MODULE NO. 1
What is Product Management?
(productfocus.com)
An introduction to what product management is, who does it, and why?
Product management is the job of looking after a specific product within a business.
It’s role at the very heart of an organization that needs to balance the need to deliver value to your
company (usually profit) with what customers want and what’s technically and operationally possible.
That means coming up with a product strategy, thinking about what to build (Product Development), and
working out how to market and sell the product (Product Marketing).
What are the key aims of product management?
The 3 fundamental aims of product management are:
1. Build once, sell many times – this gets the economies of scale that result in higher profitability
2. Being an expert on the market as well as the product – this makes sure you build products that
customers will buy
3. Lead within the business – with a balanced view across all the different aspects of the product
The various product roles
Product management is done differently from one business to the next. It depends on the size of your
company, whether you work with software, physical products, or services, and if you’re selling to
businesses or consumers.
And the different varieties of product management don’t stop there. You may only have internal
customers, be selling customized solutions, or managing a service – and still be called a Product Manager.
There are lots of different job titles that focus on product-related activities. Three of the most common
are shown are: Product Manager; Product Marketing Manager; and Product Owner. And to make things
even more confusing, these product roles often overlap and are implemented differently from one
company to the next.
Product Activities Framework
To help clear things up, our Product Activities Framework identifies all the activities that need to take
place in any company with products.
Strategic Product Activities are about working out what the right product is for the business. Inbound
activities mean working with the business to help deliver the product. Outbound activities are assisting
the business to sell the product.
It’s not very common for one role to be responsible for all these activities. Typically they would be spread
across different roles and departments. However, if a company has products, all these activities should
be going on somewhere in the business.
What is product management to other parts of the business?
To the Development team, product management provides direction, gives insights into what the market
wants, and validates that what they’re creating is needed. If the Development team lose focus and start
building stuff that’s not wanted by customers, it’s down to product management to bring them back on
track.
To the Sales team, product management can be the saviors who deliver shiny new products that let them
have new discussions with their customers. They also provide information and support to help Sales to
sell. But Sales teams are heavily motivated to keep their customers happy, and often this means
demanding that new features should be added to a product. As a result, Sales sometimes see product
management as the ‘sales prevention department when they no. In these situations, product
management must balance the needs of one customer against the needs of others by evaluating what’s
planned for the roadmap, the perceived commercial value, and resource constraints.
To Senior Management, product managers give a view of what’s going on in their business from a product
perspective. Ideally, they also view product managers as the people who understand the market and who
can help advise on the best product strategy for the business.
Product managers tend to be people who can get things done. They motivate and direct teams around
the business to make sure the company delivers products that customers want. Although they drive
activity in many areas of the business, they rarely have direct control over other people, so they need to
be good at communicating, influencing, and leading virtual teams.
01.24.2021@rene