The day-to-day work of a product manager varies over the course of the product life cycle. At the beginning, you'll be figuring out what to build; in the middle you'll help the team make progress; at the end you'll be preparing for the launch.
產品經理的日常工作是隨着產品處於的不同時期變化的。在產品開始階段，你需要弄清楚應該做什麼；在開發中的時候，你需要幫助團隊去取得進展，最後，你需要準備好發佈所需的東西。
While the product life circle varies by company (and sometimes even by team), it usually follows a general pattern of Research&Plan, Design, Implement&Test, and Release. Of course, these frequently overlap and feed back into each other.
然後產品開發週期流程是隨着公司變化的（有時候甚至隨着不同組變化），一般情況下，由調研計劃、設計、開發測試和發佈幾個步驟組成。當然，這些步驟經常重疊和反向。
Some companies or team split the product manager role across two people: the more business- focused person and more engineering-focused person. When companies make this split, they call the engineering-focused person the technical program manager or technical product manager(TPM), and they call the business-focused person the product manager(PM).
有些公司和團隊會把產品經理分成兩個角色：一個更多關注業務，另一個更關注工程。如果公司按照這個分了的話，偏重於工程的角色會被稱爲技術產品經理（TPM），稱呼更側重業務的角色爲產品經理（PM）
When a team has a TPM and a PM, the product manager focuses on Research & Planning and Release, while the technical product manager is more focused on Design and Implement &Test. For example, the product manager will research the market and define the requirements. The TPM will work with the PM to translate those requirements into the specific feature work required, and then facilitate the engineering team as they build it.
當一個團隊中同時有TPM和PM後，PM會關注與需求研究&計劃和發佈，TPM會更關注設計和研發測試。例如，PM會調研市場並定義用戶需求，TPM將會和PM一起將這些用戶需求轉變爲開發所需要的功能，進而驅使工程團隊去完成實現。
Research & Planning
All products and features start with research and planning. This is the time when the PM is starting to think about what to build next. The next idea may come from a customer request, competitive analysis, new technology, user research, the sales or marketing teams, brainstorming, or big vision for the product.
調研和計劃
所有的產品和功能都是從調研和計劃開始的。這是產品經理開始思考接下來做什麼的時候。下一步的想法可能來自一個用戶的請求、競品分析、新技術、用戶研究、銷售的反饋，腦暴後者是對於產品的大的願景。
Depending on the scope of the role, a bit part of the product manager's job in this phase is creating or proposing a roadmap. This means figuring out a cohesive long-term plan for the team. The PM talks to all possible sources to create a large list of potential features or development work. Then, based on factors like customer needs, the competitive landscape, business needs, and the team's experience, he prioritizes the features and scenarios.
根據產品經理的能力範圍，在這個產品階段的產品經理的主要工作就是創造或者提出一個產品的藍圖。這意味着必須爲團隊提出一個統一的長期計劃。PM需要和所有潛在的需求源溝通，然後列出一系列潛在的需求和優化工作。然後還需要依據，用戶的需求，競品的情況，商業需求和團隊經驗，指出所列需求的優先級。
Once the PM has a proposed roadmap, he needs to bring other people on board. Some companies, such as Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon, have a top-down approval process, where executives and directors get involved very early. Other companies, such as Google, Facebook, and many startups, have a bottom-up approach, where the PM focuses on winning over engineers.
一旦PM有了一個產品的藍圖，他需要讓所有其他人都明白和理解。一些公司，比如微軟、蘋果和亞馬遜，有着一套自上而下的流程，產品經理會像非常早的向經理和總監們描述。還有一些公司，比如谷歌，facebook和很對創業公司，有着從下往上的通道，產品經理會更優先去說服工程師。
Once he's chosen a feature set, the product manager becomes the expert on them. He'll think deeply about the problem he's trying to solve and the goals of features. In the coming phases, everyone on the team will have questions, including "Why are we woking on this?", and the PM will need to have answers.
一旦選擇了功能列表，產品經理就會變成團隊的專家。他將需要深入思考他嘗試解決的問題的目標和功能是什麼。在接下來的產品階段中，團隊中所有的人都要可能問PM類似於“爲什麼我們做這個東西”這樣的問題，PM必須能夠回答好。
This is also the time when the PM starts defining success. He'll envision what the world looks like if the team is successful. Many companies use the model of Objective and Key Results (OKRs) to communicate the most important goals of the team. In this model, the PM works with the team to come up with measurable results that it can commit to.
這同樣是PM定義什麼是成功的時機。他需要想象出如果取得了成功，應該會是怎麼樣的情況。很多公司利用OKR的方式在團隊裏進行重要目標的溝通。在這個模型裏，PM需要和團隊預期提出可被衡量的重要結果。