One of the most important and critical positions in many companies—that of Product Manager (PM)—is often not properly defined. Although the roles and responsibilities of Product Managers (PMs) vary widely among industries and enterprises, all PMs are ultimately responsible for the success of their products.
Consider PMs to be information gatherers. their product vision and long-term strategic direction are shaped by the insights they gain about:
- Their company’s long-term objectives
- What the market wants and what it has to offer
- Their ability to make the thing a reality with the resources at their disposal
Connecting business strategy, design knowledge and customer needs is what a product manager does. They work to make sure the product is relevant, attainable, and valuable. PMs work to make sure a product meets the needs of both the business and the users while also getting the best value for the money spent on it.
In this job, the product manager takes care of everything that is about the product, from design to process flor to user experience. The product manager is the glue that connects the three main groups:
- Developers – Engineers and Designers Team
- Users and Customers – Represents them within the org and team
- Business – Sales / Marketing / Legal etc.
Every product manager is unique because each one has a different mix of customers, businesses, and developers. This means that the type of work they’ll be in is also different.
As an example, an API product manager might have customers who all work in the same field. A product manager might need to be much better at technical skills which is what that implies
As a different example, a manager of a consumer product might have millions of customers, so they need to be very good at math and understand quantitative numbers.
B2B product managers might only work with a few customers at a time, so they need to be very good at change management, negotiations, and dealing with people who don’t like what they do.
Even if you work for the same company, you might see a wide range of product managers. Each product manager is working on a completely different set of problems. Their customers, business stakeholders, and development teams are all different, so they have to work with a lot of different people to make things work.
PMs have two key responsibilities: they must establish the company’s long-term vision and strategy for its goods and then convey that plan to all relevant participants and stakeholders.
It is critical to communicate a strategy and goal, as well as precise plans and their justifications. To accomplish their tasks, PMs must generate consensus, dismantle (or at the very least work across) organizational silos, and win over stakeholders. More than any other role, product managers deal with the diverse personality types of individuals who can contribute to the success and growth of a product, as well as its crash and failure.
