Why do people kept calling Product Manager Project Manager?!
👱🏻♂️ “ As a project manager of the team, I think you are…”
👩🏻💻 “ Hey, Bob. Before you continue, I would like to quickly correct you, I am actually a product manager, not a project manager”
👱🏻♂️“ What is the difference between these two roles? I always thought they were the same?”
👩🏻💻“ Well, I understand you may find it confusing, but they are 2 very different roles, the key difference between these two roles are…”
As a Product manager, I am sure you will find the above conversations extremely familiar (probably you have already had 3 this week😅).
After doing the same explanations again and again, I decided to put together a blog.
And it’s also important to call out, this confusion is not only existing between Product Manager and Project Manager, but also among other roles, such as: Program Manager, User Experience, Business Analyst, Product Marketer, Delivery Manager, Scrum Master etc.
So, the first question — “What is the difference between this role?”
Well, there are enough blogs and articles about this, so if you are curious about it, please take 5 minutes to Google or ask ChatGPT.
In fact, I have already done it for you, please see the response from the ChatGPT and I think they did a great job to summarise the differences between them:
And I have also handed pick 3 reputable blogs that done a great job to example the differences between the 2 roles.
2. This LinkedIn article has included another confusing role, Program manager: Project, Program management career path
3. What To Do When You’re Confused With a Project Manager — Product School
So, you may ask, there are so many existing answers online, why are people still confused about the 2 roles? And what are you going to write about?
Well, I have been tired of answering the same question again and again myself, so I think it’s useful to:
- Understand why this is happening
- Figure out if it’s worthwhile to continue calling out the difference
- Create an auto reply for myself and my fellow product manager friends (before we lose our cool 😎)
Disclaimer: the requirement and scope of Product and Project roles are different from organisation to organisation.
This blog is based on my personal experience and conversations with other product managers in Australia.
Why do people feel confused between the 2 roles?
One of the obvious reasons is probably because Product manager and Project manager share the same acronym — PM and they are both common and important roles in the Software development world.
However, compared to Project Management, Product Management is still a relatively new field and has gotten popular in the past 20 years (in that every Product manager works a little bit differently to others) due to the growing importance of technology and the rise of the agile methodology.
And Project managers have been widely used and known in a wide range of industries outside of the technology world for a much longer time. For example: Construction, Manufacturing, healthcare, Government etc.
What makes it even confusing is both roles are commonly considered as generalist roles and can be very different from organisations to organisations.
That means the day-to-day of a Product manager at one company may look very similar to that of a Project manager at another company.
In fact, there is a good portion of overlap of responsibilities between the 2 roles. One of the most popular venn diagrams to explain the difference between two roles are below:
But from my personal experience, the second one is more accurate- Project Management should be part of Product manager’s toolkit and skillset.
While the roles for Product manager and Project manager can be very different depends on the organizations and teams, its skill-sets and day to day responsibilities can still be mapped back to the “Big Picture of Product ‘’
If you want to read more about the Big Picture of Product and different roles within Product management, you can refer to my earlier blog — Why is important to form a strong partnership among Product
Next Question — Why is it important to call out?
Have you ever experienced one of your colleagues keep calling you a name that is close to your name but is not, for example: some people called me Catherine, instead of Charlotte at work. And you missed the opportunity to correct them in the first instance, then you decide to let this slide the second time…
so even until today, this colleague is still calling you the incorrect name.
Sometime you start to doubt does it really worth the effort and potential social awkwardness to correct other people when they referring you as Project Manager?
Well, personally, I can live with a colleague called me Catherine, but I can’t live with people assuming I am a Project Manager!
And this is WHY:
Because this is NOT JUST a mistake about my ego, it could actually impact the performance and success of me, my team and the Product!
Do you think I am too dramatic? Maybe a little, but not entirely…
Here are the reasons:
When people refer to you as a Project Manager instead of a Product manager, this indicates there is confusion about your role and responsibility and the nature of the work.
As discussed before, there is a different industry expectation, skillsets requirement and measure of success for these two roles.
In general, Project managers are skilled at keeping track of every detail and to-do item needed to complete a complex initiative; Product managers must keep their focus high-level and strategic.
Project managers tend to measure success if they can complete a project on time on budget based on the originally agreed plan — deviating from that plan is typically considered a setback.
However, good Product managers, by contrast, need to be flexible and adaptable to meet the changing demands of users or the market. Because their success is measured by the return of investment and outcomes (customers and business) of the Product.
Imagine if you are working as Product manager (focus on Why and What) but your performance is measured as a Project manager (focus on When and How). Your team members and managers may come to very different conclusions about your performance.
Your manager and team members may be confused about why you are spending all this time doing Market research and testing with Customers instead of preparing a solid Gantt Chart and detailed budget tracker.
This will result in your team members losing trust on your capability and engaging you in a less inefficient way, eventually will impact the overral team coherence and performance too.
Plus, Product manager and Project manager actually have different career path and growth plan, so it’s important to understand which track you want to be on and make sure you get the right support from your manager, coach and peers.
While Project Manager and Product Manager are two different roles, managing Project and Product also requires a very different mindset, measure of Success, Funding Model, Way of Working etc.
When there is confusion on the roles, this could also be a misalignment of expectations on the approach, process and outcomes of the delivery between you and stakeholders or your teams.
It’s a huge risk if you vision and approach to manage this work as a Product while your Stakeholder and team expect this work as Project.
For example: Product team is normally expected to be a cross functional team working towards a mutual and long-term product vision without regular disruptions and membership change.
While “resources and risks management” are key activities for the Project team. That means Project team is normally more short term and team members can be working on multiple projects at the same time — they are more likely to be pulled out from the team depends on the demand and workload.
The bigger risk is — similar to the difference between Product manager and Project manager, The success of a Project and Product are very different!
Project success is based on Delivery of agreed-upon scope on time and budget. However the success of a Product is measured by Improvement of a metric directly related to a business outcome or not more than one or two levels removed from a business outcome.
— Martin Flower
And these misalignments could really impact you and your team’s reputation, relationship among you and your stakeholders, efficiency of the delivery process and the ultimate success of the Product!
To read more about the differences between Product and Project, this is my favourite blog from Martin Fowler Products Over Projects
Now, it’s time to answer the last question:
What should I do when people call me a Project Manager again when I am a Product Manager? (or vice versa)
This is an easy one — Send them a link to this article!
Good luck with your Product management Journey. Hope 2023 is a good year for you and your Product Management career!
Follow @Product_fy and Charlotte Bian for more blogs on product management.
Reference:
- Project Manager vs. Product Manager: Similarities And Differences
- Project, Program management career path
- What To Do When You’re Confused With a Project Manager — Product School
- https://martinfowler.com/articles/products-over-projects.html
- https://medium.com/habitclub/why-is-important-to-form-a-strong-partnership-among-product-part-1-2-c81a001da471
