What Is Product Management?

An introduction to product management

Product management deals with handling the complete life cycle of a product or line of products. This process includes planning, forecasting, producing, and marketing the products, as well as determining when and how to discontinue products. 

The ultimate role of product management is to ensure the products your company delivers meet your customers’ needs and wants.  

Product management examples

Product management involves a lot — basically, anything and everything related to a specific product. Let’s add some clarity with a few product management examples. 

To give you the full picture of what a project manager actually does, we combed through a couple of recent product manager job descriptions at some well-known companies. 

Product management example #1

You might think that Apple has dedicated product managers for each device — like a product manager for the iPhone, for example. But the tech giant is so massive that it has product managers for specific apps and features.

In the job posting for a product manager for Messages, Apple is looking for someone to define the product roadmap and strategy, identify new product opportunities, advocate their product vision, and ultimately launch new versions and features of Messages.

Product management example #2

Product management is frequently talked about in the context of the tech industry, but that’s not the only place where you’ll find these positions. Physical goods need product managers, too, as evidenced by this product manager job with Nike.

Nike’s product managers are responsible for creating and maintaining product roadmaps, mapping features to user needs, running ongoing prototypes, and launching new features and value drops in a timely manner.

What is the difference between marketing and product management?

Let's get a basic understanding of product management terms. Marketing and product management both have the same goal: to ensure your products are what customers want to buy. But the tasks they complete to achieve that goal are very different.

Your marketing team will typically focus on refining your target audience, driving interest through marketing campaigns, and relaying feedback from potential customers to the product management team. 

On the other hand, your product management team will generally spend their time involved with product and feature design, production schedules, and more operational or technical aspects of getting the product to market.

At times, the two groups may collaborate on some tasks. For instance, if you create a prototype and want early feedback on it, the marketing and product management teams may jointly plan and run a focus group. 

Product manager vs. project manager: What is the difference?

People often confuse product managers with project managers, especially since they may both be shortened into “PM.” But project management and product management have very different focus areas.

Here are two key differences between product manager vs. project manager:

• Product managers are responsible for the entire product life cycle. Project managers tackle a specific project, such as getting a product to market or completing a prototype.
• Product management tends to focus on the overall product management strategy and high-level plan, while project management is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day execution of tasks.

While product management and project management may occasionally tackle similar tasks or even use similar methods and frameworks (such as Agile), each one has a unique area of focus within a business.

What isn't product management?

We’ve now covered that product management is not marketing or project management. But what else isn’t it?

Product management isn’t an operational role. A product manager is a strategic person who helps lead the vision for your business’ products. While they may help oversee operations, their job is to maintain the product roadmap (the high-level overview of the product).  

Product managers typically aren’t expected to know how to build the product. For instance, only 5% of product managers know how to code. Product managers just need to understand how it works well enough to oversee feature design and help translate the customer’s wants into physical functionality.

The product manager also isn’t (normally) the product owner. The product owner is a Scrum role that is responsible for representing the customer’s best interest during a project. They aren’t involved with the overall product strategy or roadmap outside of that project scope.

The person filling the product owner role may have a different job title and description outside of the project. They could be a business analyst, someone from marketing, or someone on your product management team.

In contrast, product manager is a full-time role that generally doesn’t end or change with a project. Product management would oversee all product-related projects and the product owners involved with each one.

Who works on a product management team?

We’ve talked a lot about product managers specifically. But many organizations don’t just have a single product manager — they have an entire product management team dedicated to maintaining products that their customers love.

Much like a project management team, a product management team will often depend on the organization and types of products being produced.

In some organizations, a product manager may not have a designated team. Instead, they will act more like a consultant who interacts with and helps guide other teams (like operations or marketing) in implementing the product plan.

Types of product management roles

In other businesses, product management operations may be a completely cross-functional team made up of the following product management roles: 

• Product marketing 
• Production
• Product analytics
• Product design
• Testing/quality control

Enterprises may even have multiple product operations teams, each focused on a separate product line or customer segment.

When it comes to product managers specifically, though, you’ll likely hear of several different types of product management roles — from growth product managers to technical product managers. Let’s take a quick look at each one to better understand their core responsibilities. 

1. Technical product manager

Remember how we mentioned that product managers don’t need to be super tech-focused — they just need to know the product (and, more importantly, the users) well enough? That’s not the case with this role. As the name implies, a technical product manager is much more focused on the technical aspects of the product and will likely work hand-in-hand with the engineering team. 

2. Agile product manager

An Agile product manager handles all of the core product management responsibilities we’ve already discussed, but they do so in an Agile environment. That means they use a flexible and iterative approach, working in sprints to put out new features. 

