Many product managers make the mistake of thinking that a product is simply its user interface.
This is wrong.
Every single customer touchpoint is important. Emails, notifications, customer support calls, customer presentations, ads etc. It is ALL part of the product.
As a PM, you may not be responsible for every customer touchpoint, but that doesn’t matter. Your product is not what it looks like and what it does; your product is what it helps your users to do and how it makes them feel.
Therefore, every interaction matters. Every interaction that a user has with your business will impact how they feel about your product.
If a customer spends an hour stuck on hold with customer support, you bet they will have a lesser opinion of your product afterwards. Your product may not have changed, but their perception of it has.
You may be thinking - “my job is to ship great software. I can’t worry about those other parts of the business”. Well, your customers couldn’t care less about who is responsible for what. They care about what your product does for them. How it makes them feel. All of their interactions with your business will impact this.
Internalising this fact is one of the fastest ways to becoming a more strategic, effective product manager.
Remember - the whole experience is the product.