“Balance” — Product Management in Facility and Property Management Domain.
Product management in the facility/property management world is definitely a niche area. Figuring out how to really nail it in this space is a big challenge. But let’s break it down with some basic rules:
Finding the Sweet Spot for Operational Efficiency
You can’t just rely on technology to achieve operational efficiency. To really excel, you need to get technology, people, and processes working together in perfect harmony.
Leadership plays a key role here. They need to set up processes and rules that make technology a core part of daily operations. The tech has to be user-friendly so the team on the ground can use it effectively. At the same time, people need to be motivated and engaged with the tech provided. I was notoriously hated for influencing the Top brass to include Technology and Monitoring as a part of KRAs for all the Operational Heads.
When technology, people, and processes work together smoothly, it’s all about Monitoring and Optimizing. But if any one of these parts is off-balance, it can cause problems. If you focus too much on tech, you might forget about the important stuff that actually gets done. And if you put people first without the right tools or a clear plan, things won’t run as smoothly as they should. And if you get too stuck on rules and procedures, you might stifle creativity and motivation. The key to making things work efficiently is finding the perfect mix of all three — tech, people, and processes. When they all work together, you’ll see real results.
Balancing User Needs vs. Customer Demands
The old saying “The customer is always right” holds true in that clients are investing in the technology or CMMS and expect it to meet their needs. But this doesn’t always mean they understand the day-to-day challenges faced by users — Operations Team. As a Product Manager, you have to find a balance between what customers want and what users need.
You need to strike the right balance where the product isn’t too flexible or too rigid. If it’s too flexible, users might get distracted from their main tasks, which defeats the purpose of the tech. If it’s too strict, users could get frustrated and demotivated, leading to inefficiencies.
Finding this balance means understanding both what the customer expects and what the users need. By doing this, you can ensure the technology does its job while meeting everyone’s expectations.
Mastering the Balance Between “Yes” and “No”
“Saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ can be tricky, especially when you’re trying to keep everyone happy. Users know what’s really going on and might not always follow the rules to a T. Customers want the best deal and like to brag about saving money. (Most of the cases, Since this is the only department in any company that cannot justify their presence by Sales or Revenue generated, but I have also worked with some genuine clientelle who care more about employees comfort above everything else.) To make good decisions, you need to be a master at balancing different needs.
Let me tell you about two situations I’ve been in.
One innocent customer wanted an email for every time a maintenance task is missed by the ground team. If I had agreed with him, I would have spent my time and resources to flood his mailbox with possibly 5328 mails in a single day. This is where I had to calm down and understand the poor chap’s need, which is nothing but his demand to monitor the ground team’s work efficiency at his site frequent enough so he can take some kind of action incase of any irregularity, so After a hard day of negotiating, we settled on sending a summary of missed tasks for each work shift. That way, they got the info they needed without being overwhelmed.
In another case, in one of my feedback session with the technicians revealed that OEM’s maintenance visits were frequently delayed and reports were submitted at least two weeks late. Despite the company’s international standards, this was the reality on the ground. To address this, I negotiated a compromise with the ground team and help them with a feature that facilitated flexibility of preponing or postponing the maintenance visits by two weeks and ease up on the maintenance report upload, accommodating the operational challenges while maintaining fairness for the team.
As I was making the point — “Balance” is the name of the game.
