Let's talk about such a position as Product Manager , which is just entering the labor market and is indispensable for companies that want to expand, and also touch on the differences between this role and the role of a project manager.
Who is Product Manager?
A product manager is a person who is responsible for creating a product or products for a company. What is a product ? This is a product or service that is created specifically to meet the needs of the market. A product manager works with a product from the moment an idea is conceived until its “death”. Product lifespan is relative and has no clear boundaries, unlike a project, which has a clear timeline and budget.
This is the main difference between the two PMs: it is the product that is important to the product, and the implementation process to the project. In addition, as a rule, one product is a number of projects; while the project is not equal to the product.
Product Manager Tasks
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A quote by Marty Kegan from Inspirational: How to Build Hit Products well describes the two roles and how they differ in terms of objectives:
"The product manager has to develop the right product, and the project manager is responsible for the right product development."
Responsibilities of the product manager
- Writing and testing hypotheses.
- Communication with customers.
- Analysis of the product, its weaknesses and strengths.
- Market analysis, target audience, competitors with further documentation.
- Writing product requirements and coordinating functionality with the development team, agreeing on MVP.
- Negotiating prices, loyalty programs, working with prototypes and conducting demos to get feedback.
- Product launch, control of its releases, work on new functionality to meet market requirements.
The product manager works with the customer, with potential users of the product, and with the development team. His main indicator is the profit that the product developed by him brings . While the project manager is more focused on the technical side of the issue - to have time to complete everything within a certain time frame, invest in the budget, maintain a favorable atmosphere within the team and successfully close a separate project (which will only be a milestone in the creation of a product).
Who is the Product Manager for?
Employers see this position as a person with a degree in marketing, management or economics who can analyze and organize large amounts of data, understand what the client's journey looks like, has experience with agile methodologies, and is ready to quickly explore the domain and understand its features . Communication skills are also very important for getting the right feedback from potential clients and working with teams.
The average salary for a product manager with less than 1 year of experience, according to DOU, is $ 950, and after 4 years of work in this position, we can already talk about $ 2000.
This role is a great prospect as it allows grow into various management roles, up to CEO .
In modern reality, the role of a product manager is often a second role for a business analyst, project manager, and sometimes a tester or developer. For the project as a whole, it is very helpful for team members to wear a product manager hat to see how what they are doing will meet the expectations of their users.
This is a promising profession that is in demand in the labor market, but the number of candidates is still quite small. Be proactive - learn what will be relevant in a couple of years!