What is Product Management
Defining what Product Management is very hard, I don’t have a concrete answer.
For a long time, I have been trying to build a definition which I like, but I realized, I will never get to it because it is different things at different places and times. Which is why we hear of zero to one PMs, growth PMs, process PMs, Technical PMs, etc. What I have instead, are multiple answers, all of which sound right.
Then there are definitions given by veterans of the Industry
- Shape up by Ryan Singer
- A PM is responsible for ensuring that what gets built is both valuable and viable by Marty Cagan
What is the Job of Product Manager
The job of a PM in the real world varies by the company, the time, and the position of the Product Manager.
For every This is what a PM does there will be an example of an organization which states the opposite
Some common examples are
- PMs don’t do design
- PMs don’t need to code
- PMs don’t need to participate in marketing or sales
- PMs don’t need to be analysts
- PMs don’t work on solutions
In the real world, the hand you are dealt is rarely the hand you want.
- If you have better design sense than the rest of the company, and the company does not have the budget for a designer what do you do?
- What if you are working on a product for developers? Would you not want to try your own product? What about pulling data and insights from a database? Or writing scripts to automate your job?
- What if Sales and Marketing struggle to sell your product? What if the product is too technical for them? If your product does not get into the hands of the consumers, how will your product succeed?
- What if your company can’t afford an analyst?
- What if you have more experience than your team in the problem space? You would still point them in the right direction right? or stop them from doing the wrong thing.
Yes, there are many IFs mentioned above, but getting your product to succeed is a lot of ifs and buts.
Definition (which fits most of the times)
The Job of a Product Manager is to make the product successful and derive value from it for the company.
How Product Management varies by Role Seniority
If you are lower in the org chart, you are more likely doing “Grass Root” level Product Management which includes Continuous Discovery, Continuous Interviews. You are a part of the tech team’s daily stand-ups keeping track of what is being built and representing the customer. You are also managing and constantly grooming the backlog.
If you are higher in the org chart, you are trying to align all the PMs under you, driving larger impact initiatives and strategy.
It is always conditional!
As mentioned in the earlier section, Product Management is always conditional based on the situation you are in. One of the first jobs of Product Manager is to understand the hand they are dealt.
To learn more about what a PMs Job can be, check the “PM’s Job Is” section in the left Nav Bar.
