Everything you need to know about the Role of the Product Manager

What is a Product Manager? 

When you are a UI/UX Designer or Developer, it is quite common today to come across a Product Manager (or PM) in your professional experiences. Generally, he is identified as the product referent, but when you ask what he actually does, the answers differ. He is sometimes confused with a Product Manager, a Product Owner, a Project Manager or even a Product Designer. So, what is a Product Manager and what is his role in the different organizational structures?

The theory

The PM is responsible for developing a digital product or service that will be put on the market. He is the one who translates the company's overall vision into a product vision and a roadmap. Its mission is to ensure that the product put on the market is feasible, meets the needs of users and the strategic and business challenges of the company.

Product Manager
© 2011 Martin Eriksson

“to discover a product that is valuable, usable and feasible” Marty Cagan

Product Manager responsibilities: 

    • Vision : he will decline the global vision of the company at the level of its product(s?), set the objectives and the KPIs to follow, imagine the product roadmap.
    • Discovery : the PM must identify the problems to be solved. This involves an in-depth analysis of the available data, user research, a good understanding of the company's challenges, competitive benchmarking, etc.
    • Prioritization : what problems do we want to solve? The PM must prioritize what his teams will work on based on the expected outcome or benefits (previously set in the product vision and strategy) and the technical complexity. 
    • Delivery: This is the implementation phase. The PM will specify the solutions (the famous functional specifications) and monitor their delivery with the development team.
    • Launch : The solutions have been developed and made available to users. The PM can work with marketing or the communications department to make their product or increment (new version) known to users. Now it is a question of measuring the success of what has been delivered and seeing if the objectives set have been achieved.

During these different phases, the Product Manager will work like a conductor with the design team, developers, and business teams to build and deliver a product that will have value for its users and the company.

There was a trap a little higher because in some organizations the PM is also PO (Product Owner) because contrary to popular belief, PO is a role in agile practices like Scrum and not a job. However, on the French market, it is not uncommon for the PM and PO to be like two different jobs.

Reality :
What I learned during my various experiences is that the scope of the PM varies according to the structure and the product maturity of the company, the organization, but also the seniority of the PM. 

The role of the PM vs. the structure and maturity of the company 

The role of the PM in a Startup

When the product is not managed directly by the founding partners, the PM is a bit like the product's jack-of-all-trades, the famous "Swiss army knife" who accompanies them in this experimental phase. He helps to frame strategic and business needs, intervenes in discovery, design and delivery in order to achieve the famous Product Market Fit. Depending on the size of the startup, he may find himself laying the first bricks of a product team and building the product culture of the Startup.

In a Scale up

The company is growing and has reached its Product MarketFit. The product evolves less drastically. The teams grow and become more structured. We are in a context where a product culture is being established. The PM can no longer be in control and must share his responsibilities with one or more POs, whose role will be more focused on the development team and delivery. The PM can focus on optimizations and features that meet user needs. He must be able to analyze the market, know his product and its users by heart. He is in regular (or even permanent) contact with stakeholders.

There is a head of product, a product ops, one or more PM leads, POs.

In a large group, 

Not all teams necessarily work with a “product” organization, some professions may still be in a V-cycle. In some cases, the digital transformation of the company is not 100% acquired and the product(s) already exist. There is less experimentation possible.

Depending on the organization, the PM must be able to adapt and support the company in change. To do this, he must demonstrate leadership but also pedagogy. The PM works here on a specific scope with one or more Product Owners for whom he is responsible. It is not uncommon in this type of structure, where there are many hierarchies, to have PMs who also master the political dimension and human management. 

This is something that has been changing in recent years, with experiments seeking to flatten these levels of hierarchy. To learn more, check out this article from Harvard Business Review: https://www.hbrfrance.fr/organisation/la-reduction-des-strates-hierarchiques-point-de-bascule-du-changement-organisationnel-60592)

A PM according to his expertise or affinities

We can clearly see it in the job descriptions, some PMs are also recruited according to their expertise. “Expert” PMs can thus help companies with specific issues and make them more efficient. We can imagine simpler onboarding and simplified learning, making them operational more quickly. 

Some examples : 

  • PM Data 
  • PM Backend
  • PM Saas product (B2B)
  • PM eCommerce
  • PM Payment (fintech)
  • PM UX? 

A PM according to his seniority

A junior PM or simply PM, checks all the boxes of the responsibilities described in the “theory” section above. He generally has good operational knowledge because he is regularly in contact with the “makers” (designers, developers).

A senior PM, when not considered a Lead, will have the same tasks as the PM but will be able to take a step back to analyze the market and the use of his product. He can also play a mentoring role for other PMs. He will be the guarantor of the product vision in a global way and follows the roadmap and delivery in a more macro way. He is the one who ensures good communication between the product team, the business lines and the stakeholders.

Insert double diamond here?  

We will be able to see this famous difference in scope in a future article.

Conclusion

We have seen that depending on the maturity and organization of the company, expectations around the Product Manager can vary, but keeping one important constant: he remains the guarantor of the product vision.

Depending on his expertise and seniority, the Product Manager can also define his own scope by giving more autonomy to the Product Owner (on prioritization and delivery) or to the Product Designer (on the Discovery part) to focus on the analysis, vision and business part for example.

What I learned is that there is not just one type of Product Manager. They must be able to adapt to their environment in order to carry out their main mission: to ensure that the product meets the needs of users and creates value for the company. 

And you? Have you worked with other types of PMs? 

This article does not aim to establish absolute truth but is based on my various experiences and discussions that I have had with people in the profession during my professional career.

 

 

Felix Reginent, Product Manager at UX-Republic