Why Product Management Is More Than Managing Products
When companies decide they’re ready to hire a product manager, they naturally start by defining the role, the products they’ll manage, and where they’ll fit in the organization.
What companies often discover later is that the value goes beyond the role. They’ve added someone who brings a different way of thinking to the business.
They think like an owner. They feel responsible for the success of their product, even though they may not control every decision that affects it.
They have a point of view. They listen to customers, sales, engineering, operations, and leadership, but their job isn’t simply to report what they hear. It’s to make sense of what they’re learning and develop a perspective on what it means.
They see opportunity. They look beyond what customers are asking for today and consider where the business can create greater value in the future.
And they create momentum. They don’t stop at developing a strategy or roadmap. They help turn direction into action and move the organization forward.
I’ve come to believe that this way of thinking is one of the biggest benefits of adding product management to an organization. You’re not just giving someone responsibility for a group of products. You’re adding someone who feels responsible for their success and is continually looking for ways to move the business forward.
