QueryPie PM’s Work Smarts: Transforming into a True All-Rounder

QueryPie is positioning itself as a leader driving innovation in the field of database and server access control. We strive to offer the best experience for our customers through user-friendly features such as NoSQL support, seamless cloud synchronization, and smooth SSH access. At the heart of this innovation are QueryPie’s Product Managers. Our PMs deeply understand customer needs and work tirelessly every day, constantly thinking and moving to reflect those needs in our products.

This is How QueryPie PMs Work

We Listen to the Voice of the Customer (VoC)

The first step in addressing customer needs is through Jira. Customers can directly report improvement issues or bugs via the Jira Customer Portal. Alternatively, QueryPie partners may submit tickets on behalf of the customer. Once an issue is raised, it is immediately posted to a channel where all team members can view it. All team members take turns as on-call agents to check issues, but PMs actively monitor all issues related to their products, even outside of their on-call weeks. They keep an eye on new issues as they arise. The issues in Jira range from urgent problems to suggestions for better usability. PMs are responsible for understanding the essence of customer needs, interpreting the nuances of the customer’s intentions, and communicating them to developers and relevant departments.

We Identify In-Depth Requirements through PoC

As QueryPie’s customer base grows, particularly with larger-scale clients, the volume of requirements discovered during product introductions and PoCs is also increasing. These requirements may arise from unique problems in a customer's existing system or environment, or they may be common needs among enterprise clients. PMs are responsible for making decisions on how to incorporate these needs into QueryPie products. For a PM at QueryPie, one of the most valuable experiences is engaging directly with customers to discover their needs.🙂

To clearly understand customer requirements, PMs work through several rounds of meetings, PoC installations, performance tests, and feedback processes with technical leaders and staff. During this process, PMs must demonstrate various competencies. First and foremost, they must adopt a customer-centric attitude, thinking from the customer’s perspective and asking the right questions. Technical knowledge, understanding of security compliance requirements, audit practices, and domain expertise in security are all essential. Furthermore, experienced PMs also have the ability to persuade customers based on their understanding of technical and security trends. The reason QueryPie is trusted enough to be deployed next to our customers' core equipment is because of the exceptional skills and expertise of our PMs.

We Lead the Release Process

Once the requirements have been gathered through various methods, it's crucial to act quickly to incorporate them into the product. PMs play the role of release masters for the components within QueryPie. They clearly define the requirements for each component and communicate with the development and QA teams to ensure that features are developed and delivered successfully. They continuously monitor progress and coordinate the release timing. Within the product team, PMs serve as the single source of truth and act as Scrum Masters to ensure that development teams understand and solve problems independently.

Recently, as major features are being developed more rapidly, PMs have been working on a new version strategy to balance speed with stability. This has resulted in closer collaboration with the QA team to ensure the final quality of the product.

PM's Toolbox

As mentioned earlier, QueryPie’s PMs play a key role in quickly turning customer requirements into tangible product features. Now, let me introduce you to some indispensable tools that help PMs work faster and more efficiently.

Jira

This is where all requirements come together. Not only tickets raised by customers but also the requirements we discover during customer meetings are ultimately turned into Jira tickets and managed as tasks. Bugs discovered during QA and internal improvement issues are also managed via Jira. PMs input the priority and delivery schedules (release versions) for each requirement into Jira, centralizing all information. While it’s impossible for PMs to remember everything, the records left in Jira serve as a memory aid. Jira becomes the most reliable companion for PMs, ensuring a single source of truth for all tasks.

Slack

This is the most important communication tool within QueryPie. Internal communication, team collaborations, development projects, regular releases, and everything else are discussed on Slack. QueryPie PMs leverage Slack’s features to work smarter. By using public channels, they share the context of all communication and easily mention others when needed. It’s also the fastest space to get feedback when sharing decisions. While this style of communication may feel unfamiliar to newcomers, once you get used to it, you’ll realize just how convenient it is.

Figma

This is the space where planning becomes tangible. Although we also use Confluence, Figma is preferred for its more intuitive approach to communication, especially for visually designing and prototyping. QueryPie makes great use of the design system, and I’ve personally experienced the best use of Figma components here. Even PMs with a technical background who aren't familiar with design tools can quickly adapt. Additionally, utilizing Figma's comment and huddle features allows for close collaboration from the frontend perspective, enabling PMs to work closely with designers and frontend developers to refine the product’s quality.

QueryPie

This is where the work of a QueryPie PM begins and ends. From the moment they join, PMs work closely with QueryPie. Our in-house development servers, which are automatically deployed multiple times a day via CI/CD, various servers for version-based testing, and internal main servers, all run different versions of QueryPie. PMs regularly access these versions several times a day to test new features, review existing features, identify bugs, and validate issues.

Empowering PMs: Growth Support Programs at QueryPie

As mentioned earlier, QueryPie’s PMs require a unique skill set, including a deep understanding of technology and expertise in security domains. So, even amid the busy daily tasks, PMs must focus on enhancing their skills. The most helpful resource for this is our growth support programs.

QueryPie offers various opportunities to support PM growth. These include in-house technical study groups, where PMs can learn about product-specific technologies such as NoSQL, cloud architecture, and SSH protocols. We also invite external experts to conduct in-depth training on compliance topics such as ISMS, GDPR, and ISO 27001. These sessions are held periodically, and anyone with interest is welcome to participate.

All sessions are available online or offline, and past sessions are archived as videos, providing a wealth of high-quality educational material. Additionally, QueryPie covers expenses for PMs attending external technical conferences and online platforms like Inflearn, where they can take job-related courses. This ensures our PMs have access to a wide range of learning resources to continually improve their skills.😉

Wrapping Up

This article has provided a detailed look into how QueryPie PMs put in continuous effort to transform customer needs into products. By harmonizing soft skills like empathy, problem recognition, and leadership with hard skills such as technical knowledge, security expertise, and UX design, PMs focus on creating products that customers love. We want to highlight that QueryPie’s rapid growth is a testament to the abilities and dedication of our PMs.

Ultimately, what PMs value most is building products that help and are loved by customers. All the methods and tools are simply means to achieve this goal. QueryPie’s mission is to make access to corporate data safer and easier, and we strive to provide you with the harmonious experience of "easier and safer data access"—two values that seem difficult to reconcile but are core to what we aim to offer. We look forward to your continued interest and support. Thank you!