What is Product Management, and why it should not be confused with Project Management?

This question will have different reactions from different people depending on their experience in the field of Product Management.

The first set of people consists of those who have certain years of experience and who have managed a couple of products by themselves. (It is important to note that people who are experienced enough, at least 5 years, and are at senior positions have to be excluded because they have reached where they are and hence they very well know this difference.)

The second set of people are those who have just started their career and are yet to get their hands dirty with managing the entire product by themselves. They are still in their apprenticeship phase.

If you belong to the first set you must be wondering: “why does that question even arise? Clearly, the two are different and there is nothing to be confused about.”

On the other hand, if you belong to the second set you must be wondering “how are the two things different?”

In this article, I have tried to address both these set of people but before proceeding further I would like to emphasize on the fact that how important it is to be aware of the difference between Product Management and Project Management.

It is so gravely important to understand and be aware of the difference between the two fields that the ignorance might become a stand-alone reason for stagnancy in your career as a Product Manager

To begin with, I will answer the question of the second set of people — “How is Product Management different from Project Management?”

Project Management primarily deals with the efficient execution of any project which means that the focus is entirely on the timely delivery with optimum use of resources. No matter how easy it may sound, it is a great deal as at any time, in any organisation, there are multiple projects going on while the resources — manpower and time are limited. Under such circumstances, it becomes really challenging to deliver efficiently.

When things fall into a project managers’ lap in the form of requirements, their only responsibility is to make sure that the project is finished by the given timelines and should meet the mentioned guidelines. Once that is done, a project manager’s job is done.

Q: but that is expected from a product manager as well, no?
A: Yes, but…

A Product Manager’s job begins way before the requirements are finalised and it continues after the product is delivered. Essentially, project management is just a part of a Product Manager’s job. Speaking of which, it is important to identify the various parts of a product manager’s job.

If I have to break down a product manager’s job into various parts, one of the bases of the classification would be the timeline:

Phase 1: Evaluation of the requirement
During this phase, the product manager either, by himself, identifies the need for the product or is approached by some other team who requires the product. In both cases, it is his responsibility to carry out the impact analysis, evaluate the effort value trade-off and perform feasibility analysis before deciding whether or not to pick the development.

Phase 2: Requirement Gathering & conceptualisation
Once it is determined that the requirement is legitimate, the product manager has to start his expedition to gather the most valuable treasure of the entire process: “information”.
In this phase, the product manager has to carry out a lot of exercises like:

• analyze a lot of data to identify the gaps which caused the need for the product and highlight the exact pain points.
• perform competitor analysis for references.
• read case studies of the existing alternates if any.
• interviewing people who would be using the product or who raised the requirement for the product.
• meeting subject matter experts to take their opinion about the requirement.

Apart from the above, there can be other exercises which might be required based on the problem and the product required to solve it. It is the job of the product manager to figure out the relevant exercises based on the requirement because there is no master list as such.
The important point here is that this is a very crucial step in determining the success of the product. The product will be as good as the work done during this phase.

Please note that Phase 1 determines that the product is required. If an idea has passed Phase1, its success, as a product, depends majorly on the work done in Phase2

Based on the requirement gathered, basic documentation has to be prepared. This document majorly defines the scope of the product. Once all the stakeholders share their feedbacks, after a few iterations, the document is signed-off.

Phase 3: Setting the metrics
Just after Phase 2, it is very important to set benchmarks. Key metrics are identified which have to be monitored to evaluate the impact. The change which would be observed in the values of these identified metrics would be the quantified value of the impact the product managed to have.

For example, for one of the websites, I have worked so far, it was decided that separate user interface would be required for smartphone users for enhanced user experience. So we decided to make a separate Progressive Web App(PWA) version of the website which would be rendered based on the user-agent of the device. The user-agent is used to identify if the device is a desktop or a smartphone or a tab. Based on this info, the relevant version is rendered.

After phase 2 was over, it was decided that “bounce rate” would be a major key metric and if the product is a success, the bounce rate should reduce. After the product was launched and stabilised, we observed that the bounce rate from mobile devices plummeted from 74% to some 38% which was a significant improvement. I will soon publish a case-study about the whole product launch which will cover more details.

So the point here is that is very important to identify and monitor performance parameters.

After Phase 3, the product manager becomes project manager.

Phase 4: Execution

This section is all about mechanical work.
- follow-ups
- timelines
-resource allocation
-sprint planning
- testing
-user acceptance testing (UAT)
-release date
-live testing
- bug fixes

This phase might vary depending on the type of organization.

Phase 5: Impact Evaluation
Once the product is successfully released, the project management part is over. But the evaluation of impact is a necessary step in product management.

• Firstly, it is important to make sure that the product is delivering as per the industry-standard benchmarks.
• Secondly, user feedbacks should be taken and actionable insights should be derived from them
• Further enhancements in the product should be planned based on the criticality of the inputs extracted from the first 2 points

to conclude...

No denial that execution is an innate phase in product management and usually it takes up the major chunk of the entire timeline, one should be very aware of the importance of the other phases. Focusing on the other phases will help in developing your understanding about products and improving your skillset of problem-solving.

PS — Stay away from Gantt Charts!