Product Management & Product Marketing - A Definition

In my 11+ years in the high-tech industry, the least well-defined job that I have come across is that of the... drum roll please... 'Product Manager' (and the closely associated role of 'Product Marketing Manager'). The role of a Product Manager (PM) varies quite widely across different segments in the high-tech industry, and even across different companies in the same segment.

In this article, I'll try to shed some light on the role of a PM by summarizing their major responsibilities. But, first an anecdote!

It Is What You Define It Is!About a year ago, I interviewed at a startup that makes software in the 'human resources' field - let us call them Scooby-Doo, Inc (not their real name!). They were looking to hire someone who can build their product management team. The two founders were the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and VP of Engineering. They had secured about $10 Million in funding from two venture capitalists in Silicon Valley just a couple of weeks earlier.

I arrived on time at the well appointed offices of Scooby-Doo, Inc. First up was the CTO, a very pleasant guy dressed in Scooby-Doo T-Shirt, shorts and funky sandals! During the interview, I asked him what was the main reason he wanted to build a product management team.

He said he wanted someone to document all the features in their product (which had already been created) in one Word document so that they can understand what features were in their product. He also said he didn't want the PM team to "muck around with defining features or product strategy" because between him and the VP of Engineering, they had it covered.

Next up was the VP of Engineering. I asked him the same question - "What is the biggest reason you want to build a product management team?". He told me that he wanted someone to create UML diagrams of the current product as well as for all the new features that he planned to come up with so that developers could implement them.

What Do Product Managers Do?While the role of a PM varies widely depending on the company, there are several key responsibilities that product managers usually undertake at a vast majority of successful high-tech companies - based on my own experiences as well as conversations with friends in the industry. I've grouped them into the following six categories:

1. Market Research:

This refers to the activities of studying a market to understand the customer needs, competitive landscape, and market forces - with the ultimate goal of uncovering opportunities for creating product enhancements as well as new products.

This is done via conversations with customers or potential customers, talking to customer-facing teams such as sales and support, studying reports and articles on the marketplace, test driving competitive products, keeping tabs on customer behavior, and other such activities.

This culminates with the PM preparing a business case, product strategy and/or business requirements document (BRD) detailing how to capitalize on the uncovered opportunities.

2. Product Definition and Design:

a) Product Definition refers to the activities of specifying what a product needs to do. This is usually done via what is referred to as Market Requirements Document (MRD) or Product Requirements Document (PRD). This document may include information such as product vision, target market, competitive summary, detailed description of product features, prioritization of features, use cases, system requirements, performance requirements, sales and support requirements, etc.

b) Product Design refers to the activities of specifying the look and feel of the product including the user interface (UI) and the user interaction with the product - covering the whole spectrum of user experience. In larger companies the PM works with UI designers or interaction designers to create this, while in startups the PM may do all of these.

I consider this to be the most valuable among a PM's activities - so much so that I actually think product manager jobs which don't include this responsibility are really not product manager jobs at all!

3. Project Management:

This refers to the activities of leading cross-functional teams including engineering, QA, UI design, marketing, sales and support to develop and launch the product on-time and on-budget. This may include securing resources, creating project timelines, tracking progress against timeline, identifying critical paths, getting additional resources when needed, and communicating status to the executive team.

In larger companies, Project Managers actually perform most of these activities with the support of PM's. In very small startups, the PM may be asked to do these by herself. In some companies, the Engineering Lead may do most of these activities as well.

4. Evangelizing the Product:

This includes the activities of communicating the product benefits, features and target markets, and in general championing the product to internal teams such as sales, marketing, support and executives. This also includes evangelizing the product to external audience such as press, analysts and customers.

In larger companies, the PM is supported by the Product Marketing, Marketing Communications (MarCom) and/or Press Relations (PR) teams in evangelizing to external audience.

I consider this to be the second most valuable among a PM's activities - especially evangelizing to the sales & marketing teams, and the executives to create excitement around the product.

5. Product Marketing:

This refers to the activities of outbound messaging - telling the world about the product. This includes creating collateral such as datasheets, brochures, website, flash presentations, press packages, trade shows and more.

In larger companies, the product marketing activities are almost always separated from the PM. They're instead performed by the Product Marketing Manager. The biggest shortcoming of this arrangement is the resultant inefficiencies in communication and the weakening of outbound messaging.

In some companies the terms 'Product Management' and 'Product Marketing' are used synonymously and one person is responsible for all activities. In companies where there are separate 'Product Management' and 'Product Marketing' groups, the latter group performs all the activities mentioned in this category. They may also perform some of the activities in categories 1, 4 and 6.

6. Product Life Cycle Management:

This refers to the activities of managing a product as it goes through its life cycle from ideation to launch to growth to maturity, and eventually to decline.

This includes tasks such as product positioning, pricing and promotion, product portfolio management, competitive strategy, making build/buy/partner decisions, and identifying and developing partnerships. The PM works with Product Marketing, Business Development and MarCom teams on many of these activities.

