Product Management Compared to Other Roles
Product Managers have the unique opportunity to patriciate in every aspect of product development from the initial pitch to launch. We work with cross-functional teams and stakeholders to research, define, prioritize, design and validation, and the launch of our products. For this reason though, it is important to understand the roles that we interact with, their primary function, and where the role of Product Management begins and those other roles begin.
Product Manager vs Product Owner
A Product Manager’s primary responsibility is product-market fit, which is rooted in user and market research, to really understand what product to build and why. Separate from this is a role in Scrum methodology called the Product Owner. When practicing Scrum, there is a Product Owner member of the team who will represent requirements for the team, and a ScrumMaster acts as the Agile coach and project manager, assisting the team and ensuring no one is blocked.
When a Scrum team is developing a product, it is common for the Product Manager to play the role of Product Owner, whereas the more senior Product team, often Director level, lead the outward-facing Product responsibilities such as research, strategy, and roadmap planning. This stratification is actually formalized in the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), with Product Owners being a formal title and operating at the team level, whereas the Product Manager operates at the higher Program layer.
Product Manager vs Project Manager
Project Management focuses on the efficient delivery of a defined project scope and timeline. The Project Manager will develop a delivery plan, track progress, and provide organizational reporting as progress is made and issues arise. They’re particularly an asset on larger cross-team projects that require a lot of coordination to keep things on track.
Typically, Project Managers are found in larger, more traditional and operational organizations that are still practicing Waterfall methodology. It makes sense given this context because strategy is often driven from leadership and teams are responsible for delivering on that vision rather than determining the vision that will deliver on the business objectives. This is the traditional “I.T.” model. Compare that to modern Product Development teams who practice Lean/Agile, work iteratively, and you’ll find Program Managers have replaced the Project Managers.
Product Manager vs Program Manager
Product Management and Program Management have several overlapping qualities. Both are focused on longer-term horizons and plan a pipeline of activity that encompasses many smaller projects. What really separates them however, is their focus – Product Management focuses on the user and the market, in order to understand what to build and why; the focus is creating value for customers that sit outside the organization.
Program Management by comparison operates as an internal services organization, that specializes in delivery of initiatives they’re chartered to deliver. Strategy (what & why) typically comes from outside of Program Management, often from business leadership seeking to drive a strategic initiative across multiple teams that Program and orchestrate.
An interesting exception to this pattern, is when Program Mgmt drives and operational function such as internal fulfillment, or payment operations. In this case, they’re acting more like Product Managers in that they have latitude over the strategic ‘what & why’. The focus inevitably is always internal though, and the KPIs align to operational efficiency which is consistent with the Program Management imperative of efficient delivery as a service for the organization. From this perspective, Product and Program make a nice pairing, with Product focused on solving customer problems at scale, while Program Mgmt drives internal efficiency for the development pipeline and other internal operations.
Product Manager vs Product Marketing Manager
Sometimes there’s a Marketing department that sits parallel to the Product management organization. Other times, especially with SaaS products, there might not be a dedicated Marketing department and instead you’d have a Product Marketing sub-function that reports into Product Management. When that happens, Product Marketing operates as a service to Product Management, driving the go-to-market plan, as informed by the Product strategy for that release.
Product Marketing is responsible for outbound communication, including pricing and placement. They also orchestrate the effective execution of a product launch. Their expertise is taking a new product or feature to market and Product Management partners with them on executing an effective launch.
Product Manager vs Business Analyst
The Business Analyst (BA/BSA) has similarities to a Product Owner – they analyze systems, business needs, and then write (business) requirements that will inform the efforts of a development team. They are generally a supportive function however, lacking the authority to prioritize or drive the direction of a product.
The Business Analyst is also largely an internal function, who focuses on understanding internal needs and system capabilities rather than the market or needs of external customers. In fact, this role was born in the 1960s in response to complex enterprise software solutions that required a dedicated role to focus on configuring complex software for the needs of that organization. You’ll typically find Business Analysts in more traditional “I.T.” contexts, along with Project Managers.
Product vs User Experience
A User Experience Designer (UXD) is often a member of the product development team, along with engineers. Product works to frame the problem for the team by understanding customer needs and writing requirements as user stories that frames the problem for the team. The team then takes over to design and implement an effective solution in response to Product’s definition of the problem/opportunity, and related acceptance criteria that govern the solution. The UXD’s contribution is to design the interface and workflows that allow a user to achieve the goals stated by the Product Manager.
Stepping out of the product development context, the roles of Product Management and User Experience Design become more intertwined with product discovery – the research and definition phase that occurs prior to development. The field of User Experience has become more strategic over time, seeking to understand the needs of the customer more deeply, as a precedent to designing an effective solution. To that end, user research is often driven by UX and the ‘voice of the customer’ increasingly is something that both Product Management and User Experience care deeply about. For this reason, it is not uncommon to see UX reporting into the Product Management organization, which helps to align these kindred roles.
