Should Product Managers specialize for the Web3?
Yes, they should.
What you’ll find here
- Why should you specialize to work in Web3?
- Topics to consider, things worth learning
- TL;DR: read this
- Final thoughts
Why should you specialize to work in Web3?
Because of its subtleties, its complexities and differences with the Web 2.0, iOS and Android mobile apps, Progressive Web Apps, and the underlying technologies and practices acting as the foundation of most software products being used today, which development was led by Product Managers considered generalists.
Topics to consider, things worth learning
I’ll list a few topics that are considered as inherent part of Web3:
- Blockchain
- Cryptocurrencies
- Smart Contracts
- NFTs
- dApps
Now, in this article we will not go through each one of these, that’s not the idea, also, this is not a comprehensive list. I have purposely left a few items out to make my life easier honestly.
The goal here is to have a starting point in case you need it or want it (if you don’t need nor want this, stop reading, don’t waste your time, life is short and I think we should do things that are fun and interesting to us).
Moving on.
As you can see in this brief list of what can be considered hot topics in the Software Industry and actually in most industries and even art, there are technologies and concepts that are being applied right now in a wide spectrum of fields and they are evolving and improving as they continue being applied and analyzed for new implementations.
TL;DR: read this
Is it the same for you to work at a pharmaceutical company than working at a content streaming worldwide service? There are huge differences between those two industries.
So, I say it would be great if you could find what industries in need of software products you would really like to be involved with.
If you find you are interested in one or more aspects of Web3, then it will be of great help for you if, on top of the knowledge you have and the continuous learning you WILL NEED TO DO on Product Management topics, you become a domain expert in the industry you are getting into.
If you want to be your best version of a Product Manager for Web3, it will serve you well to learn about the underlying aspects of it.
Let me give you an example
If you’re a Product Manager working in a software product for retail and loyalty programs with lots of CRUD operations, transactions will not be a critical aspect to take into consideration more than providing availability, security, performance and quality.
Try to do the same with dApps on Ethereum. Good luck with that.
Smart contracts on Ethereum and dApps need to be optimized to avoid unnecessary transactions, storing data in the blockchain and performing complex computations to the minimum, because every operation has a cost, and we, as Product Managers cannot overlook aspects like these and “leave it to the Developers, the technical guys”.
Special considerations need to be in place from the definition of the Business Goals, Product Vision, Product Strategy, Product Roadmapping and Product Specifications, there is no way out.
We will need to be thorough, yes, even more than with Web 2.0 applications, APIs, services and mobile apps.
Final thoughts
I hope this article can be the starting point for researching, learning, and playing a little with Solidity, for example, creating Smart Contracts, Tokens and more, so we can increase our chances of creating excellent products in the Web3 based on knowledge and a fluent communication with Software Development teams.
Best,
Nicolas
