About Me, What I Do, and What a Product Manager in Digital Really Is

Product management isn't just a trendy profession - it's the art of strategic decision-making, continuous research, and fine-tuning products to meet user and market needs.

At Burger King, I developed a data analysis system to evaluate training effectiveness, which significantly improved understanding of employee and company needs, allowing for precise customization of educational programs. Most importantly, it provided a complete overview and understanding of staff readiness for new restaurant openings.

At the Mil Helicopter Plant, I implemented a product approach in developing a networking analysis program - a key direction with major investments and strategic importance.

At the Kamov Helicopter Plant, I developed a training program for combat helicopter pilots, coordinating multiple stakeholders from various departments, companies, and government agencies.

At the media company "Red Square," work resembled firefighting: projects that other companies couldn't handle often came to us with "yesterday" deadlines. Here, a strict product approach was especially important: clearly understanding what to keep and what to sacrifice.

After that, I created my own educational project NotNowSchool, which achieved organic growth to 7,000 subscribers, a 270% increase in content saves, and successful sales.

This diverse experience allows me to clearly see how a product manager's work goes beyond feature management and becomes a strategic business driver.

Why Product Management is a Challenge for the Best and an Opportunity for the Ambitious

Let's imagine a typical situation from my experience: I was developing a data analysis system to evaluate training effectiveness at Burger King during rapid market expansion and new restaurant openings. We needed to not only minimize training costs for thousands of new employees but also ensure their prompt preparation. Through product approaches and data analysis, I built metrics to evaluate course effectiveness, which allowed us to increase training productivity by 1.5 times and accelerate staff adaptation. This example shows how systematic thinking and well-thought-out strategies help handle the challenges of rapid business growth.

This is when a product manager steps in - although I was officially a regional training manager at the time - someone who can systematically look at the problem, consider stakeholders', investors', and team's interests, and build a strategy. In real experience - for example, while working on NotNowSchool - I faced a similar dilemma: how to optimize processes, increase value for subscribers while maintaining focus to scale the project.

When Everything Depends on the Product Manager: Who They Are and What They Do

A product manager comes in and says:

"Based on in-depth data analysis and user behavior metrics, we've developed a scalable product development strategy. Each hypothesis will be tested through A/B testing with clear KPIs. We move iteratively, relying on data."

Every part of this phrase is important. As a product manager, I see how this works in large multimedia companies and niche projects like my NotNowSchool. On one side, there are giant infrastructures, big data, and global reach. On the other - a niche educational project with organic reach up to 50-60 thousand per post and modest advertising costs. In both cases, the product manager stands at a decision crossroads, determining which path will yield maximum returns. In my case, I act as both product manager and founder, but when you've worked as a product manager for years, everything is perceived as a product.

Product Manager as Researcher: From Data to Decisions

A good product manager doesn't build strategy on intuition. They study the market, competitors, and users. At "Red Square," we conducted quantitative and qualitative research, analyzed user scenarios, tested prototypes, measured television ratings. During NotNowSchool's development, I learned to apply the same approach: before investing in developing a new course or self-diagnostic tool, I conducted in-depth interviews, analyzed audience activity data, measured engagement and conversion. Thus, when creating a habit management course with 150 sales through organic channels, I understood in advance whether the audience was willing to pay and which metrics would be important.

Analytics is another key point. Having data analysis skills, I can quickly understand which feature is truly valuable and which is just a beautiful idea without proven demand. A product manager's task is to convince designers, developers, and sometimes investors that decisions should be based on facts. This requires the ability to argue, use visualizations, dashboards, retention metrics, and conversion funnels. Data is everything.

How a Product Manager Turns Goals into Working Strategy

Strategy isn't a list of everything you want to do. It's a clear priority: what we'll focus on and what we'll give up. When developing NotNowSchool, the focus was on creating a strong base of valuable content (over 75 unique articles) to increase organic reach and engagement. I knew that if we could grow a loyal audience without major advertising investments (just $10 per post), we would get a very high ROI when scaling the product.

As a product manager, I rejected some trendy ideas if they didn't align with the strategy. Though it hurts in the moment, this is how sustainable growth is achieved. In a large company - say, Google - priorities might lie in improving query response time or implementing algorithmic recommendations. In a niche project like NotNowSchool, priorities became organic growth, increased reach (up to 7,000 subscribers in a year), and conversion to niche courses without inflating the product line.

The Power of Hypotheses: How a Product Manager Tests Ideas and Finds Solutions

Hypotheses are the foundation of any product iteration. If we want to test a new feature, we can either spend time and resources on its full implementation or start with minimal tests. While working on NotNowSchool, I repeatedly tested hypotheses about the demand for specific topics: instead of fully creating a course, I first posted survey forms, published teasers, looked at clicks and saves. This allowed me to gather initial signals within a couple of days and understand whether it was worth investing time and budget.

In a corporation, the scale is larger, but the principle is the same. For example, we can test market reaction to a new feature idea through a small experiment: even just a "fake" button or landing page without ready functionality can provide valuable information about real user interest. At "Red Square," we did such an experiment for director and editor courses, which were developed as additional education in collaboration with Moscow State University. A landing page and some advertising helped us learn about conversion. Of course, we refunded everyone's money and sent a promo code for the future course whose demand we tested.

Research is conducted, hypotheses are formed, strategy is clear. Now we need to inspire and organize the team: developers, designers, analysts, marketers. We need to explain to them why we're taking this particular path, how we'll measure success, and what to do if the hypothesis isn't confirmed. The product manager is the connecting link that ensures clear communication and calm, rhythmic work.

When launching NotNowSchool, this meant constant work with the editor, designer, and SMM specialist. In reality, there were two of us, and we shared responsibilities between ourselves. I clearly defined KPIs: engagement, clickability, number of downloads of the free course "How to Learn to Learn" (over 1,000 downloads). This helped us understand which results were important. In large technology companies, the product manager connects product metrics (response time, number of active users) with business metrics (revenue, cost reduction) and strategic goals (conquering new audience).

Product Manager: Master of Complex Problem Solving

Problems are an integral part of the work. At NotNowSchool, I observed how the audience reacts to certain topics, how competitors bring similar products to market. Sometimes we need to quickly revise promotion strategy, strengthen organic marketing, or change course positioning to maximize sales. In a large company, legal restrictions, investor requests, or unexpected technological obstacles might arise.

A product manager is someone who fights fires with clear focus. They remember the strategy, don't panic, and don't rush to fulfill all requests at once. Instead, they change priorities based on new information.

Real Product Managers Are Invaluable

In theory, everything looks perfect. But in reality, there aren't many product managers who can simultaneously effectively research the market, convince the team, build strategy, test hypotheses, and keep the product on track. These are the people who really deliver results: turn applications profitable, scale projects without wasteful spending, inspire team members to achieve goals.

My experience - from the independent educational project NotNowSchool with real growth and sales metrics to a leading product manager role in a major media company - confirms that the ability to systematically approach products, analyze data, develop strategy, and clearly prioritize tasks opens doors to a brilliant career. That's why product manager is one of the most challenging and promising professions in the digital world.

If you're ready not only to imitate activity but to truly "level up" a product, you'll find high demand, serious offers, and opportunities for professional growth.

As always, I invite you to share your opinion in the comments
With love 😽 🤗 😘
K