Why it’s so hard to agree on what a product manager does
Ask 100 people in the SaaS industry what a Product Manager does, and you’ll get 100 (slightly) different answers. Let’s break down some common misconceptions, and talk about 3 reasons they came about
Disclaimer: this article focuses on the role of the Product Manager in the Software-as-a-Service(SaaS) industry, so it doesn’t apply to everyone
Part 1: Not a CEO
Let’s get this out of the way: a Product Manager is not the “CEO” of their Product areas- at any company size.
I’ve experienced both. I used to be the CEO at a startup I cofounded, and am currently a Product Manager for a platform that handles billions worth of commodities a month.
Because of the network I built while being a founder, I still hang out with many founders of various company stages, and we often bounce ideas off each other to problem-solve for our biggest work headaches in a more intimate and relaxed environment.
Let me assure you: the two jobs look very different. There are similarities, but if you think being a Product Manager is like being a CEO, it’s because you’ve never tried being a CEO.
Being a Product Manager can be stressful. In comparison, being a CEO is soul-breaking stressful: you feel the weight of the entire company on your shoulders, and know that any mistake you make will make it or break it.
Already in mid-size companies, the Product vision is generally set at an executive level, or even further up, by the board.
If a Product Manager has a convincing argument to change that plan, they better collect the data and make their pitch to every stakeholder that needs to approve it. In this sense, they are similar to a startup founder- continuously having to advocate for what to build next.
Unlike a CEO, a product manager is generally told which products and markets to work on. This is especially true at venture-backed companies where the board, which includes the investor, has a heavy hand in shaping the product strategy based on the overall portfolio strategy of the VC.
CEOs have less constraints than product managers, as they have the formal authority to redirect resources. A big problem with the Product Manager’s job is there is a ton of responsibility and little formal authority.
Part 2: Rejecting the traditional concept of a “job title”
The concept of a “job title” in tech is different than in traditional industries- it’s not clear cut.
Medical Doctors need to have a Masters in Medicine and have completed a residency program. Lawyers need a Law Degree, and to have passed the bar exam. These are called formal titles, and most often convey that the title has been bestowed upon a person because of academic achievement. More on this topic here.
By contrast, almost everything in tech is an occupational title, which often evolves into a work-life philosophy for those who uphold it.
In most tech companies, this holds true across departments. Some of the best software engineers are college dropouts who obsessively focused the past 10 years of their lives at becoming the best, mostly learning by doing.
They constantly have to build new skills to keep up with how fast tech stacks evolve. Once they stop keeping up, they can no longer be the best. To describe the function they perform, we call them “engineers”, regardless of whether they formally hold an engineering degree.
While there is no formal “product” degree, it’s the same for product professionals: in order to be the best, they have to keep learning and growing.
Regardless of whether you hold a high-school degree or a PhD, if you work in tech all that matters is your ability to perform. In an environment where failing fast is celebrated, and products are re-built every couple of years, the concept of a “job title” in the traditional sense loses importance.
Occupational titles evolve over time together with technology, market, and industry needs. That’s why if you ask people of similar ages, who work in similar countries, and serve similar market verticals, you will get similar answers to “what does a product manager do”.
The definition of “product manager” 5 years ago is not the same as it is today, or what it will be in 5 years. The tricky thing is that it slowly evolves over time, alongside the ideas that tech workers have of product management.
So all of us who work in product management today are collectively shaping the definition of what a product manager is.
Part 3: Product, program, or project manager — Confused? So is everyone else
The roles of product managers, product owners, program managers, and project managers look different depending on the company size. This is because different stages of the business have different product needs.
At an early-stage startup, product is a function largely performed by the founders as they engineer version 1.0.
As a company grows in size, each role will become more specialized and there will be clearer delineations of responsibilities. At the Fortune 500-level company, there might be an entire team dedicated to a function performed by one person at a startup.
So what happens in-between? Chaos… and I’m only half-joking.
In product, you own the product line and focus on what business problem needs to be solved for the user.
In project management you own the “how”, focusing on the methodology, time, and resources used to solve a problem.
In program management, you are supposed to keep an overview across teams to insure resources are spent proportionally to the items of highest business value.
These three roles are supposed to be parallel forces negotiating with each other, each championing the greater good for the business.
As product people, we need to secure all the resources as we need to reach the business goals for our product lines.
If what we are doing is too expensive, project management should push back, and help find a way of doing things with less resources, more efficiently.
Program would point out whether those resources are best spent on other products that the product manager in question doesn’t have visibility into.
Ideally, these three roles would be pulling at each other like a triangle, creating balance.
Since all three functions focus on a similar area of the business, and work closely with each other, it‘s fairly easy to switch between them, and people in the SaaS industry do so all the time, cross-pollinating skills.
Ten years ago, most people in tech didn’t even know about the existence of product or program management. Product work was split between engineering, project management, and design.
As the SaaS model took over, the roles of product and program management grew in popularity to fill the needs of fast-paced tech businesses.
Side note: I started my career in account management, moved to project management, became a founder, and then fell in love with product. Where are you looking to be?
Conclusion
Most product managers in SaaS either studied business, computer science, or some variation of these two fields. When you graduate with a B.A. in Business, you don’t get a title.
The expectation is that your job title will change as you build your skillset and prove yourself. In product, your ability to define the job itself by prioritizing the most important tasks determines how good of a product manager you are.
For most product people, the “product manager” descriptor is an essential part of their professional brand. In the tech industry, our job titles often indicate a class of people we identify with- which is why the debate over what these titles mean is so heated, and will forever be ongoing.
To summarize why it’s so hard to agree on what a product manager does:
- The product manager is not a CEO, as they don’t have the same authority or level of responsibility to the business. Calling product managers “mini CEOs” creates confusion
- “Product manager” is an occupational title that describes a job function, which evolves continuously over time in function of technology, markets, workplace culture
- Product, program, and project management are three functions that have grown alongside each other, which is why some people confuse them. At different company scales, parts of these three functions can overlap
