How Strategic is Product Management?
In a recent post on his blog, Product Management Consultant, Derick Workman, poses the question “What is the Purpose of Product Management?” I certainly agree the premise of the post; that Product Managers must focus on strategy, as opposed to just being task doers. I would, however, emphasize more strongly the strategic nature of the position. Product Management is not only about executing strategy, but also about formulating strategy. While Executive Management determines the company mission & vision, the Product Manager must translate these goals into measurable strategic goals for the product or brand. The Product Manager should act as the General Manager of the product/brand, and should have P&L responsibility for his/her product.
Before the many tactical activities of Product Management can begin, Product Managers must identify the people in the market for who the company’s product will create value. They must identify and articulate the specific problems the company’s products will solve for these customers. They must validate the many assumptions made in the business plan about the market size, application of technology, cost of production, and the profit potential of the product. From here, the more tactical activities discussed in Derick’s post flow naturally. If the Product Manager is not involved in the strategic activities I mention above they are performing project management - not product management.
In many organizations, this role may be titled “Director of Product Management” or possibly “Director of Product Strategy” rather than “Product Manager,” but regardless of the title, this is the complete scope of Product Management in my opinion. I believe that more companies are embracing this complete view of Product Management because it creates clear accountability for the success or failure of the product. Product Management is ultimately the “one throat to choke” and Executive Management tends to like such an arrangement.
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Comments
Many of these activities are traditionally the domain of Marketing. In fact, Seth Godin seems to be making this exact point in his recent blog: http://tinyurl.com/b8sr3n. I’m curious what you feel the role of marketing is.
Hi David, You and Seth make a good argument for placing Product Management under the CMO. But perhaps this question deserves a post of its own.
Product managers have an expansive job. While it might seem ideal to be a “real” boss of marketing or engineering, that actually descopes the product managers job and makes them less responsible.
Product managers can do project management, but they might not have to. They certainly can do it at the level of a rollup and leave the subprojects to the appropriate line manager.
Product managers can do the technical and marketing aspects of the job, or they can work in an organization where they hold the technical responsibilities and the product marketing manager holds the marketing responsibilities. It depends on how big they company happens to be and what they can afford. The startup guys have always done everything. Why would I want to do less? Oh, maybe I can sleep nights.
Great post, Nathan - and very true.
I find it to be very difficult to mesh the two aspects of the role well (strategic and tactical). When you are PdM in such small companies as I have been in the past, it’s tough.
You always need to jump around doing a bunch of different things; it’s easy to get in to firefighting mode, but tough to pull you head out of the sand and look around - especially when most of the folks you work with are still in day-to-day firefighting mode.
I’m much more conscious of this now than I was when I first started out - but that doesn’t make it any less difficult to stay on top of.
I love the distinction between product and project management. I believe it is very important for product managers to be responsible for formulating the product strategy based on thier analysis of the market,competitors, organizational competencies, and overall corporate strategy. They are then responsible for executing that strategy. Too often we find product managers, who are not given that authority and are really acting as project managers for the product release.
Adam, it’s a long road indeed. After reading my blog, an interviewing hiring manager asked me if I was one of those “theory guys” (and he didn’t mean it as a compliment). Clearly there is a substantial expectation that product managers be strong in their tactical contributions.
We must make time for strategic activities, and we must make the product of that effort visible to your manager. Failing that, we’ll will be stuck fighting fires and carrying the sales guy’s briefcase.
Keep fighting the good fight!
Its interesting that Product Management is now being considered as subject matter for the executive schools. http://mitsloan.mit.edu/execed/pdf/2009planningcalendar.pdf
shows 5 out of 22 courses centered on Product Management. That’s 22% of the courses offered. 28% under the category of Strategy and Innovation.
It appears your not the only one wanting to recognize the strategic nature of Product Management.