There you have it - my attempt at demystifying the role of product management (and the associated role of product marketing). I hope this helps product managers and product marketers as well as those who work with them - including a certain friendly CTO who likes cartoon T-Shirts!

P.S. In case you're wondering, I decided to pass on Scooby-Doo, Inc. I ran into their CTO at an event recently - they have built a 3 person Product Management team and the company is doing well.

About the Author: I'm your author, Michael Shrivathsan, an expert in product management and product marketing with successful experience spanning two decades. I live in Silicon Valley, USA. For my day job, I manage the product management group at an exciting software startup.

Comments

In my current company product managers focus almost exclusively on tasks mentioned in sections #2 and #3. #1 is done by executives. While #4 and #5 are done by product marketing managers.

It is very amusing for me to read your story about the CTO with cartoon T shirt. In our company that would be unimaginable. It must be good (or bad depending on whose sandals you are in!!!) to be in silicon valley.

Posted by: Raj Pandi | April 8, 2006 03:31 AM

There is so much confusion between the roles of product manager, product marketing manager, project manager and program manager. Any one of these jobs could be referred to as "PM" depending on the company.

When I worked at Microsoft in Redmond, "Program Managers" created the specs and drove the schedules (this is 2 and 3 in your list), and "Product Managers" did the activities you listed under 'Product Marketing' and 'Product Life Cycle Management'.

Now I work in the valley at a medium sized company. At this company, "Product Marketing Managers" do 1, 2a and parts of 4 and 6. "Product Design Managers" do 2b. "Project Managers" do 3. "Marketing Managers" do 5 and parts of 4 and 6.

My wife works at a 100-person start-up here. There "Product Managers" do 1, 2, 4 and 6. "Engineering Program Managers" do 3 and "Product Marketing Managers" do 5. Does your head spin yet?

Posted by: Kevin | April 8, 2006 11:30 AM

This is a very nice post. I have a slightly different view one one point. I think the market research to identify product opportunities is the most valuable activity of a product manager, since this can add the most value to a company in the form of additional revenue streams. What do you think?

Posted by: Adam T | April 9, 2006 02:34 AM

Great article, Michael!

I've added a post at Tyner Blain pointing our readers to your summary - good stuff. I've tried to add a couple tweaks and insights to the post as well. Don't know that I could have found the time to pull it all together as well as you have - very cool.

Scott

ps: I linked to our post (click on my name), which won't show up until 11pm CST, so if you get an error today, wait until tomorrow to check it out. Thanks

Posted by: Scott Sehlhorst | April 9, 2006 02:56 PM

Hi Adam: Good point on what you consider to be the most "valuable" activity of a PM. I agree that it is very valuable since it adds new revenue streams. The reason I didn't pick it is because it happens very discontinuously, while the two I picked happen regularly and are a core part of PM's responsibilities. That said - I have no problems with your pick, it makes a lot of sense too.

Hey Scott: Nice post on your blog. I checked it out - it is nice to see we agree on most points. On the couple of points where you had a different take, I certainly see the pluses in your take. Thanks for the compliments as well!

Posted by: Michael | April 10, 2006 10:44 AM

I agree that the "product manager" role is one of the least well-defined roles in the software industry. I've seen and heard about so many different variations of the PM role, it is quite hard to keep track of!

I think your classifications make sense overall, good job. I agree that defining features and prioritizing them should be the #1 job of a PM. If this job is not done well, it almost doesn't matter how good the other teams are. The product can't be a success if it is loaded with the wrong features.

I agree with Scott's blog post that it may make sense to separate 2a and 2b into separate categories.

If a company does a good job of defining the PM role and implementing it well, it can become a very important strength for the company.

Posted by: Josh Thomson | April 10, 2006 12:38 PM

In my company product management and product marketing used to be done by the same person. We owned most of the activities you list under categories 1, 2, 5 and 6.

Recently they hired a new VP who separated it into two positions:1. Product management (defined as "Inbound")2. Product marketing (defined as "Outbound)

He hired a lot of new persons to fill product marketing jobs, while most of us were designated Product Managers.

Results have not been pretty. There is a lot of confusion between where one position stops and the other starts. We're stepping on each others' toes and fighting all the time. This has led to loss of morale and loss of productivity.

Time to move on I guess. It is such a shame as this used to be a very good company.

Posted by: Sanjay | April 11, 2006 12:39 AM

This is a very useful article about roles of product managers. I'm the founder/CEO of a small software startup, about 25 employees. We don't have any product managers right now, but I'm starting to realize the need for one. This article helps me quite a bit, it is one of the most 'practical' ones I've read so far. Especially helpful is realizing I can find product managers who play a wider role than what I understood from talking to some friends at large software companies. Thanks!!

