Human Resource Through The Lens of Product Management

The human resources department in most organizations is an often misunderstood yet integral part of the core business. Ask any employee about what they actually think their HR department does and the most common answers would undoubtedly be recruitment and employee engagement. And you know what? That is not necessarily a bad thing.

HR management entails a bevy of critical functions, ranging from conflict management and benefits administration to complex performance management and talent development. All these processes have a direct impact on the company’s bottom line.

However, a good HR team is mostly discreet and seamless. If they have all the right processes in place then the employees should only be feeling the positive impacts of HR operations. A good HR personnel must be able to tie everything together without causing visible ripples.

And in that aspect, the HR function has so many parallels with product management.

HR as Product Management

In my recent deep dive into product management principles and practices, I couldn’t help but notice the analogies between PM and HR. In my years as an HR business partner, I seem to have essentially worked as a product manager. This intrigued me into some introspection and eventually epiphanies…