"When an organization is mature enough, it’ll start focusing on how to capture talent early on. Since qualified product managers can be difficult to acquire, organizations use the associate product manager role to bring junior talent into the company. From there, they then train them into the product manager that they need."

"In other cases, organizations may find that their existing PMs don’t have enough bandwidth, but that filling an additional product management role is overkill. In these instances, hiring an associate product manager makes sense from an output and a budgetary perspective."

"Some companies promote their associate product managers based on tenure, e.g. after 2 years or after 3 years."

"What is an associate product manager?"

"Associate product managers hold many of the same responsibilities that product managers do: collecting quantitative product data and metrics, synthesizing customer research, gathering requirements, and coordinating with stakeholders."

"In terms of product responsibility, associate product managers generally work on features for a mature product, instead of working on the product itself."

"When an organization is mature enough, they’ll start focusing on how to capture talent early on. Especially since qualified product managers can be difficult to acquire, organizations use the associate product manager role to bring junior talent into the company, then train them into the product manager that they need."

"How can I get into this role?"

"You’ll need to demonstrate that you know how to ship a product and how to prioritize conflicting needs and requests."

"You’ll want to showcase previous experiences where you learned quickly from past failures, and you’ll want to highlight your ability to empathize with customers, engineers, and other stakeholders."

"Generally speaking, the associate product manager role is targeted at candidates coming right out of college, since associate product managers are compensated less than product managers."

"Your product’s value to the customer is your benefit-to-cost ratio, also known as return on investment (ROI)."

"One of the most significant costs associated with products is the switching cost, also known as adoption cost."

"Let’s define switching cost as “the time, money, effort, and emotional cost associated with switching usage from one product to another.”"

"Financial Switching Costs"

"For example, annual subscriptions impose financial switching costs."

"Another example to consider is rewards points."

"Yet another example to consider is the time cost associated with switching products, which is an implied financial cost."

"Procedural Switching Costs"

"While this is just a minor difference, it means that any user who tries to use Firefox right after using Chrome needs to spend mental energy to reorient themselves."

"Procedural switching costs are even more dramatic in B2B products, where there are entire processes built around the usage of a particular product."

"Relational Switching Costs"

"Relational switching costs can be split into two different kinds: the relationships you lose when you move from one product to another, and the identity change you must make when you affiliate yourself with a different brand."

"Humans are inherently social animals, and we fear losing our relationships - that explains why people stick to whatever social media platform they started with."

"Identity costs are correlated with brand loyalty and brand strength. Using non-tech examples, think about Pepsi versus Coke, or McDonald's versus Burger King."

"The value that your product provides is the ratio of its benefits versus its costs."

"Switching costs are one of the major costs associated with any product. In fact, there are 3 major types: financial, procedural, and relational switching costs."

"How might we use switching costs to drive more value from our product?"

"Decrease the cost your customer must pay to switch to your product"

"Increase the cost your customer must pay to switch to competitors"

"If you increase the cost to switch to competitors, you are diluting your competitors’ value."

"1. Decreasing the Cost to Switch to Your Product"

"reducing the switching cost to your product is inherently a sales tactic."

"2. Decreasing Financial Switching Costs"

"Another way to reduce financial switching costs is to make it incredibly time-effective to set up."

"Notice how our switching cost classifications aren’t mutually exclusive - data importer features also decrease relational costs"

"Data importers aren’t sexy features, but they’re incredibly valuable!"

"3. Decreasing Procedural Switching Costs"

"To reduce procedural costs, think carefully about your in-product onboarding."

"You can also provide out-of-product help through services and support."

"Yet another strategy for reducing procedural switching costs is by using familiar UX patterns in your product."

"4. Decreasing Relational Switching Costs"

"Whenever a user switches brands, they pay a psychological cost no matter what."

"That being said, we’ll address relational switching costs in the context of increasing the cost to switch to competitors."

"5. Increasing the Cost to Switch to Competitors"

"Increasing the switching cost away from your product is inherently a retention tactic."

"6. Increasing Financial Switching Costs"

"Gamification is another way to think about “rewards”, even if they are not financial. As an example, health apps know how critical it is to gamify their experience with achievements, streaks, badges, and leaderboards."

"7. Increasing Procedural Switching Costs"

"Another way to introduce high procedural switching costs is to integrate multiple features with one another to create an ecosystem."

"For example, Salesforce does a fantastic job of increasing cost to switch - their lead tracking CRM is paired with a Sales Cloud that enables salespeople to actually work the leads and a Cloud that enables support folks to nurture leads that aren’t yet ready."

"8. Increasing Relational Switching Costs"

"To introduce high relational costs, build a strong brand."

"Human beings are inherently emotional, and they associate the products they use with their own identities."

"Furthermore, you can enhance a person’s identity alignment through certifications and badges."

"Another way to introduce high relational costs is to create a community."