Product Support

The eigth step in the 9II9 product lifecycle is Support. The ability to ensure organizational readiness for a new product launch is a key component of the product lifecycle and often plagues organizations that don’t have this function in place. A Product Manager is continually monitoring feedback from external users and internal stakeholders, and is in constant communication with support teams, especially in a startup environment. The Product Manager is accountable for ensuring a smooth handover between teams during the develop phase and also during the launch phase by ensuring PR, Marketing, Support and others are fully aware of what’s coming.

A useful tool for the support team that can be provided by the Product Manager is an initial call script that contains the most likely questions to be asked by end users and how to best respond. It is okay to initially take all support requests during the first couple of weeks after launch and quickly prioritize any urgent issues with the development team. As a new product release is stable, Product Managers should transition all Tier 1 support through a helpdesk, self-serve help portal, or a call center.

This process has several benefits. It frees up the Product Manager to focus on strategy, understanding users, and managing KPIs. It gives a structured tool to quantify and prioritize bugs based on pervasiveness and impact. It also allows third party providers to be held accountable to SLAs in the event that managed services are affected.