Product Manager
Encyclopedia
A product manager investigates, selects, and develops products for an organization, performing the activities of product management
.
A product manager considers numerous factors such as intended demographic, the products offered by the competition, and how well the product fits with the company's business model. Generally, a product manager manages one or more tangible products. However, the term may be used to describe a person who manages intangible products, such as music, information, and services.
A product manager's role in tangible goods industries is similar to a program director
's role in service industries.
Diverse interpretations regarding the role of the product manager are the norm. The product manager title is often used in many ways to describe drastically different duties and responsibilities.
Even within the high-tech industry where product management
is better defined, the product manager's job description varies widely among companies. This is due to tradition and intuitive interpretations by different individuals.
In the financial services industry (banking, insurance etc.), product managers manage products (for example, credit card portfolios), their profit and loss, and also determine the business development strategy.
In a Scrum
environment, a Product Manager is also referred to as the Product Owner, and usually has the main role of representing the product to the customer. Some of the responsibilities of the Product Owner include marketing of the product and analysis of the competition.
In some companies, the product manager also acts as a:
using a Marketing Requirements Document
(MRD) developed by the product planning/marketing team and developing a high level Product Requirements Document
(PRD) and an elaborate Software Requirements Specification
(SRS) for the software engineering/development organization for subsequent design, development, and testing activities. In most organizations, the software product manager is responsible for creating User Acceptance Test (UAT) procedures, facilitating UAT sessions with end-users, and ensuring that the product meets the specifications and is deployed successfully.
Product management
Product management is an organizational lifecycle function within a company dealing with the planning, forecasting, or marketing of a product or products at all stages of the product lifecycle....
.
A product manager considers numerous factors such as intended demographic, the products offered by the competition, and how well the product fits with the company's business model. Generally, a product manager manages one or more tangible products. However, the term may be used to describe a person who manages intangible products, such as music, information, and services.
A product manager's role in tangible goods industries is similar to a program director
Program director
In service industries, such as education, a program director or programme director researches, plans, develops and implements one or more of the firm's professional services...
's role in service industries.
Diverse interpretations regarding the role of the product manager are the norm. The product manager title is often used in many ways to describe drastically different duties and responsibilities.
Even within the high-tech industry where product management
Product management
Product management is an organizational lifecycle function within a company dealing with the planning, forecasting, or marketing of a product or products at all stages of the product lifecycle....
is better defined, the product manager's job description varies widely among companies. This is due to tradition and intuitive interpretations by different individuals.
In the financial services industry (banking, insurance etc.), product managers manage products (for example, credit card portfolios), their profit and loss, and also determine the business development strategy.
In a Scrum
Scrum (development)
Scrum is an iterative, incremental framework for project management often seen in agile software development, a type of software engineering....
environment, a Product Manager is also referred to as the Product Owner, and usually has the main role of representing the product to the customer. Some of the responsibilities of the Product Owner include marketing of the product and analysis of the competition.
In some companies, the product manager also acts as a:
- Product marketingProduct marketingProduct marketing deals with the first of the "7P"'s of marketing, which are Product, Pricing, Place, and Promotion, Packaging, Positioning & People....
manager — may perform all outbound marketingOutbound MarketingInterruption marketing is a pejorative term that refers to promoting a product through continued advertising, promotions, public relations and sales. It is considered to be an annoying version of the traditional way of doing marketing whereby companies focus on finding customers through advertising...
activities in the older sense of the term - Project managerProject managerA project manager is a professional in the field of project management. Project managers can have the responsibility of the planning, execution, and closing of any project, typically relating to construction industry, architecture, computer networking, telecommunications or software...
— may perform all activities related to schedule and resource management - Program managerProgram ManagerProgram Manager is the shell of Windows 3.x and Windows NT 3.x operating systems. This shell exposed a task-oriented graphical user interface , consisting of icons arranged into program groups. It replaced MS-DOS Executive, a file manager, as the default Windows shell.The program derives from the...
— may perform activities related to schedule, resource, and cross-functional execution
Software product manager
A typical software product manager is responsible for eliciting software requirementsRequirements elicitation
In requirements engineering, requirements elicitation is the practice of obtaining the requirements of a system from users, customers and other stakeholders...
using a Marketing Requirements Document
Marketing Requirements Document
A market requirements document in project management and systems engineering, is a document that expresses the customer's wants and needs for the product or service.It is typically written as a part of product marketing or product management...
(MRD) developed by the product planning/marketing team and developing a high level Product Requirements Document
Product requirements document
A product requirements document is a document written by a company that defines a product they are making, or the requirements for one or more new features for an existing product...
(PRD) and an elaborate Software Requirements Specification
Software Requirements Specification
-Organization of an SRS:A Software Requirements Specification – a requirements specification for a software system – is a complete description of the behavior of a system to be developed. It includes a set of use cases that describe all the interactions the users will have with the software. In...
(SRS) for the software engineering/development organization for subsequent design, development, and testing activities. In most organizations, the software product manager is responsible for creating User Acceptance Test (UAT) procedures, facilitating UAT sessions with end-users, and ensuring that the product meets the specifications and is deployed successfully.
See also
- Program directorProgram directorIn service industries, such as education, a program director or programme director researches, plans, develops and implements one or more of the firm's professional services...
- Collaborative Product DevelopmentCollaborative Product DevelopmentCollaborative product development is a business strategy, work process and collection of software applications that facilitates different organizations to work together on the development of a product...
- New product developmentNew product developmentIn business and engineering, new product development is the term used to describe the complete process of bringing a new product to market. A product is a set of benefits offered for exchange and can be tangible or intangible...
- Product managementProduct managementProduct management is an organizational lifecycle function within a company dealing with the planning, forecasting, or marketing of a product or products at all stages of the product lifecycle....
- Product planningProduct planningProduct Planning is the ongoing process of identifying and articulating market requirements that define a product’s feature set.Product planning serves as the basis for decisions about price, distribution and promotion.- See also :* Product planning...
- Product marketingProduct marketingProduct marketing deals with the first of the "7P"'s of marketing, which are Product, Pricing, Place, and Promotion, Packaging, Positioning & People....
- Marketing requirements documentMarketing Requirements DocumentA market requirements document in project management and systems engineering, is a document that expresses the customer's wants and needs for the product or service.It is typically written as a part of product marketing or product management...