Introduction

Who are product managers and what do they even do? Do you need them? You have engineers who develop the product. A design team that makes sure it has a great user experience, looks and feels great. Marketing people are they to ensure people know about the product. Salespeople to get money in the door right. What else do you need in a company? Well perhaps if you have a great engineering team but still having issues shipping a great product then perhaps the product manager is what’s missing from the mix.

Who is a Product Manager?

A product manager is a person that represents the customer inside a company. They are the voice of the users who are going to purchase or use the product. No one buys a product because they want to give the company money. Customers buy and use products because the products address their needs. The main goal of any product manager is to make the customer be awesome at what they do using a particular product.

A product manager is able to understand the user’s specific problem and be able to articulate what success looks like for a product. Product managers typically works in the 3 core disciplines: user experience, technology & business. Product managers set goals, define success, help motivate teams, and are also responsible for the outcome.

Responsibilities of a Product Manager

Specific responsibilities vary depending on the size of the organization. Typically a product manager will spend their time in the core disciplines mentioned above on a handful of tasks like

• Understanding and scoping user needs.
• Perform market analysis and derive a competitive advantage.
• Defining a vision for a product.
• Aligning all stakeholders around the mission of the product.

Product Manager vs. Product Owner vs Project Manager

While it might be confusing, these roles are different even though their responsibilities might overlap from time to time. While a product manager might define the direction of the product, the product owner would work more closely with the development team to execute against the goals that the product manager helps to define, especially in an agile setup.

The Product Manager often interacts with a lot more external stakeholders. Product owners will interact mostly with internal stakeholders. Product managers help define the vision. Product owners help to execute that vision. Product managers might look at what success looks like. Product owners help to define plans to achieve that success. Project managers are responsible for the on-time delivery and tracking of a project. They have the ability to execute and influence the timelines, break down milestones into manageable tasks, and be more operations-focused.

All these roles work together to achieve the desired outcome.

Closing

No two product managers are alike. They come from different backgrounds. Some are fresh from university. Some are career-long experts who perhaps came from a more technical role. While depending on the company product managers may describe varied responsibilities. In all, product managers share a core function: drive the development of products and ultimately be responsible for the success of those products.