Project vs Product vs Program Management in Software Companies
Whenever I tell people I’m a product manager, I often get a blank stare and the question, “what is it that you do?” This even extends to people who work in the software industry. As someone who worked as a project manager, a program manager, and a product manager before, I hope this article can shed some light on the confusion around the three roles.
Product Manager
Discovery In the book Inspired, Marty Cagan describes the job of product managers as “to discover a product that is valuable, usable, and feasible.” Product managers need to understand how a product can benefit its stakeholders, they also need to make sure the product is usable by its users, and lastly possible to develop within the allocated budget and resource constraints.
Product discovery often involves conducting a deep analysis of competitors, understanding the market trend, and uncovering customer needs. Product managers will often work with UX researchers to conduct user interviews, extract insights, and work with designers and developers to brainstorm ideas to solve customer’s problems. Product managers may also take on a more strategic role in setting the direction when building new products or product services based on qualitative feedback and data.
Execution The next step after discovery is to bring ideas to life. A product manager does not need to be an expert in design, technology, or business, but needs to be conversant with practitioners in all.
For larger companies, product managers may handoff product requirements to project managers or program managers who will engage the development team and manage the timeline of the project.
For smaller companies, product managers may take on the role of project management and work cross-functionally to oversee the delivery of the product.
Monitoring Finally, product managers need to continuously measure the performance of their product portfolio and make iterative improvements.
Project Manager
Compared to product managers, project managers use project management principles and frameworks to optimize resources to complete projects on budget and on time.
Execution Depending on the methods used, project managers may hold daily scrum meetings, conduct biweekly sprints and retrospective meetings with the development team. They need to understand the capability of every team member in order to distribute work effectively.
Organization Project managers need to be extremely organized because often they need to manage multiple projects at once with many moving parts.
Communication Project managers are often client-facing. This requires project managers to be diplomatic, be able to work under high-pressure, and skilled at negotiation. Internally, project managers need to help teams remove obstacles such as task blockers, lack of resource, and push backs.
Program Manager
Strategy Program Manager is a step up from Project Manager where instead of managing individual projects, they need to manage a portfolio of projects at a higher level. Using Microsoft for example, a project manager may manage multiple projects on feature improvements for MS Word, whereas a program manager will consider which projects the project managers should work on next based on current resource availability and the overall business strategy for MS Word.
Revenue Often, program managers may also need to manage the finance for the project portfolio. This may include quarterly forecasts, budgets, and revenue.
Conclusion
To conclude, product managers discover user needs, define requirements, and monitor product performance. Project managers lead project execution. Program managers facilitate cross-department resource allocation and manage project portfolios.
As a caveat, many software companies do not have clear distinctions between product, project, and program management roles. It is also true that many responsibilities are shared amongst all three roles. Therefore, it is wise to carefully review the job description and seek clarification in interviews.
Bonus
Below are some common questions I receive and I’ll try to provide a short answer to each.
- Does product managers project management skills?
Depends. Smaller companies seek it more than larger companies. - Is the PMP (Project Management Professional) certificate helpful for product managers?
Yes but not required. Smaller companies seek it more than larger companies. - Are product management certificates useful? Which certificate should I get?
If you are an aspiring product manager, a product management certificate may help you in transitioning to a product management role within the company, but certificates have limited effect when switching to a new company.
If you are an experienced product manager, then a good way to boost yourself is to attend webinars and read books.
About the Author
Oliver Xu is currently an MS of Product Management student at Carnegie Mellon University. He was a product manager with domain knowledge in Ad Tech, IoT, and Telecommunications. He has worked at both startups and established corporates with eight years of experience leading software teams building enterprise solutions.
