There’s no such thing as a Commercial Product Manager

In the past year there has been an increasing number of companies talking about Commercial PMs — I believe there is no such thing as a Commercial PM, or at least there shouldn’t be.

You might be thinking I’m crazy right now, screaming “Product Managers should be cross functional!” at your screen. Don’t worry, you’re right. The Commercial Product Manager shouldn’t exist as all Product Managers should be commercial.

Separating product managers into groups of “commercial” and “non-commercial” encourages siloed thinking and a lack of accountability. Every product manager needs to think about the whole picture — commercial and technical.

“A good product manager is the CEO of the product. A good product manager takes full responsibility and measures themselves in terms of the success of the product. They are responsible for right product/right time and all that entails. Bad product managers have lots of excuses.” Ben Horowitz

Good product managers need to own their product end to end. To build a great product you have to understand how to sell a great product. Similarly, to commercialise a product you’ve got to understand how it works, why it exists, and how it can improve. The two attitudes are intrinsically linked. Developing a “product sense” comes from exposure to both.

A product manager that is only interested in one side won’t build a product that disrupts a market. Big bang success doesn’t come from anything but an obsession with the customer. A PM interested in only generating revenue and commercialisation, won’t build a technically innovative or stable product, and a PM interested only in building exciting things won’t launch a product that is widely used and loved, and therefore won’t have an effective enough feedback loop.

I’ve spoken a lot about the combination of the two attitudes being vital, but what does this look like?

A PM that has mastered the balance will constantly ask themselves the following things:

1. Does the product solve the core jobs to be done that our customers require? (see https://jtbd.info/2-what-is-jobs-to-be-done-jtbd-796b82081cca)
2. Is the pain the product is solving big enough to be a real problem, that will lead to mass adoption? or is this a niche? If it is a niche, is that niche significant enough to sustain constant growth?
3. Does the product perform? Have I built something that can consistently provide value without issue?
4. Could customers live without this product? If so, how and why? and what features can I build in to change this?

“No one wants a drill. What they’re buying is the hole.”

Building the drill, but understanding the customer wants the hole, is a great example of how powerful a commercial mindset combined with product innovation can be. After all, why would you build something no one wants?

This may lead you to ask, should revenue be a product manager’s KPI?

Yes.

Revenue is a key indicator of your product’s success. All KPIs driven by your product should be your KPI.

Product teams should be cross functional, autonomous product building machines. Product Managers should assume the role of a mini CEO and therefore should be accountable for the success of their product, whether that takes the form of Active Users, Subscriptions, API Calls, Enterprise deals etc. — these all drive revenue.

Often this will cause pushback. PMs will be scared that factors outside of the product team may affect their own KPIs — such as sales or marketing. However, as the product manager and product owner it is your responsibility to educate the non-product teams on how to best sell and market the product. Product should be involved every step of the way. If you find it difficult to sell your product internally, you don’t have enough clarity over your vision and you need to go back to the drawing board. The go to market strategy is just as much yours as it is the sales and marketing team’s.

The role of the Product Manager is truly cross functional.

Ramble over!

If this excites you more than it scares you, check out the roles open at the awesome product company I work at https://apply.workable.com/truelayer/!