Working with Strata, Part 1: Product Management

A common question we hear is: “Why do I need product management? Can’t we just start coding?”

Our answer: Software that generates ROI is far more than just working code—it’s about solving the right problems and doing it effectively. When you do it right, you get something your customers love. You get a return on your investment.

Product Management is critical in getting things done right. Great PMs will challenge you on the details, communicate clearly and with regularity, and maintain quality practices from start to finish.

We’ll ask tough questions to get the outcome right

PM is an overloaded acronym: sometimes it means Project Manager, sometimes Product Manager. Project Managers handle scope, deliverables, risks, and communication to ensure projects meet their goals. Their job is to deliver the requirements. Product Managers think about products holistically: balancing user experience, business requirements, and technology. They still have to guide a project from idea to launch, but they’re also accountable for the requirements and the outcomes. 

Product Managers think about what should be built—and then they think about how to get it done. They can only make this happen if they deeply understand the needs of your business first.

Before a Strata project starts, your Product Manager will document why the project matters using our own variant of the Lean Canvas, capturing the vision and key success metrics. 

They’ll ask a lot of questions (including: Why should we build this now?). You’ll get questions you can’t answer! But we’ll also help you find those answers. Your PM will continue to push you to make thoughtful decisions throughout the process, and they’ll keep everyone on target through to launch: making sure important choices aren’t confused by recency bias or groupthink.

Your PM will never leave you in the dark

Your Product Manager will remain the most important point of contact throughout your project. You’ll work with designers, developers, and quality assurance specialists, but you’ll always have one person you can call when you need them—and who’s going to call on you when it counts.

We make that easy with processes and tools:

• We build out a clear scope of work prior to anything being done, so goals and outcomes are clear. And we don’t start until everyone agrees.
• At kickoff, we set up real-time channels for rapid collaboration (e.g., Slack or Teams). 
• We block out regular check-ins with your team so you know what’s happening and can steer the ship. We send Status Reports on the same frequency, so you get it in writing, too. 
• Inside our team, we use custom-built templates to ensure the communication from sales to product owner is crisp. 
• We design and architect using standard tools like Miro, FigJam and Figma, and we manage development using Jira.
• We manage quality assurance with platforms like TestRail and Selenium.

We’ve been doing this a while: we're consistent and detailed. When work moves across teams or people, it’s frictionless.

All this means there’s less chance of a conversation forgotten, a requirement missed, a hand-off fumbled, a show-stopping bug in production. You're always on top of what we're doing now plus what's coming next.

We block time for quality and we’re transparent with the results

No release goes live without proper quality management. Our up-front questions may challenge you, but the answers map directly to Done Criteria, which makes testing crystal clear.

The second we break the work into features, we begin to build checklists and test plans. Strata’s dedicated Quality Assurance leaders do this from the start so that as we expand concepts into code, we can also work backwards from code to outcomes. Depending on your needs, we’ll variously define unit, integration, functional, regression, acceptance, accessibility, compatibility testing—manually or automated.

When QA is done, we'll share detailed release notes and test execution reports. These document functionality, what was tested, and how the product performed. Release notes are especially useful for both testing and training—easily adapted for your team and your customers.

When everything passes, we'll conduct a formal hand-off to demo the product and confirm it meets its goals. When everyone is satisfied we'll launch to production and train your team. 

If you need support post-production—either monitoring for issues for a short time, guiding the product through audits, or as a long-term resource—we’ll be there, too.

PM is invisible but essential

Product Management is easy to overlook because its impact is seen through the work of others. You can’t do anything without development, and it's hard to see where you're going without a design, but you won’t hit your goals without a strong Product Manager. Strata uses best practices, industry-standard tools, and customized tools to deliver ROI, on time and within budget, while meeting your goals. 

If you want to build something—even if it’s in-house—give us a call. We can help with a quick project review to help you get started, free of charge.

James Barr founded Strata Research in 2019 so he could study Product Managers in their natural habitat.