What is Product Management?
Estimated Time: 30 minutes
Product management is one of the most in-demand roles in technology companies. Yet, it is an often misunderstood role. Product management has a complex history, and the role varies considerably between and within companies.
One common abstraction is to describe Product Managers (PMs) as “CEOs of the Product.” This is somewhat true because PMs act as the overall lead and connect various functions like engineering, design, sales, marketing, etc. However, unlike a CEO, companies usually do not roll up to PMs, and there are many stakeholders with equal or greater decision-making authority than a PM. Nevertheless, PMs must provide clear direction and leadership for their products.
The role of a PM
Two useful definititons of the role of a PM are below:
From the video, article, and definitions, we learn that a PM’s job is to drive impact. PMs collaborate with others to figure out what product will deliver value to users and the business. They then collaborate to build, test and launch that product. Product managers operate at the intersection of the user, the technology, and the business.
A useful summary of a PM’s role – and one we’ll use throughout this course, is that the product manager’s job is to build the right thing and build the thing right.
Building the right thing meanst discovering and identifying the right product. PMs must deeply understand the needs of the user and the market, and translate that understanding into a valable product.
Building the thing right means using resources appropriately, and aligning various stakeholders to build the product in a way that maximizes user and business value. Much of the PM role is considering and making tradeoffs that shape the product in a specific direction.
When people say PMs are CEOs of the product, that’s because being a PM requires many of the same skills that CEO does, i.e., the ability to align a team, define a clear vision and strategy, and execute the strategy.
Computer Science as preparation for PM
In the early to mid 2000s, the path to becoming a product manager was unclear. Today, many big technology companies hire Associate Product Managers straight from university. While being technical is not a requirement to be a PM everywhere, studying computer science is an excellent preparation for an impactful product career.
