B<\/span>enjamin Franklin famously said that there are only two things certain in life: death and taxes. But you can delay death and avoid taxes\u200a\u2014\u200athe only thing that truly is certain in this life is change.<\/p>\n This notion is the central ethos of the product management profession.<\/p>\n Product management is built upon the premise that change is the one true constant.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In my view there are 3 key principles:<\/p>\n The product manager must epitomise these principles and the central ethos that change is a given. They must be the glue that holds the team together, but also ensure the team doesn\u2019t get stuck. Part Pritt-stick, part nail-polish remover. The contradiction of this imagery sums up product management.<\/p>\n These are the four key questions in the product lifecycle. Through these, we can get an insight into the role of the product manager.<\/p>\n The PM is involved in all four of these questions, to varying degrees.<\/p>\n This will depend on the size of the organisation and seniority of the PM, but the company itself should have in part answered this with its vision. The PM then produces a vision for the product that they manage.<\/p>\n This is wholly the responsibility of the PM and takes the form of the Product Strategy, which will include themes and goals (OKRs or KPIs) for the product. It gives the development team (designers, developers and analysts) clear goals to rally around.<\/p>\n The product manager is kinda-sorta responsible for the when, but unlike traditional (particularly HiPPO) approaches, prioritisation of features is a collaborative task and several methods can be used to determine it.<\/p>\n The reason it\u2019s not so obvious is while a product manager may determine top-level priorities and build a roadmap, it is heavily informed by collaboration with the team and the low-level detail of exactly what happens and when it happens should sit with the development team.<\/p>\n This is not the product manager\u2019s responsibility. They have input, but it is ultimately the responsibility of the development team to determine the best way to do something, based on the previous questions above.<\/p>\n A product manager owns the following:<\/p>\n I asked 35 people within the world of product management how they would define the role of a product manager in one sentence.<\/p>\n I had a huge variety of responses, but I will now share some of the different viewpoints and determine which fit best with my interpretation of the role.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure many of you will see words in there that you agree with. Customer-focussed is the largest for a reason\u200a\u2014\u200ait had the most mentions. Problem-solver also came up a few times.<\/p>\n The phrase \u2018mini CEO\u2019 and \u2018CEO of your product\u2019 both came up too. Product managers\u2019 have no inherent authority and must earn respect and the right to convince others. This is why I am not a fan of using the term \u2018CEO\u2019 to refer to a product manager.<\/p>\n \u201cA product manager is not a \u2018mini CEO\u2019 or the \u2018CEO of their product\u2019, as a CEO has inherent power and veto authority, whereas a product manager must earn\u00a0theirs.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Of the 35 people that provided a definition, there were four loose themes that the definitions aligned to. Some definitions were very specific to one and others encompassed multiple themes.<\/p>\n These themes were collaboration<\/em><\/strong>, strategy<\/em><\/strong>, customer-focus<\/em><\/strong> and leadership.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n These are neither mutually exclusive nor are they collectively exhaustive. The amazing thing about product management is that it is so varied and can adapt to the needs of the market, industry, company, team, and even the individual. What this does give you is a reference point for the core definition of a product manager.<\/p>\n To some \u2018leadership\u2019 and \u2018collaboration\u2019 might seem at odds, but great leaders collaborate. It is no longer acceptable for leaders to tell;<\/em> they must instead convince<\/em>. Younger generations will only work for a company if they understand and buy into the company\u2019s mission. Because of this, servant leadership is becoming ever-more present in the workplace. A leader exists to fulfil the mission of the company and provide a product that customers need.<\/p>\n Ken Blanchard is the top dog as far as I\u2019m concerned when it comes to servant leadership, so it\u2019s well worth checking him out<\/a> if you\u2019re not already familiar with his work and his collab with Simon Sinek, while no Beyonce & Jay-Z collab, is well worth looking up.<\/p>\n Combining the principles and ethos I outlined at the beginning with the definitions provided by the survey, I\u2019ve created my definition of what a product manager must be. It covers all four of the definition themes:<\/p>\n \u201cA product manager must be customer-focussed but pragmatic, a leader that is willing to compromise, a strategist than can see the future and the present, and collaborate with the team but know when to fight for the \u2018right\u2019 thing to\u00a0do.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n How would you define product management? Let me know in the comments!<\/p>\n Lastly, a big thank you to everyone from the Product Coalition<\/a> Slack, Product School<\/a> Slack, and the BT Digital Team that provided definitions. You\u2019re all awesome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Reading Time: <\/span> 5<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span> Benjamin Franklin famously said that there are only two things certain in life: death and taxes. But you can delay death and avoid taxes\u200a\u2014\u200athe only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[20,16,17,23,22],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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<\/a>What is a product manager responsible for?<\/h3>\n
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Why<\/h4>\n
What<\/h4>\n
When<\/h4>\n
How<\/h4>\n
What does a product manager\u00a0own?<\/h3>\n
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Fulfilling these roles requires:<\/h6>\n
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Defining the role of a product\u00a0manager<\/h3>\n
The themes of definition<\/h3>\n
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