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Writer's pictureHarshal Patil

What is "Identify User Problems" in Product lifecycle for your Product Manager Resume?

Highlight Your Skills In Identifying User Problems On Your Resume


A product manager’s first phase in the product lifecycle is identifying user problems. If you want to increase the odds of your resume getting shortlisted for Product Management interviews, you want to highlight all 9 phases of the product lifecycle on your resume.

In this phase, product managers recognize specific problems that they can address to improve the user experience.

9 phases of the Product Management lifecycle with the current phase highlighted

Methods For Identifying User Problems

We will describe a few methods for identifying user problems to help you showcase your skills in this area.


1. Social Listening:


Product managers can check discussions on social media platforms like Reddit, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat. Communities, Forums, and Stackoverflow are other places to listen to user chatter. Users often share their experiences with a product, highlighting what they like and any gaps or issues they face.


2. Feedback from Sales, Support, and Customer Success Teams:


These teams constantly communicate with customers. So they can provide valuable insights into user problems. They may bring up pains users face and the workarounds they have devised. Or mention supplementary products that customers use to handle issues.


3. Chat Transcripts, Error Logs, and Usability Issues:


Product managers can review their users’ interactions with the product through chat transcripts, error logs, and usability issue logs. Their review helps them identify problems that users face while using the product.


4. UX Research and User Interviews:


Product managers can conduct user interviews to unravel user problems. These could be by working with a UX researcher or on their own. Even if the interview focuses on a different topic, users may mention other issues with the product.


5. Competitor Audits:


Product managers can analyze competitor products to identify pain points their product might share. If a competitor highlights feature X to solve problem Y, it may suggest that your customers face problem Y too. Illustration from June UX.

 various methods to identify user problems to add to your idea backlog or funnel

Keywords For Highlighting Strengths In Identifying User Problems


To showcase your expertise in identifying user problems on your product manager resume, consider using the following keywords:


  1. identify

  2. customer segment

  3. user need

  4. user research

  5. competition

  6. problem

  7. market trend

  8. feature gap

  9. concept

  10. forum

  11. support request

  12. support query

  13. user problem

  14. feature request


You don’t need to write exactly one of these because variations of these would also emphasize your skills. For example, “user need”, “needs of users”, or “customer needs”, all highlight your strengths in this area.


Is Your Resume Highlighting Your Skills In Identifying User Problems?

Get resume feedback tailored to PM job applications, a video walkthrough of your results, and suggestions to improve your resume here: Product Management Resume Checker | Spark Creative Technologies.


You have your personalized output from the resume checker but want to edit your resume further? Use the Product Manager Resume Editor here.



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