Product manager

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A product manager (PM) is a professional role that is responsible for the development of products for an organization, known as the practice of product management. Product managers own the product strategy behind a product (physical or digital), specify its functional requirements, and manage feature releases. Product managers coordinate work done by many other functions (like software engineers, data scientists, and product designers), and are ultimately responsible for product outcomes. [1] [2]

Contents

Definition

A product manager considers numerous factors such as the intended customer or user of a product, the products the competition offers, and how well the product fits with the company's business model. The scope of a product manager varies greatly, some may manage one or more product lines and others (especially in large companies) may manage small components or features of a product. [3]

In the financial services industry (banking, insurance, etc.), product managers manage financial products (for example, credit card portfolios), their profit and loss, and also determine the business development strategy. [4]

The term is often confused with other similar roles, such as:

Product management in software development

The role of the product manager was created to manage the complexity of the product lines of a business, as well as to ensure that those products were profitable. Product managers can come from many different backgrounds because their primary skills involve working well with customers and understanding the problems the product is intended to solve. [5]

A product manager is responsible for orchestrating the various activities associated with ensuring that a product is delivered that meets users' needs. A software product manager's role varies as the software moves through its lifecycle; earlier in the development process the product manager meets the intended audience of the product to engage in requirements elicitation, [6] whereas later in the lifecycle the product manager's primary focus may be on acceptance testing of the product. Throughout all the stages of the product development process, the product manager represents the needs of end-users, evaluates market trends and competition, and uses this information to determine what features to build. For example, a product manager may decide a feature is needed because users are asking for it, or because the feature is needed to stay competitive. To facilitate this decision-making process the product manager may set out a vision for the product or a general framework for making product decisions. The product manager also ensures an atmosphere of cohesiveness and focused collaboration between all the members of the team, all in the interest of driving the product forward. [7] Product managers are often thought of as sitting at the intersection of business, design, and technology.

Product owner in software development

Within an agile software development environment, product delivery responsibilities are taken on by a product owner, a project role that a product or engineering manager can perform to ensure the successful implementation of tactical plans and requirements during the development stage of a product. While the product manager has a strategic and long-term perspective with a strong focus on the market success of a product, a product owner aims to maximize the business value of the product or increment created by an agile project which can include benefits within an organization and does not explicitly relate to a product's marketability. Therefore, a product owner focuses mainly on developing a product and may limit their product owner's responsibilities to the duration of a project. The product manager role, in contrast, requires a long-term perspective of the market and product line.

The day-to-day responsibilities of a product owner within an agile project include creating and prioritizing the product backlog, which is a list of things to be done by the development team, to maximize the business value created by the project. [8] The product backlog is made up of user stories which are brief narrative descriptions of what a feature should do, including a checklist of items that are required to be in place for the feature to be considered done, called the acceptance criteria. The details of how the feature is developed are worked out by developers and designers. At the end of the development sprint, the product owner is responsible for verifying that the acceptance criteria have been met; only then is the work on the feature officially done. [9]

Product manager career progression

Product managers often start their careers as engineers or specialists in other functions and eventually transition to product management. Product managers undergo a structured interview process, often a mix of case-based product strategy interviews, analytical interviews, and more traditional behavioral interviews. Increasingly, large technology companies are hiring and training young graduates directly through programs like the Google Associate Product Manager program or the Facebook Rotational Product Manager program.

Individual contributor product managers have no direct reports: they "lead through influence" in a cross-functional product team. [10] As individuals grow in seniority, they eventually take on managing other PMs, under titles like Group Product Manager, Product Lead or Product Director. The Chief Product Officer (sometimes known as Head of Product or VP Product) is responsible for all product-related matters, including strategy, alignment, hiring, and management.

