The Role of The Product Manager
From working as a web product manager for the past few years I’ve observed that the role has had to adapt with the changes to project delivery processes and practices, most recently agile management methods.
Probably the key role of a product manager is opportunity identification and assessment. This is a really mixed bag. On the one hand I think it is really important that the Product Manager keeps a fresh eye on the market place and has a good relationship with analysts/strategists inside and outside the business. Good ideas typically come from all over the place though and the most important thing is that the Product Manager captures these.
Beyond this I think two further key elements of the role are requirements gathering and project management. Once a good opportunity has been identified someone needs to add detail to the idea, this would typically be in the form of prioritised features and functionality, whilst at all times keeping an eye on the user experience. Beyond this is the setting of the release criteria and the required timeframe for delivering the product.
With the advent of agile project development I would say that this role naturally extends (often) to working with the project delivery teams to ensure that the team is fully functional and productive – this would be to ensure communication and collaboration, removing any blocks hindering project development and managing sign-off from the wider business.
By extension the product manager is a suitable candidate to fulfil the scrum master role. This would be the role of facilitating the agile development process ensuring that things like scrums, burn-down, task break-down (stories written) and demos all happen.
With this bent towards more involvement in the development process, the product manager role expands and becomes an ever more challenging role inside the business.
Carl Knibbs
Reader Comments (7)
Carl, you had me until this... "Beyond this I think two further key elements of the role are requirements gathering and project management." Project management is a VERY tactical activity and should be nowhere within the job description of a product manager. How does managing project resources and updating schedules help you achieve sustainable product leadership?
Thanks Stewart, I hear what you are saying. Maybe I have a hang-up on the Project Management aspects of the role from my role at the BBC where Product Managers, not using agile, often did project management. True enough, this never felt right at the time and all the Product Managers used to moan about it.
Maybe actually, the Project Management function is redundant in agile and shouldn't really be referred to. Maybe, the new shape of things is that in agile, when the Product Manager is working really closely with the team, all those traditional Project Manager tasks are addressed as part of the sprint/iteration.
I guess the thrust of my argument here though is that the Product Manager should work really close, nay within, the agile delivery team. With regards release crireia, requirements, time-scales - this should be produced collaboartively within the planning of the iteration.
Thanks again for your comments. Would you agree with this or do you see it another way?
Read these articles:
http://scalingsoftwareagility.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/enterprise-agility-the-big-picture-9-the-agile-product-manager/
... and watch this....
http://community.featureplan.com/community/2007/11/webinar_november_29_enabling_the_agile_enterprise.php
Sounds like you are too close to the Agile team.
I think it is always going to be difficult to give a definitive answer to what is a product manager in all cases, because all companies and teams have different structures and influences.
In our case I think it is possible to perform the product management role of understanding the customer and the market, providing vision and long term strategy, and prioritised requirements while also doing the more administrative project manager / scrum master role.
Our teams are small and collocated and the way we have set up our processes and documentation mean that it is quick to do. As a product manager I think having this level of knowledge of what’s going on in the team really helps me to make decisions on any delivery issues and understand the possibilities for future requirements.
Thanks Nicki, I agree with you. The benefit of actually being in the agile team is that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing. I think this is a luxury that can be afforded in a smaller company.
How this works in a bigger organisation, I am not sure. Product Managers in larger companies may have enough on their plate being the interface to all the various areas of that business, and I know how that can be.
I attended a course ran by Marty Cagan, it was while ago now, but he talked about the swiftist way to get web products out there was for a small team of PM, Design and Software to shape and develop a product together. Each individual bringing their own expertise to the table.
Certainly, in our releases over this year we have used this model and it has meant getting to a "prototype" phase quickly, and nine times out of ten a release not long after the "prototype" has been built and tested.
Steve Johnson has written an e-book on the Strategic Role of Product Management that might add some additional thoughts to your understanding/expectations of what the role of product manager should be.
Hi Graham,
Thanks for the feedback, will check it out...
Carl