Understanding the product management function

This chapter is from Zero To PM

When starting out, almost every product manager comes across the trifecta that Martin Eriksson (co-founder and curator of Mind The Product) had proposed to define product management as the intersection between business, technology, and user experience. Another, equally famous definition of product management by Marty Cagan (founding partner of Silicon Valley Product Group and a veteran of product management) calls it as the function that discovers a product that is valuable, usable, and feasible. However, the one that captures the entire essence of the role is -

☝🏽Product management is an interdisciplinary function responsible for building products that solve real customer problems with solutions that fit within the organization's strategy while helping the business increase profitability and reach its financial goals.

Before we dig deeper into these definitions and understand the product management function, let’s first understand the reason why companies have products. Companies exist because they seem to have the solution and expertise to their customers’ problems.

Now, imagine if the company starts building a unique solution for each of its customers. It will soon exhaust its resources. Having a product that a company has to build once and sell many times is much more profitable than building a unique solution for each customer. Building a product that addresses the needs of a common set of customers is easier to sell, support, and scale.

Therefore, the reason companies have products is because the economies of scale are bigger with standard products that are repeatable and re-usable by all of its customers. 

💡 Having a product that the company has to build once and sell many times is much more profitable than building a unique solution for each customer. The economies of scale and profit are bigger with standard products that are repeatable and re-usable.

Now that we’ve established the reason why companies like to build standard products, let’s move on to understanding where product management fits in. In order to build standard products, companies first need to identify which customers to target, what market needs to address, and what the overall value proposition should be.

Thereafter, they need to build the product and sell it in a way that maximizes the company’s profit.

To do this efficiently, they need someone who understands the market and has the ability to run experiments to gain customer insights.

They need a function that has a balanced view across all the different aspects of the product - what’s technically feasible, what’s easier to build and has maximum impact, what to build next and why to build it, the commercial aspect of building one thing vs another and the long-term impact on the company.

They need someone in the company to have an objective view on the right business strategy to drive the product forward. That’s where product management comes in.


Product managers take upon themselves the responsibilities to gain relevant information about the target customers, to build and deliver products that meet the customers’ needs in a cost-effective way thus increasing revenues and profitability. 

Product managers don’t just stop there. They have to delight customers with a great product experience so that they generate positive word-of-mouth referrals, stay on top of the competition and strategize to ensure that the company grows to capture and own the market in the long-term. While doing all of these things, they cannot lose sight of the tactical stuff; the ever-rising demands, and the ever-changing needs of the target customer base. 
💡 Product Managers have to delight customers with a great product experience so that they generate positive word-of-mouth referrals, stay on top of the competition and strategize to ensure that the company grows to capture and own the market in the long-term.

The product management function will always be on the lookout for new product growth opportunities in the ocean of possibilities. In absence of the product management function, a company wanting to build standard products that are repeatable and re-usable will find itself juggling between short-term tactical work and long-term strategy. 


Building a product is a team game. Each function in the company brings its own expertise to the table. Engineers/developers build the product.

Designers make sure that the product has a great user experience.

Quality Assurance teams ensure that the shipped product is of superior quality.

Marketing creates buzz about the product’s value proposition to entice customers to purchase it.

Sales teams are responsible to convert the already intrigued customers into paying customers.

Thereon, customer success and customer support teams take over to resolve customers’ problems if any. 

This may make one wonder - what more might a company need to succeed? 

Are product managers even relevant?

Absolutely!

It’s true without doubt that product management is the glue that holds all the functions together. Each function in the company understands its roles, responsibilities, and contribution in making the product successful, but it is the product management function that has a bird-eye view of how the different functions come together to create a product. 

The product management function exactly knows which strings to pull and when during the journey of a product through its life-cycle. 

