What is the differentiation between product manager and project manager?
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13 Feb
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“A product manager is the product’s CEO, “Â while “A project manager is like a ship’s captain.”
As a product manager, it is common to need clarification around the distinction between product management and project management. The problems caused by this range from the just pesky; Being called to run projects that have not been discovered through product discovery is equivalent to being named a “product manager”—to the genuinely disruptive. In this article, we’ll discuss how to handle this misinterpretation.
The primary differentiation between a product manager and a project manager:
A product manager’s responsibility is to deliver product value over time.
A project manager must execute a defined project with a clear deadline.
Concept of Products & Projects:
A Product can be described as a service or an item offered for sale. It is logical to hire one or just a few product managers to own the responsibility for increasing that product over a significant period.
A Project can be described as a piece of work that will need more than one action step to complete and that can be marked off as completed within the next 1year. It is logical to appoint more than a few project managers for large projects.
Timing is Everything
As project time is limited and project teams are ad hoc, project managers often have to work part-time with team members involved in projects. However, products are subject to an ongoing product management process that is not time-bound, so it is practical for product managers to have a dedicated full-time team which is critical to a product manager’s success.
Guidance of work
For a project manager, the goal is to execute the project on time, on budget, and within scope. There may also be specific outcomes that the project aims to achieve, but these outcomes are assumed to be achieved through the activities specified in the project definition. Projects often use a waterfall approach, with a Gantt graph showing pre-defined steps and actions. If the steps are done well, but the result still needs to be achieved, it cannot be considered the project manager’s fault.
Product managers aim to improve the product by maximizing the business and customer value it creates. If you need to figure out what to do to make it happen from the start, product managers have to discover to figure it out. This means that action plans will change as the team learns and discovers insights, for example, using agile methods. Product managers should be responsible not for any particular action taken but for the combination of all activities, i.e., what value the product brings to the business and users. This measure of success can be defined as KPIs, usage metrics, quality results, and more.
Skill Set Product managers usually possess the skill set of:
Research Skills: Used to uncover user behavior and ensure they develop products that meet needs and solve customer problems.
Strategic Thinking Skills: Analyze the various factors affecting product development, identify and eliminate obstacles, and set operational priorities.
Business skills: Better understanding of competitors, market trends, and business models to ensure a viable product.
Project managers will have the following skills:
Planning: Developing a detailed project plan and creating tasks and milestones.
Organization: Ensure that all processes run smoothly and that tasks are completed under established objectives.
Time Management: Planning time wisely to ensure all tasks are completed on time.
Product Manager – What Does It Take?
Essentially, a product manager understands user needs, translates them into a design or MVP (Minimum Viable Product), leads the development team to build a product that meets those needs, and then continuously monitors and improves the product to ensure it remains relevant.
“What to build?”
“Why do you have to build it?”
“Who will it be built for, and what does success mean for the product?”
Answering these questions as a product manager will include:
Understand consumer needs and communicate them to the team.
Create a product roadmap that outlines your product strategy.
Outline product features, prioritize releases, and resolve bottlenecks.
Define the critical success indicators of the product.
Worked with cross-functional engineering, design, and marketing teams to develop and implement product strategy.
Test, monitor, and analyze new product features.
Project Managers – How Do They Do It?
Project managers are responsible for moving projects in the right direction, making their role more tactical. They focus on execution, ensuring that crucial project objectives are met within the agreed time and cost. The project manager is responsible for the “what,” “how,” and “when” aspects of the project.
“What are the goals and outcomes of the project?”
“When do they ship?”
“How much will it cost?”
Project managers are also responsible for defining and managing processes to better organize priorities, increase efficiency, and complete projects within an agreed budget, time, and quality.
They do it like this:
Identify critical objectives such as project scope, timeline, and budget estimates.
Break down big plans into actionable tasks.
Delegate and track project tasks and progress.
The process of creating and maintaining project changes.
Ensure projects are moving forward to achieve planned goals.
Product managers should avoid being project managers!
Being a product manager is an important and challenging job at the same time. If product managers are involved in unrelated projects, they are likely to detract from their core responsibilities to the detriment of their organization. So whenever product managers are asked to lead projects that don’t define themselves and that don’t have a clear connection to the goals of the product they’re trying to improve, they usually do their best to decline politely.
Summing Up!
Product managers define the product vision, gather requirements, set priorities, and focus externally on customers and the overall and ongoing success of the product. In contrast, project managers focus internally, execute the vision, and ensure that budgets are met on time.
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