What Twitter has to teach product managers

By now, everyone should know what Twitter is: the hugely popular Internet service that allows users to send messages that can be up to 140 characters long. Combine this with the ability to follow interesting people, forward what’s been posted, and use #hashtags to identify interesting content, and suddenly you have another one of those wildly successful internet businesses. Take a closer look at how Twitter works, though, and there may be some lessons in all of this for product managers to learn…

How to be more like Twitter

Twitter popularity should send several different messages to product managers. The way the product was designed has a lot to do with how popular it has become. Every product manager, no matter what type of product they’re responsible for, can emulate what the Twitter team has done. Twitter can show us things that should be included in our own definition of product development. Get this right, and you just might have something to add to your product manager resume. Here are the most important product features you should follow:

• Leave it open: The Twitter tool was designed from the beginning to be very open and available to its users. Twitter content is available and archived on the web for all to see. What Twitter’s product management team found is that if you make everything available to your customers, they may start using your product in ways you never anticipated. This can lead to additional ways to grow your market.
• Work anywhere: The Twitter service is considered “cross-platform,” which means it works on any computer, running any operating system. When designing your product, make sure you don’t limit who can use it or what infrastructure they need to have to become your customer.
• Being able to grow: Twitter could never have anticipated how fast and how big they would grow. However, their product design allowed this to happen. As product managers, we need to take the time to dream of a future where our product is hugely popular. What would we need to do to prepare for this to happen?

Learn how Twitter works

Twitter has not only been a well-designed product, but the functionality it offers has changed the way people communicate. As product managers, we need to understand that Twitter gives us a whole new tool that we can use to both listen to and engage with our customers. Here are several suggestions for how product managers can use Twitter to do this:

• Listen, listen, listen: One of the great features of Twitter is that it is easily searchable. As a product manager, you should take the time to search for it using product-related words and phrases. Listen to Twitter chats, create lists of people you’d like to become your customers, and keep an eye on your competition.
• Become valuable: Send (“tweet”) useful information related to your product and your market. Use Twitter to provide your prospects with invitations, incentives, and important product updates.
• Study: Analyze and track how your potential customers use Twitter. Get to understand how timing and the headlines you use influence the effectiveness of your tweets. Study what it takes to get your posts retweeted. Consider what level of community involvement you can achieve.
• Keep it real: When you exchange messages with your potential customers, make sure they know they’re talking to a human being. Use this to build trust with your customers.

What does all this have to do with you?

Twitter has become an overnight sensation. This Internet communication service came out of nowhere and has become part of many people’s daily lives. The way Twitter operates and the way people use it can provide product managers with insights into how to better manage their own products.

Although this is not yet part of your product manager’s job description, product managers should take steps to make their product emulate the best qualities of Twitter. This means they need to be very concise when talking about their products – cut out all the fluff. They need to make sure their products are open, cross-platform, and scalable. Plus, by watching how people use Twitter, product managers can learn more about how to make their products successful.

The Twitter phenomenon happened because Twitter filled a need that people didn’t know existed. Product managers need to take the time to learn from what Twitter has taught us. Embrace these Twitter-based suggestions and just maybe your product will become as popular as Twitter is.