Posted by: Jason | April 13, 2006 08:36 PM

Nice article. As the role of Product Manager vary from company to company, from person to person, the categories can be under these sections:1) Inbound vs outbound2) Product management vs Product marketing management3) MRD vs. PRD4) Design vs. Build

I have been a product manager since last 5 years, and in my experience product manager's role is basically (some or all of it): strategy, analysis, design, build, integration, launch, maintenance and obsolescence. (Guess where did I work?)

Posted by: Prabhat Behera | April 17, 2006 07:35 PM

Michael,

This is a really nice write up. Considering all the possible aspects and varied views of what product management can or should be, this is nicely concise.

In the more traditional world of marketing and product management (e.g. consumer packaged goods and not high tech), product management is often referred to as "brand management" which frequently implies a more holistic or general management view, where ALL factors impacting the success or failure of a given product are part of the product managers job description. Somehow the formalization of that mentality doesn't seem to be part of the common thinking when it comes to PM for technology oriented products and services.

Lastly, you mention "pricing" under 6; it could easily have elements that go into 1 and 5. I have worked on "pricing" on 3-4 different software offerings and repeatedly found it to be one of the most challenging and elusive of tasks. Everyone wants to own the pricing, but few actually want to tackle its ambiguities and complexities. I have found it to be best addressed with strong involvement of finance (for modeling and cost assumptions) as well as both sales and marketing.

Posted by: Jon VW | June 20, 2006 10:34 AM

HI,tHAT WAS A GOODONE..

Posted by: hari | July 20, 2006 02:47 AM

Thanks for writing this great article Michael. It's helping me to understand my new duties as a software product manager at a growing biotech company. My first task is to write my new job description and it seemed very unclear to me.

Posted by: Mark | July 24, 2006 02:24 PM

Hi Michael,

It was good to read this very informative article of yours. I have been offered the position of Product Manager with the actual offer being that of a Content Manager.

As my work is based on web content management, how deviating (proile wise)will it be to work as a Product Manager or is it a more dynamic position ? I would be glad to know your comments on this.

Regards

Posted by: Anonymous | August 22, 2006 03:36 AM

Hi Michael,

I'm a software engineer looking to find a job where I can utilize both my technical background as well as my MBA. I work at a company where the roles of product, program and marketing manager are blurry and because of this I've been having a hard time figuring out where it is that I want to be in this company. What I mean is that I couldn't figure out if my interest really fall in the realm of a product manager or program manager. Your article offers some really helpful insights and helped me build a clearer picture about the function of the above mentioned roles.

Thank You

Posted by: J. Josephson | September 10, 2006 08:55 AM

Hi,

I find this article very helpful as this provides complete insight about role of a product manager. As I am working as Regional Sales Manager in sales deptt with Glaxo Smith Kline in Pakistan.In order to get more deep knowledge of different selling techniques & product manamgment skills. This article is very helpful to get more information regarding my intrest.

Regards

Posted by: M Zubair sadiq Ch | October 13, 2006 11:54 PM

Perfect information for my current confused state. Our company is struggling to define the differences between product marketing and business development. Your last sentence "The PM works with Product Marketing, Business Development and MarCom teams on many of these activities" particularly caught my eye. Where does Business Development traditionally function? Our company has Bus Dev doing initial research and preparing the business case for new opportunities for product enhancements, new services, product integration, and/or product and/or service acquisitions. Is it generally that Product Marketing brings ideas to Bus Dev for further investigation?

Hi Michelle,In some small companies, I've seen what you describe.

At most companies though, Biz Dev focuses on things such as partnerships, relationships with channels, etc. Product Management/Marketing focuses on products - including intitial research, product definition, etc.

Hope that helps clarify...

- Michael

Posted by: Michelle L. | October 18, 2006 04:39 PM

What is the difference between hardware & software product management? I am currently a Product Marketing Mgr for a hardware based company looking to move into software/internet products. My current job covers #1, 2a, 4, 5 & 6.

Posted by: Naomi | October 30, 2006 09:13 AM

As a human resources person who from time-to-time must seek top-notch product managers, I found this article a good way to capsulize the role to help our recruiters understand it better. Now, for all of you current product managers or people on their way to becoming one (perhaps a marketing engineer today), we have an ongoing search for talent. If the Hartford, CT area sounds attractive, get in touch. We're less than 1.5 hours to Boston and less than 2 hours to NYC, with lots of mountains, the ocean, Long Island Sound, lakes and academic resources also within same distances. We are a hardware and software company. Would love to hear from you. Contact Carrie at: Carrie.Pazda@gerberscientific.com and let her know how you found us.

Posted by: Mike | October 31, 2006 01:34 PM

your article is a goog access for some new guy as me to understand their job.I graduated from my university last year and now work as a product manager in a 200+ persons sized company in China.In our company,product manager do 1,2.

For more knowledge and experiences about product management,I will keep eyes on your further article.

Thank you very much !Michael.

Posted by: keky | November 13, 2006 07:29 PM

Nice article Michael!

Posted by: kaushal | June 12, 2007 01:48 PM

You should compare software available for product managers and product marketers too. I did a quick one at Product Management SOftware. Tell me what you think.