Busting the myth of Product Manager

There are a lot of perceptions on what a PM should and shouldn’t be. I’ve talked to several people and asked if they have an understanding of what a PM does. The consensus is that they have an idea so I have collected several “myths” and will try to break them down below.

Myth 1

A PM single-handedly define the feature that need to be built in a product

Fact:

PM define where the product will go, feature will then be aligned within the track

PM main artifact are roadmap — Not feature list — and a good roadmap should be able to show the reader what are the problem that their product trying to solve. Features are the personification that will help product to solve the issue but it can came from anyone, not only PM.

While a PM may have an idea on how to solve the issue, he/she should bring this issue to the involved division and together they can try define a solution. The solution can be an innovation, invention, combination, imitation or even elimination of a feature. This solution then will be translated into feature request or backlogs

From the feature request (or backlogs) PM will then decide on which feature need to be build based on the roadmap

Myth 2

PM is the bridge between business and tech team

Fact:

PM is the bridge between the user and the company.

Business may be a representative of user but they are not the only one. You can get insights from users anywhere; surveys, UX researchers, CS team, your families and friends, even the taxi driver that drives you home can be the source for user voice.

A PM’s task is to categorize this voice and make sure that this voice is heard by the company.

Myth 3

PM should be able to “speak” technical

Fact:

PM should be able to converse with all of their product stakeholder, including tech team.

This means that the PM should use the same language as the stakeholder. You will not use technical lingo when speaking with the marketing team and vice versa.

Depending on the product and stakeholder, the level of understanding that PM needs to achieve may vary but there is no fault to learn more if you can, you never know when it can help you

Myth 4

PM should understand (and also push for implementation) agile (or scrum)

Fact:

Agile is product development framework not product management framework

This is one myth where a lot of people fall into. Let assume that you are a PM handling a new team. You gather your team and say “We will use agile for our product approach, our sprint planning starts next week”.

Then, one of your team member asks

“What are our product goals? Where is the roadmap? What is the plan for the product in the next 3 years?”. Agile won’t help you answer that.

As far as I know, agile doesn’t tell you on how to create a backlog, how to define product goals and vision or how to align the business strategy with product strategy, etc. Those thing are the most important part of Product manager.

Don’t get me wrong, agile is important for PM to understand, but you need more than that if you want to act as PM

Myth 5

PM is the CEO of the product

Fact:

CEO is a position of authority, PM is a position of influence

The statement above is not wrong, but most people misunderstand it. “CEO of the Product” means that the PM has a similar strategic responsibility to the product just like a CEO has to think of a strategic approach to the company. They are not the CEO of the product team.

In most companies, the product team does not report to the PM nor do they manage the budget. Here is an extreme example that I got from this post

• VP of Engineering: “So, how do you foresee your role here?”
• You: “I really see myself as the CEO of the Product.”
• VP of Engineering: “Oh, that’s cute… by the way, the Engineering team is tied up with other projects, so we won’t be able to get to your product for at least 6 months.”
• You: “Oh, I see…”

So that the myth that I think need to be clarified. How about you? Are there any more myths that need to be busted out there?

If you’re interested in applying for a full-time position or intern as a Product Manager, Blibli.com is currently hiring! Send your resume to recruitment@blibli.com and get the chance to work with other Product Managers with their own unique stories.