Illustration credit : Undraw.co
Product Management as shown in the above figure is at the center of all the functions involved in the building of a product and is responsible for the overall success of the product. 
The above explanation describes a very broad gamut of the product management function and may seem overwhelming. This may raise a question - What are the practical responsibilities of a product manager ? Let’s take a deeper look.
Here are some bullet points that will give you an idea of the tasks that a product manager does - 
  • Conduct research and define the product :Not all problems are worth solving. One of the major responsibilities of a product manager is to identify what problems to solve and how to solve them in an economically viable manner. In order to decide what product or features to build, a product manager has to conduct extensive research to gain insights about:
  • Customer Motivation :  Conducting interviews with customers, working with user research teams to create surveys, shadowing users while they use your product, and unraveling insights from usage data help a product manager understand customer needs and motivation. A product manager must act as a customer champion and articulate the customer’s needs within the company.
  • Competing Products :  A product manager has to make sure that the company does not lose sight of competing offerings and their business model and constantly seek opportunities to delight customers and outdo the competition. But before that,  it is imperative for a product manager to identify the competition. Apart from the competing products in the market, the greatest competition a product may face could be an obstacle that is prohibiting a customer from using your product.
  • Opportunity : A product manager has to conduct research to estimate the potential of the new initiatives or improvements to the existing products and develop business cases outlining the size of the market, cost of the opportunity, positioning of the solution and recommendation for setting product pricing.

A product manager must use all the above information to define a product/feature that addresses the customers’ needs and has unique differentiation as compared to the competition. This may be in the form of a product requirements document (PRD) in which the valuable market problem is well articulated, a solution with justification is proposed and the necessary features to delight the customers are outlined.

☝🏽 A product manager has to define a product requirements document (PRD) in which the valuable market problem is well articulated, a solution with justification is proposed and the necessary features to delight the customers are outlined.

  • Coordinate Execution : Once the stakeholders and the team are onboard with the vision, the product manager has to work with designers and engineers to make the product a reality. The product manager has to create a list of features that the product will need and also maintain a list of past requests from customers as well as internal departments. This forms the product roadmap that the product manager has to prioritize in such a way that it delivers maximum impact to the company vision. In doing so, the product manager has to work with different teams like :

  • Design : A product manager has to work with the designers to translate the product vision into mockups and design that provide a clearer picture of the product. The inputs from the product manager are crucial to help designers define a stellar user experience for the users. At times, a product manager has to work with the UX designers to conduct usability testing and surveys to zero-in on the best possible experience for the users.
  • Engineering : As the product is being built, a product manager has to constantly liaise with engineers to scope the effort and timelines. At times, when features take longer or cost more, a product manager has to make features versus cost versus schedule trade-offs. A product manager has to resolve blockers during development and triage bugs to ensure that the deadlines are met. Because it is the product manager who writes the specifications, they will be the ones who will need to run acceptance tests and provide feedback to the team . 
  • Marketing : A product manager has to collaborate with the marketing team to figure out the right messaging for the product and other marketing activities like partner and customer outreach, press releases and webinars. They have to ensure that the marketing  team is equipped with whatever is necessary to create a buzz about the product/feature being launched. 
  • Support and Success :  Customer support and success teams are the first line of defence. They have immense information about customers’ pain points and their requests. A product manager has to work with these teams to incorporate their feedback and also keep them updated on the progress of customer requested features, bug fixes and new product initiatives etc.

☝🏽 The ability to make tough decisions and doing what is right is what makes the product manager’s role so special. A product manager has to make numerous micro-decisions during the entire lifecycle of the product; some on his own, and some with the team.

During the entire lifecycle of the product, there will be numerous micro-decisions that a product manager will have to make; some on his own, and some with the team after evaluating the trade-offs through thorough discussions. Participating in the daily status update meetings and weekly planning meetings with different teams, organizing demos, resolving blockers, conducting demos, monitoring the progress, running beta or early access programs with customers, analysing the metrics of recent releases are some of the things a product manager does to ensure smooth execution of the product vision. 

  • Communicate and Evangelise :  A product manager has to be the voice of the customers within the company and represent them in every critical product decision made. This involves communicating and evangelising the product heavily to get the entire team to rally behind you for a common cause. A product manager has to continuously be in contact with the key stakeholders in the company regarding the product decisions made and provide them status updates. They have to conduct product training for sales and support teams, decide on demo content and at times provide assistance during product demos. A product manager has to also evangelise the product at conferences and customer workshops to make sure the value proposition of the product is conveyed to the target customers efficiently. They also have to work with external third parties to assess partnership opportunities.

It must be evident to you by now that product management is truly a cross functional role and the responsibilities are varied. In fact, the beauty of product management lies in the truly diverse nature of the job.