To reach a new level in professional development, product managers should improve data-driven skills: product analytics, unit economics, decision-making based on metrics, the ability to work with other departments, and financial skills. [11]

Because of the broad responsibilities, product management is often seen as a training ground for C-level leadership roles in technology companies. [12]

As product managers progress in their careers, they may go on to earn titles such as senior product manager, director of product management, vice president of product management, and chief product officer. [13]

Notable individuals

Notable individuals who have held the role of product manager include:

Product Management communities A way for career progression for product managers is to join communities. A lot of communities have started. Notable product management communities include ProductTank Lenny Rachiskvey and Friends Product School

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acceptance testing</span> Test to determine if the requirements of a specification or contract are met

In engineering and its various subdisciplines, acceptance testing is a test conducted to determine if the requirements of a specification or contract are met. It may involve chemical tests, physical tests, or performance tests.

Software documentation is written text or illustration that accompanies computer software or is embedded in the source code. The documentation either explains how the software operates or how to use it, and may mean different things to people in different roles.

In software development, a lead programmer is responsible for providing technical guidance and mentorship to a team of software developers. Alternative titles include development lead, technical lead, lead programmer, or lead application developer. When primarily contributing a low-level enterprise software design with focus on the structure of the app, e.g. design patterns, the role would be a software architect

A software company is an organisation — owned either by the state or private — established for profit whose primary products are various forms of software, software technology, distribution, and software product development. They make up the software industry.

Product management is the business process of planning, developing, launching, and managing a product or service. It includes the entire lifecycle of a product, from ideation to development to go to market. Product managers are responsible for ensuring that a product meets the needs of its target market and contributes to the business strategy, while managing a product or products at all stages of the product lifecycle. Software product management adapts the fundamentals of product management for digital products.

Software development is the process used to create software. Programming and maintaining the source code is the central step of this process, but it also includes conceiving the project, evaluating its feasibility, analyzing the business requirements, software design, testing, to release. Software engineering, in addition to development, also includes project management, employee management, and other overhead functions. Software development may be sequential, in which each step is complete before the next begins, but iterative development methods where multiple steps can be executed at once and earlier steps can be revisited have also been devised to improve flexibility, efficiency, and scheduling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Requirements analysis</span> Engineering process

In systems engineering and software engineering, requirements analysis focuses on the tasks that determine the needs or conditions to meet the new or altered product or project, taking account of the possibly conflicting requirements of the various stakeholders, analyzing, documenting, validating, and managing software or system requirements.

In engineering, a requirement is a condition that must be satisfied for the output of a work effort to be acceptable. It is an explicit, objective, clear and often quantitative description of a condition to be satisfied by a material, design, product, or service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Systems development life cycle</span> Systems engineering terms

In systems engineering, information systems and software engineering, the systems development life cycle (SDLC), also referred to as the application development life cycle, is a process for planning, creating, testing, and deploying an information system. The SDLC concept applies to a range of hardware and software configurations, as a system can be composed of hardware only, software only, or a combination of both. There are usually six stages in this cycle: requirement analysis, design, development and testing, implementation, documentation, and evaluation.

Agile software development is an umbrella term for approaches to developing software that reflect the values and principles agreed upon by The Agile Alliance, a group of 17 software practitioners in 2001. As documented in their Manifesto for Agile Software Development the practitioners value:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dynamic systems development method</span> Agile project delivery framework

Dynamic systems development method (DSDM) is an agile project delivery framework, initially used as a software development method. First released in 1994, DSDM originally sought to provide some discipline to the rapid application development (RAD) method. In later versions the DSDM Agile Project Framework was revised and became a generic approach to project management and solution delivery rather than being focused specifically on software development and code creation and could be used for non-IT projects. The DSDM Agile Project Framework covers a wide range of activities across the whole project lifecycle and includes strong foundations and governance, which set it apart from some other Agile methods. The DSDM Agile Project Framework is an iterative and incremental approach that embraces principles of Agile development, including continuous user/customer involvement.

In the context of software engineering, software quality refers to two related but distinct notions:

In software development and product management, a user story is an informal, natural language description of features of a software system. They are written from the perspective of an end user or user of a system, and may be recorded on index cards, Post-it notes, or digitally in specific management software. Depending on the product, user stories may be written by different stakeholders like client, user, manager, or development team.

