Join Qonto's Product & Design team

A Product Manager, or PM for short, is in charge of all the stages of developing a product, from identifying user needs and creating a roadmap, to measuring the product’s performance.

In order to do this, they sometimes interact with clients and work closely with members of the Product & Design departments, more particularly with the Product Owner, developers and UX/UI Designers.

Some of the work a Product Manager does involves:

✓ Defining the product positioning: convey the targeted user features to the developers in the Tech team based off the CEO or founder’s vision;

✓ Ensure product interest: the Product Manager must absolutely make sure that the defined pain points are legitimate and test their hypotheses via consumer tests;

✓ Coordinate the Product & Design team’s work: dictate which product features to prioritize according to their value-add and lead time;

✓ Outline the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): the only way to truly gauge whether or not a product is successful is to measure the impact of the Product & Tech team’s work. The PM has to define clear objectives and KPIs in order to steer them in the right direction.

A Product Designer works within the Product & Design team to determine the overall shape and size of products that are marketed by the company. In a way, they’re “object beauticians” who have to consider multiple factors in order to reach their goal:

✓ User experience;

✓ Business goals;

✓ The necessary skills for design;

✓ Budget limits.

The Product Designer operates alongside the Product Manager to define the product features and set out a roadmap.

Product Designers need to have a good grasp of several key fields in order to get the job done:

✓ UX design so that the product’s ergonomy matches the client’s expectations;

✓ UI design to make the product attractive;

✓ Information architecture (IA) to ensure that the product is optimally organized;

✓ Experience Design (XD), Interaction Design (IX) and Experience Architecture (XA) to improve user experience.

UX Writing is a relatively new field that relies on UX design principles in order to draft User Experience-focused content, all while respecting the company’s “Tone of Voice”.

The UX Writer, or UX Copywriter, is in charge of embedding the UX Writing into the website and other company apps. Their role can be broken down into three primary tasks:

✓ Suggest useful and interesting editorial content so prospects trust the brand;

✓ Write up clear, concise copy so the reader “gets it” first time;

✓ Respond to evolving semantic needs in order to improve the company’s organic referencing.

The UX Writer intervenes in every step of the user’s journey, with the intention of simplifying their navigation and enhancing their overall experience. Apart from writing the usual copy, they also use their super writing skills to create:

✓ Call to Action buttons (CTA);

✓ Forms;

✓ Menus;

✓ Landing pages;

✓ Error pages, like the 404 page.

The UX Writer works alongside the UX Designer so that both the visual and textual content contribute to a positive user experience.

The Brand Designer - or Graphic Designer - is critical for developing brand strategy. Their main goal is to generate optimal buy-in from customers, prospects and partners alike.

When they create this visual identity, their intention is to encourage customers to buy products or subscribe to their company’s services, while also cultivating customer loyalty to the brand over time.

In order to do this, the Brand Designer:

✓ Performs in-depth market studies to better understand prospective clients’ needs and responds accordingly, all the while honoring the brand’s values;

✓ Works closely with the rest of the creative team to develop multi-format designs (apps, logos, social media, etc.);

✓ Coordinates with the Packaging Designer or Merchandising Designer to make sure that the product’s design follows brand guidelines;

✓ Makes sure that all of the company’s print and web communications align with the brand’s visual identity (signs, flyers, brochures, website, etc.);

✓ Manages how this visual identity is represented during internal or external events.

The Product Marketing Manager (PMM) is different from the Product Manager, inasmuch as the Product Marketing Manager brings more of a marketing perspective to the development of a product. The PMM’s primary aim is to generate business and avoid launching maladapted products, whereas the Product Manager is more concerned with product quality.

Generally speaking, the Product Marketing Manager doesn’t really figure into the company’s hierarchical order. They’re involved in every stage of a product’s development, from coming up with the business plan to launching the product.

Over the course of a project, they liaise with a variety of teams across the company:

✓ Research & Development: approving product quality and ensuring that the product suits the user’s needs;

✓ Operational Marketing: setting up compelling marketing campaigns and actively announcing the release of the product;

✓ Sales: getting reps up to date to improve their sales propositions to leads;

✓ Customer Service: training technicians on the specs of the new product so they can better serve customers;

✓ Admin: to capture all the relevant billable deliverables in the invoicing software;

✓ Production: to make sure that the availability date corresponds to the release date.