Mat Krizmanich – Product Manager of Jouleia | Modernizing Homes For The Electric Age

According to Mat, product management is understanding complex user challenges and then translating those challenges into beautiful and effective digital solutions. You achieve this by following four step approach: Audience Research, Understanding Challenges, UI/UX design then build and ship.

Mat also explained that in a product management role, you participate in all aspects of product development, you are like a “Glue Person” who holds product development together, making sure things go as planned and the project remains aligned and on track. A product manager’s scope is large, from fostering innovation and collaboration product managers connect everyone from UX/UI designers, the marketing team, and the audience making sure things are cohesive.

Mat explained the importance of doing audience research and the importance of doing it completely. User Interviews, focus groups, and user testing are a few of the methodologies he suggested. Analyzing the information, you garner from this allows you to recognize the direction you need to go. UI/UX design is based on the previous steps. Developing low-fidelity designs then converting them to designs using the digital brand guidelines and setting the foundation for interaction is important in creating high-fidelity designs. Once this stage of development is completed and it goes by the product manager for approval it is time to build, and then test.

I learned from Mat something I believed is important, the UX/UI stages of product development and accessibility are particularly important and something a product manager needs to manage well for a project to develop to its greatest potential. Accessibility is especially important to me and can be achieved through excellent UX/UI design. The importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in product design can be underestimated and overlooked. Accessibility should be top of mind in product creation with the largest audience reach possible.

“The importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in product design can be underestimated and overlooked.“

Mat’s presentation reinforced what I already believed was important in product development and shed light on how a product manager achieves this as the glue person. Understanding his role in product management and its challenges helped me understand the all-encompassing responsibility placed on a product manager to see a product from concept to development. I did my AODA certification a few years ago and continue to learn as much as possible as it relates to graphic design and digital media marketing. Mat has inspired me to keep updating my knowledge of accessibility and pay even closer attention to UX/UI design in the creation stage of product development.

The Pizza perks of being a product manager make the job even more enticing.

To learn more about Mat Krizmanich and Jouleia | LinkedIn