What is Product Management?
Shannon Acton
As someone new to the field of Product Management, I did not have a complete understanding of what it means to be a good Product Manager when I started training. I assumed that a Product Manager simply managed a product. How hard could it be? You take an idea for a product and come up with novel ways to design, produce, market, and deliver that product to customers who can hardly wait to purchase it. Sounds great, sign me up! It turns out that the role is not as straight-forward as I had thought, and that the success of a product or project is not a simple or guaranteed process.
The role is much more nuanced than what I originally understood and can be difficult to define, even for experienced Product Managers. Product Management is an evolving field that means different things depending on the organization, team, and project. Product Managers must communicate effectively with their team, customers and stakeholders, conduct market research, and translate the high-level vision of a product to navigate the completion of the project (LeMay 2018, Mansour 2019). Overall, Product Management is a discipline that requires empathy, flexibility, creativity, and problem-solving skills, and is critical to the success of a product or company (Biddle 2017).
Maybe it’s a good idea to talk to a Product Manager!
To get a better idea of how a Product Manager ensures the success of a product or company, I met with Darren Mondor, MBA, PMP, IT Project and Program Manager with the City of Calgary. I originally met Darren while volunteering for a local community childcare association and was impressed with his business acumen and ability to connect with people. Darren had a natural way of communicating with others from different backgrounds that made them feel seen and understood. He immediately came to mind as someone that I should connect with to learn more about the discipline.
Darren describes himself as a “accidental project manager” with a background in IT, marketing, business analysis and management. He fell into the role while working in tech support at a telecom company soon after graduating from university. He noticed that some of his technical team members struggled to communicate effectively with customers and were ill-prepared to deliver support. He reported his observations to his supervisors, who rewarded with him with the task of leading the process of coming up with a solution. Darren accidentally became a project manager by recognizing that the needs of customers were not being met and has been working in the field ever since.
To be officially recognized as a project manager, Darren researched industry standards and best practices through recognized organizations like the Project Management Institute (PMI). He completed training and Project Management Professional (PMP) certification through PMI, and further developed his management, business and analytical skills by completing a Master of Business Administration (MBA) concentrating in strategic management and marketing. It was through the application of his training, experience from working with teams and stakeholders, and learnings from mistakes as a project manager that solidified the role for Darren.
Wait, are we talking about Product or Project Management?
By definition, a Product Manager translates the vision of a product and aligns their team to successfully deliver that vision to customers (Thomas 2021). A Project Manager delivers the best experience to a customer in the best way possible with an integrated and high-level view focusing on the customer journey. Although Darren’s official title is Project Manager, his responsibilities encompass aspects from both Project and Product management. When I asked him about this, he relayed the concepts of Project Mindset versus Product Mindset approaches to Agile methodologies. A Project Mindset approach is a requirement driven process leading to less business involvement and more task management, whereas the focus of a Product Mindset approach is an outcome driven process with the goal of solving a problem for the business (van der Meulen 2021). Both approaches are relevant to each role depending on the definition of a product and the size, scope and type of organization, team, and project.
The titles of Product Manager and Project Manager are misleading since both require strategic leadership skills. Management is getting people to do repeatable tasks day-to-day, whereas leadership is finding the right people, agreeing where you want to go, and getting out of the way (Godin 2015). Leadership is the inspired communication of a vision and purpose, while management embodies the processes of dealing with people, building things, and delivering results (Biddle 2017, Sinek 2014). It is imperative that Product and Project Managers strategically lead their team to success while embracing their mistakes and failures to be able to promote growth (Godin 2015).
Darren spoke passionately about how a Product or Project Manager establishes the value and vision of a project, service or product based on what a customer wants and their willingness to pay for it. If they do not know what problem they are trying to solve, there is a risk of an organization “building solutions for problems that don’t exist” (Wascha 2017). To figure out what the customer wants, the Product or Project Manager needs to actively listen and talk to people to understand their perspective. Listening to customers and understanding their point of view helps to define a problem to be solved, which can lead to a greater understanding of the limitations and solutions needed to successfully improve or complete a product or project. Darren estimated that while it is important to have some technical knowledge and understanding to achieve this, over 90% of his time is spent on communication and stakeholder management.
Darren also emphasized the importance of being able and willing to continuously learn and think critically to figure out strategic solutions that can solve problems. Problem-solving is an integral skill for the role and requires the ability to adapt, be flexible and tolerant of ambiguity. The Product and Project Management fields are constantly evolving in response to changes in technology and customer needs. To reduce risk associated with rapid change, it is essential to be proactive and plan and map out possible scenarios for the success and failure of the execution of the project. Darren’s father, an entrepreneur, always emphasized to him that “Planning is cheap, execution is expensive”. Taking the time to map out strategies and plan for all possible situations can help to ensure the success of a product or company.
Sounds great, sign me up!
My discussion with Darren left me with a better sense of what it means to be a Product Manager. Great Product and Project Managers are also great leaders who help people feel seen and empowered to do their work (Godin 2015, Eber 2021). They are also great managers who decide which products to build to add value to customers. Ultimately, both roles are flexible and require exceptional communication, creativity, and problem-solving skills to ensure the success of a product and answer the question “who will buy this and at what price?” (Godin 2007, 2015, Wascha 2017).
References:
Eber. K. (2021, February 10). How your brain responds to stories — and why they’re crucial for leaders. TED, YouTube. https://youtu.be/uJfGby1C3C4
Godin, S. (2007, May 17). How to get your ideas to spread. TED, YouTube. https://youtu.be/xBIVlM435Zg
Godin, S. (2015, September 18). Seth Godin on the Difference Between Leadership and Management. Leadership. YouTube. https://youtu.be/_VOynEM7zI4
LeMay, M. (2018). Product Management in Practice: A Real-World Guide to the Key Connective Role of the 21st Century (A. Rufino, Ed.). O’Reilly Media. (First Release 2017)
Mansour, S. (2019, July 19). What do product managers do? — Agile Coach. Atlassian. YouTube. https://youtu.be/yUOC-Y0f5ZQ
Sinek, S. (2014, May 19). How good leaders make you feel safe. TED, YouTube. https://youtu.be/lmyZMtPVodo
Thomas, N. (2021, January 6). The Difference: Project Manager vs Product Manager. Product School. https://productschool.com/blog/product-management-2/difference-project-manager-vs-product-manager/
Wascha, D. (2017, September 11). 20 Years of Product Management in 25 Minutes. Spread Ideas. YouTube. https://youtu.be/i69U0lvi89c
Van der Meulen, M. (2021, November 29). The Triangle. Scrum. https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/triangle
