverables and are responsible for the timely delivery of feature releases.
Facilitate Delivery and Testing
When features are ready to be deployed for users, a SaaS product manager will continue to conduct in-depth market research and user testing.
Through surveys, support tickets, and other tools to collect and analyze user feedback, SaaS product managers ensure data is carefully recorded and synthesized.
Product managers utilize this data to identify experience gaps and devise ways to improve.With AnnounceKit delivering features and collecting data about customer satisfaction is simple with feature request tracking. Through the feature requests tool, customers can communicate issues, ideas, and more, helping product managers gauge overall customer sentiment.
Consult With the Marketing Team About Strategy
Another core aspect of the SaaS product manager role is consulting with the marketing team to devise a comprehensive marketing framework to increase awareness and boost adoption.
The marketing strategy should include key data such as:
- Target customer profile
- Launch details
- Value proposition
- Integral messaging
- Distribution channels; and
- Promotional tactics
Product managers collaborate in creating the marketing strategy and provide crucial product and target market data necessary to building a successful marketing strategy.
Quick Setup, Easy to Use, and Many Integrations
Manage your product announcements from a single place and easily distribute them
across multiple channels.
How SaaS Product Management Differs From Other Industries
Understanding how SaaS product management differs from other industries is as simple as understanding the difference between a SaaS and a non-SaaS product. A SaaS solution is fundamentally different from traditional software in usage, delivery, pricing, and customer relations.
These key differences require distinct product management methodologies.
SaaS product usage must conform to distinct user needs and customizations and also remain agile enough to grow with a single user as their needs change.
Since SaaS products are delivered continuously, the product must continually be improved to remain competitive. SaaS managers employ flexible methodologies and practices that allow the product to flow with an ever-changing market and user.
Key Skills a Top SaaS Project Manager Should Have
SaaS project managers must oversee the development, launch, and scale of SaaS products. That means utilizing important skill sets that can help project managers throughout each phase in the lifespan of a SaaS solution.
With AnnounceKit, SaaS project managers can strengthen their skill sets with services that provide the insights necessary to make informed decisions. From our customer analytics tool to Net Promoter Score (NPS) software, and more, our features can help you bolster key skills a top SaaS project manager should have, including:
- Conducting and translating research: Performing thorough market research and understanding user insights provides a solid foundation for data-based decision-making.
- Strategic thinking: Strategic thinking is the root skill necessary in long-term planning to ensure alignment between market trends, company objectives, and product vision.
- Problem-solving: Challenges are present at every turn. A good SaaS product manager is skilled at predicting, identifying, solving, and rebounding from problems that may arise.
- Communication: Each team that operates on a SaaS product speaks its own language. A top SaaS product manager must be able to move seamlessly and communicate effectively with them all, from engineering to marketing.
- User empathy: A product manager must be using the product to understand user pain points and create effective solutions.
- Project management: The basis of a good SaaS product manager is the ability to plan product strategy and manage each point to guarantee constructive execution.
- Technical knowledge: SaaS product managers may not need to have experiential expertise, but technical knowledge is required to communicate effectively with technical teams.
AnnounceKit Can Help You Take Your Enterprise SaaS Product Management to the Next Level
Ready to level up your SaaS product management game?
Some product management tools will take you here:
Tap into the power of AnnounceKit and let us take you here:
AnnounceKit can help SaaS product managers do their jobs more efficiently by:
- Effectively collecting and managing user data
- Tracking customer behavior and engagement
- Delivering it all in clear, real-time customer analytical data
You’ll have the insights you need to make informed decisions about your business.
The best part is that AnnounceKit can be fully integrated and plays nice with other systems your SaaS company may use.
Get started for free with AnnounceKit today!
