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A product manager role I wish I could have

I get a feeling that it should be an interesting challenge to simplify how Miro pricing works at present.

There was a fun question in a Slack workspace community—”Given a chance, on which product you will love to work as a product manager?” I saw many responses where people mentioned that they would love to work on Figma, Spotify, ESPN, Google Analytics, and Coinbase, as product managers.

The most common reasons were that they loved the product, the user base is huge, the product is likely to grow more, and they will get tons of real customers’ data to support their product strategy.

I did not respond because I was not sure of what category of product I would enjoy the most, and for what kind of challenges in the products or in their organization itself. Whether I will love to work on a growing product or in established product teams? Whether I will love working in data-heavy products or in public sector digital experience where you might need more subjective product judgment to complement the data sets?

Last week I saw a similar question on Twitter and now my mind was working. If you see my reply to the question below, I picked Miro, Slack, and Intercom, for specific reasons.

Miro pricing

I have often struggled to understand how Miro pricing works. I have seen it many times in the last four years and it was always complicated and unclear for what the pricing page wants to communicate. Every time I need to see or change my plan, I have to write to their support team. And every time whatever the support team explains to me, it is not obvious or clear on their pricing page.

This discussion happened in August 2020 and I ran into similar issues later too.

I do not know the complexities involved in the Miro pricing plans for how these are tied to the product stories but I get a feeling that it should be an interesting challenge to simplify it.

Slack—upgrade plans

I experienced a similar situation in a Slack workspace. I am part of the wonderful and amazing Content & UX Slack community and in February, I saw a notice as below.

The options to upgrade the Slack workspace plan are not clear, as posted by Vinish Garg.

When I click on See Upgrade Options, it takes me to the pricing page. I see the Pro plan and when I try to upgrade, it asks me to pay for all the members. I was surprised because the upgrade option is meant for the workspace owners or administrators who can upgrade the plan for all the members. I have joined this Slack only as a member and if you look at the message, it asks me to upgrade. It makes me think that I could upgrade it for myself only.

The options to upgrade the Slack workspace plan are not clear, as posted by Vinish Garg.

Intercom—account switching

I used Intercom for multiple clients—as a Help Center strategist, an onboarding strategist, and as Support Center consultant. One time I was working for two different clients at the same time, in their company’s Intercom account. It was not a good experience for some strange reason, Intercom mixed my two accounts.

It is a long and complicated story but to cut it short—Intercom mixed my two accounts, and then another (third account), in the client’s workspace. Yes, it is hard to believe but it happened, and it was not a browser-cache issue.

An email communication with Intercom customer support, as shared by Vinish Garg.

After a long cycle of emails and exchanging screenshots and accounts’ details, I don’t know how they fixed it.

An example of Intercom support emails, shared by Vinish Garg.

Vimeo

I do not have a specific experience that makes me want to work with Vimeo. The brand and the product are inspiring; I like their focus, their trajectory (the public view as I do not have any metrics to support it), and for the way they have made their space and the market.

Any product manager role that you want to take up?

Which products excite you for a possible senior role in product management. Or, a senior role in UX, design, content, or marketing where you get to work closely with the product managers? Tweet to me if you have any.

This topic is part of my advanced course in product content strategy, content design, and UX Writing. See the course details for how we can find and add more meaning to our work.

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Vinish Garg

Vinish Garg

I am Vinish Garg, and I work with growing product teams for their product strategy, product vision, product positioning, product onboarding and UX, and product growth. I work on products for UX and design leadership roles, product content strategy and content design, and for the brand narrative strategy. I offer training via my advanced courses for content strategists, content designers, UX Writers, content-driven UX designers, and for content and design practitioners who want to explore product and system thinking.

Interested to stay informed about my work, talks, writings, programs, or projects? See a few examples of my past newsletters—All things products, Food for design, Inviting for 8Knorks. You can subscribe to my emails here.

Vinish Garg is an independent consultant in product content strategy, content design leadership, and product management for growing product teams.Â