Having held various titles and responsibilities related to Product Management in the AEC industry over the past couple decades, I’ve found it critical to success in how the role is defined and filled as companies grow.
Don’t define the role based on the people on your team!
The importance of defining the role and responsibilities of the Product Manager is difficult to describe where the role has been defined by the people on the team, or by political dynamics and requests that are made on staff.
Jack of All Trades – Master of None
In some cases, software developers, product marketers, and sales teams understand and define Product Management to be the support arm for their departments. Product Managers in this situation are driven to be a jack-of-all-trades. They deliver on the tactical needs of the team but likely at the expense of attention to strategy and vision.
Bob the Builder
In other organizations Product Managers are like the General Contractor of a one-time construction project – they drive the strategy and oversee the plan to implement the product. They are responsible for the day-to-day oversight of the product’s progress, coordination of internal and external resources, and the communication of information to all stakeholders throughout the course of a product’s definition, design, development and launch.
Chris the Conductor
In other cases, Product Managers are empowered and motivated by delivering on a long-term investment based on a solid strategy and a team who is driven towards delivering on a shared vision. They unify the team, set the tempo, execute clear preparations, observe and drive where needed and shape the pace and delivery of a self-performing team. Here, the Product Manager is a conductor of a team making beautiful products which contributes to the company’s goals, which likely include revenue and larger aspirations.
Remember the Following
Regardless of how a company defines the role and invests in the people and processes of the role, the following must be remembered:
Product Management is NOT project management
Product Management is NOT writing user requirements
Product Management is NOT architecting or writing code
Product Management is NOT product marketing
1. Product Management is NOT project management
A project manager does not own the definition of a problem that needs to be addressed. A project manager does not take ownership of the solution and requirements around the problem. A project manager does not then, nor continuously inform the Design, Engineering and Marketing teams to make sure the right product is being built, tested and eventually marketed.
Product Managers DO those things.
Product Managers focus on product discovery with a broad perspective across an entire market.
Project Management focuses on delivery.
They are two distinct roles and should be treated as such.
While project managers are critical in the delivery of a product, they are NOT Product Managers.
2. Product Management is NOT user requirements
A critically important job of a Product Manager is to constantly talk to and hear from many users which are representative of the potential customers. They are tasked with extracting objective feedback, collecting and aggregating the combined input into a plan that delivers valuable solutions to their problems.
This does not mean the job is to just capture what the users want and communicate that to Engineering in the form of user stories.
Instead, the job is to:
use structured methods to collect input, perform analysis, conduct problem solving
exercise collaborative skills to convert feedback into input which informs the product team
work closely with UX researchers and designers to create a viable and valuable solutions.
Product Managers discover the problems by focusing their attention on the needs and opportunities of the many. The problems uncovered and processed by Product Managers leads to the features & functions which designers & software developers build.
3. Product Managers - technical but not techie
The Product Manager’s understanding of software and hardware standards, UX research, UI trends and industry innovations is critical, as is their direct experience building, testing, documenting or otherwise supporting the development process.
While some Product Managers might know how to create a clean and modern visual design or write elegant code, it cannot be their job to do so. It takes too much away from the job they are hired to do, which is making sure the right problem is solved in the right way.
4. Product Managers must be market savy but not a market’er
The job of a Product Manager is not demo support, marcom’s voice for messaging & positioning, and not responsible for running market events or social campaigns.
A Product Manager may be a good wordsmith, able to write a compelling brochure or organize & track the success of traditional and digital marketing campaigns through various analytics.
However, these are Product Marketing skills and practices – essential to a successful product and requiring a dedicated person, who lives and breathes these issues, they are not the job of a Product Manager.
Finally, a fifth point which came to mind while writing…
5. Always be closing – let someone else do that
Product Managers’ ability to support and sometimes lead in sales and executive situations should come naturally. Any good Product Manager must be empathetic, be a good communicator (speaker and listener) and be able to comprehend the problems experienced by the user. They must be a good negotiator able to balance needs, wants and resources.
While others in the organization deal with customers one at a time thinking about closing a deal or solving the problem now, Product Managers look at the needs of a market through the lens of multiple users, never of a single user.
Product Managers need to fill their time with activities that serve an entire market, not just a single customer.
Product Managers are many things, and there are many things Product Managers are not.
Give us a call – we know Product Management.
When your team finds itself needing expertise, consultation or just another set of Product Manager’s hands to get the product Defined, Designed, Developed and Deployed.