What is Product Management?
While product management has been around a long time, it’s only in more recent years that the role has become more popular. More and more the business world is embracing the value of product managers, and yet the role still often goes misunderstood.
In this post we hope to clear up any confusion about what product management is, what exactly product managers do, and the immense value they bring to their organizations.
What is Product Management?
Product management is the craft of strategically developing a company’s products, seeing that product introduced to the market, and supporting the product once in the market. Product managers are not the engineers, designer, developer, etc. that creates the product, but they will interact with all those parties to oversee the product’s development, launch, and support.
“Product management is not just a role, it’s a mission. It’s about guiding a product’s journey from conception to realization, bringing together the talents of diverse teams, and aligning them towards a shared vision. It’s about understanding our customers so deeply that we don’t just meet their expectations, we redefine them.”
Dean Peters
Principal Consultant & Trainer, 280 Group
Product Management is a critical strategic driver in a company. It can make a huge impact in terms of whether products, as well as the entire company, succeed or fail in both the short and long term. It’s the only role in a company that grasps all aspects of the business, including customers, the market, competition, trends, strategy, business models, and more. As such, great Product Management makes great companies.
What is a Product Manager?
A Product Manager is in charge of managing products for an organization by acting as a center hub that all other stakeholders surrounding the product would work with and through. Our own Product Pro, Joe Ghali, explains it this way:
“You know how at the grocery store, there is an ice cream aisle and there are these different brands and flavors of ice cream? Well, a product manager is someone who works for the specific brand of ice cream and decides which flavors to make. They look at the most popular flavors, they listen to customers, watch their competitors and look for trends in the market place. Then, they partner with the folks that actually make the ice cream to decide which flavors to make first. At the same time, they partner with marketing to decide how to build and design the carton of ice cream so that it stands out among all the options available.”
Joe Ghali
Principal Consultant & Trainer, 280 Group
Product Managers are often defined as being the “voice of the customer” within an organization, meaning their role is to understand the customer’s problems and needs so well that they can speak as though they are the customer to all the parties involved in developing, marketing, and supporting the product.
What Does a Product Manager Do?
A Product Manager’s job is to understand the needs of their customers and find a way to connect that to the desired outcomes for the business. Product Pro, Todd Blaquiere, explains it this way:
“Product management is the connection between business results and customer value. Great product management is finding ways to continually improve the lives of your customers while ensuring that it benefits your business as well. It’s creating win-win strategies. This is why at the heart of good product management is a deep understanding of your market and a focus on delivering outcomes., launch, and support.”
Todd Blaquiere
Principal Consultant & Trainer, 280 Group
Product Managers are often defined as being the “voice of the customer” within an organization, meaning their role is to understand the customer’s problems and needs so well that they can speak as though they are the customer to all the parties involved in developing, marketing, and supporting the product.
What Is NOT Product Management?
Product Management can almost sound all-encompassing, and to make it more clear it can be helpful to define what it is not. Product Pro, Ryan Cantwell, prefers to define Product Management this way.
“Product Management is not:
…ProJECT Management. A product manager is not responsible for on time delivery, managing project budgets, and tracking milestones. They need to be laser focused on feeding the development machine with high value opportunities, and then tracking user value realization after developing is complete. Everything in-between those two activities is ProJECT management.
…Working on the latest fire. Product managers are too often bogged down by fly-in requests for urgent, but unimportant, things. This prevents them focusing on their core purpose: Developing a firm understanding of who your users are and why they have a problem worth solving.
…an individual sport. Product managers have authority over no one but need to influence everyone! That makes product management a team sport. Product managers need to be good people leaders that inspire others and motivate them to action.
…a technical expert. A product manager is an expert on the customer and the value your product creates for them. They do NOT need to know the details of the underlying technology or architecture. However, they do need to know who to go to for answers when technical questions come up.
…a “yes” person. Product managers need to constantly challenge the status quo, push back on assumptions, and ask “why?”. This is the value they bring to the organization; it prevents people from falling in love with solutions and refocuses attention on creating value for the user, which leads to value for the business.”
Ryan Cantwell
Principal Consultant & Trainer, 280 Group
Why is Product Management Important?
While Product Management and Product Management related roles continue to grow, some still ask the question, “why is product management important?” Once again, our experts weigh in:
“Product management is important because it’s the heartbeat of a company. It’s about seeing the unseen, seizing opportunities that others overlook, and making decisions that shape not just the product, but the future of the company. It’s about creating products that don’t just satisfy the needs of today, but anticipate and shape the needs of tomorrow. It’s about making a dent in the universe.”
Dean Peters
Principal Consultant & Trainer, 280 Group
“There are all these important decisions that companies have to make everyday and it’s sometimes quite complex and overwhelming. Product management brings sanity and common sense to the table when it comes to making these decisions. Product management brings in a discipline thats focuses on the needs of the customer while also leveraging multiple data points to determine how an organizations resources should best be allocated.”
Joe Ghali
Principal Consultant & Trainer, 280 Group
“Product management isn’t important if all it does is manage a list of “requirements” from stakeholders and spit out features based on a calendar. This view of product management discolors the domain. Product management done well delivers tangible benefits to your company that you can measure in the form of growth, market share, revenue, profit, and brand loyalty.”
Todd Blaquiere
Principal Consultant & Trainer, 280 Group
“Product management is important because they draw the connection between the value the product delivers to the customer and how that, in return, creates value for the business. This makes them a business leader who helps shape strategy and ensures business growth through the products they manage. Without them, or good use of them, you risk losing focus on outcomes and favoring outputs.”
Ryan Cantwell
Principal Consultant & Trainer, 280 Group
Get Started as a Product Manager
Do you want to get started in product management? Or are you a product manager wanting to grow their skills? We’re here to help! 280 Group is dedicated to transforming Product Managers and teams to become the best version of themselves. Get started today by downloading the 280 Group Product Management Starter Pack!
The 280 Group Product Management Starter Pack
Get started with the Product Management tools that will put you on the path to achieving real outcomes. Get our Product Management Starter Pack now, for completely free.
About the Author
Cameron Lanier
Director of Content, 280 Group
Cameron Lanier is the Director of Content at 280 Group. In that role he takes the lead on all content strategy and production as part of the 280 Group’s overall marketing efforts.
Cameron has a strong background in content marketing, with over 15 years in strategizing and producing content for clients around the globe including Coca Cola, Ragnar Relay, EdWeek.org, Gamma Electronics, and more. Cameron holds a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Media Studies from Arizona State University, and is based in Raleigh, North Carolina.