Software product management is the discipline of building, implementing and managing digital products, taking into account life cycle, user interface and user experience design, use cases, and user audience. It governs the development cycle of a product from its inception to the market or customer delivery and service in order to maximize revenue. This is in contrast to software that is delivered in an ad hoc manner, typically to a limited clientele, e.g. service.[

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scrum (software development)</span> Management framework

Scrum is an agile team collaboration framework commonly used in software development and other industries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">V-model (software development)</span> Software development methodology

In software development, the V-model represents a development process that may be considered an extension of the waterfall model and is an example of the more general V-model. Instead of moving down linearly, the process steps are bent upwards after the coding phase, to form the typical V shape. The V-Model demonstrates the relationships between each phase of the development life cycle and its associated phase of testing. The horizontal and vertical axes represent time or project completeness (left-to-right) and level of abstraction, respectively.

In software engineering, a software development process or software development life cycle (SDLC) is a process of planning and managing software development. It typically involves dividing software development work into smaller, parallel, or sequential steps or sub-processes to improve design and/or product management. The methodology may include the pre-definition of specific deliverables and artifacts that are created and completed by a project team to develop or maintain an application.

Business requirements, also known as stakeholder requirements specifications (StRS), describe the characteristics of a proposed system from the viewpoint of the system's end user like a CONOPS. Products, systems, software, and processes are ways of how to deliver, satisfy, or meet business requirements. Consequently, business requirements are often discussed in the context of developing or procuring software or other systems.

Product marketing is a sub-field of marketing that is responsible for crafting the messaging, go-to-market flow, and promotion of a product. Product marketing managers can also be involved in defining and sizing target markets. They collaborate with other stakeholders including business development, sales, and technical functions such as product management and engineering. Other critical responsibilities include positioning and sales enablement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aha! (company)</span> American software company

Aha! is a cloud-based software company that provides product development software for companies in the United States and internationally. Aha! offers Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products for organizations to set strategy, ideate, plan, showcase, build, and launch new products and enhancements.

References

  1. ↑ Bavaro, Jackie; McDowell, Gayle Laakmann (2021). Cracking the PM career. Palo Alto, CA. ISBN   978-0984782895. OCLC   1239322919.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) foreword by Marissa Mayer
  2. ↑ McDowell, Gayle Laakmann; Bavaro, Jackie (2013). Cracking the PM interview: how to land a product manager job in technology. Palo Alto, CA. ISBN   978-0-9847828-1-9. OCLC   866799668.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ↑ Hampton, David R.; Summer, Charles E.; Webber, Ross A. (1982). Organizational behavior and the practice of management (4. ed.). Glenview, Ill: Scott, Foresman and Co. ISBN   978-0-673-15580-1.
  4. ↑ "Importance and Components of the Financial Services Sector". Investopedia. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  5. ↑ Greg Geracie (July 2010). Take Charge Product Management. Greg Geracie. pp. 16–17. ISBN   978-0-615-37927-2.
  6. ↑ Zieliński, Krzysztof; Szmuc, Tomasz (2005). Software Engineering: Evolution and Emerging Technologies (2nd printing. ed.). Amsterdam: IOS Press. pp.  215. ISBN   1-58603-559-2.
  7. ↑ Greg Cohen (2010). Agile Excellence for Product Managers: A Guide to Creating Winning Products with Agile Development Teams. Happy About. ISBN   978-1-60773-074-3.
  8. ↑ "What is a Product Owner?". Scrum.org. Retrieved 2019-10-18.
  9. ↑ Greg Cohen (2010). Agile Excellence for Product Managers: A Guide to Creating Winning Products with Agile Development Teams. Happy About. p. 57. ISBN   978-1-60773-074-3.
  10. ↑ "Influence Without Authority". General Assembly. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
  11. ↑ "Поймали звезду: как «Вечерний Ургант для продактов» выручил 50 млн руб. :". РБК Pro (in Russian). Retrieved 2024-07-05.
  12. ↑ Haden, Jeff (2017-04-17). "Want to Be a Great CEO? Be a Great Product Manager First". Inc.com. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
  13. ↑ "The Product Manager Career Path & How To Break Into the Field". ICAgile. Retrieved 2024-09-12.
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