3. Growth product manager

With “growth” right in the name, it makes sense that this role focuses on increasing interest in or use of a product. In some cases, a growth product manager might not even work on a single product and instead works on a single metric or business outcome, like increasing customer retention. 

4. Data product manager

This is another role where the explanation is all right there in the name. A data product manager focuses on all the data used in product management. They collect, organize, manage, and share all their data insights with the teams that could benefit from that information. 

5. Product marketing manager

A product marketing manager focuses on spreading the news about a product. They develop strategies, campaigns, and messaging to promote the product and get it in front of the right audiences. 

What are important product management skills?

There’s no doubt that product management offers a ton of different career opportunities. But what do you need to excel in this field? Let’s dig into a few of the most important product management skills. 

1. Communication skills

Product managers spend a lot of time communicating — with different teams, customers, leadership, and more. It’s crucial that they know how to relay messages in ways that resonate with those different audiences, while also being able to advocate for their own product visions in a way that’s clear and even persuasive. 

2. Customer and market research competencies

One of the core responsibilities of a product manager is to understand customers’ product needs and desires and then launch new features that satisfy those. They can’t operate on hunches. Instead, product managers need to be able to dig into interviews, feedback, and data to make informed decisions about what features, improvements, and even entirely new products need to be released. 

3. Analytical skills

To make educated and data-driven decisions and create strategic product roadmaps, product managers need to wade their way through a lot of information. Analytical skills are a must for making sense of all of the resources, requests, data points, and other nuggets they have at their disposal. 

4. Technical expertise

Most product managers don’t need to be coders or engineers, but they do need to have enough technical expertise to understand the ins and outs of the product their managing. That helps them create more thoughtful strategies, make better decisions, and collaborate more effectively with technical teams. 

5. Interpersonal skills

From marketing to operations to engineering, product managers spend most of their time collaborating. They need interpersonal skills to forge and foster strong bonds with the various departments they work with, act as a liaison between those different functions, and generally ensure that their work together goes as smoothly as possible. 

6. Leadership skills

Product managers are managers. And while they’re mainly managing a product, there’s quite a bit of people management involved in the process too. Leadership skills help product managers spearhead their product vision and keep all of the different players on track. 

Eight popular product management frameworks used by product managers

Product management leaves a lot of room for creativity, but that doesn’t mean that product managers need to wing it. Here are eight popular product management frameworks that can help bring some structure to your strategy. 

1. Working backwards

Start by imagining that the product has been built already and write a press release to announce this new product. This framework helps teams ensure the product satisfies customer needs and is actually worth building — before they spend any time actually building it. 

2. Minimum viable product

Rather than building a full-fledged and polished product to start, teams build a product with minimal features for testing and feedback. This validates the idea before they expand on it down the road. 

3. Job to be done

While some product managers rely on user personas to ensure products meet customer needs, this framework uses scenarios. Product managers come up with specific tasks that customers might need to complete and ensure that the product helps them do that. 

4. North Star

The product manager and team identify a single most important metric (known as a “North Star metric”) that captures the main value of the product for customers. This is what they work toward.

5. Customer journey map

This framework puts product managers in their customers’ shoes by mapping out all of the various steps of the customer experience. That’s helpful context to have as they design their product strategies. 

6. GIST planning

This framework is built on an acronym that stands for goals, ideas, steps, and tasks. It helps product managers and teams start with the big picture and eventually narrow it down to individual action items. 

7. Double diamond

Launching a product doesn’t just happen, and this framework highlights the four phases it takes to get a product to customers: discovery, definition, development, and delivery. 

8. CIRCLES method

This is another framework that uses an acronym to walk through the steps of product design. It stands for Comprehend situation, Identify customer, Report customer needs, Cut through prioritization, List solutions, Evaluate tradeoffs, and Summarize recommendations. 

How to create a product management strategy

Product management planning typically includes three stages:

1. Define the overarching vision and strategy for the product
2. Create a high-level plan to achieve that strategy and vision
3. Translate the product management plan into a visual roadmap

What do you put in a product management strategy?

Your product management strategy outlines the vision and goals for your product(s). This could involve capturing more market share, entering a new geographic region, expanding the product line, replacing an outdated product with a new version, etc. 

Once you’ve defined what you want to achieve with your products (in discussion with other key product stakeholders) you need to translate it into goals that can be measured. 

For instance, if you want to increase market share, you’ll need to define how much of an increase you’re targeting and by what date. You’ll also need to establish how you’ll measure market share so you and your team can consistently measure progress. 

What do you put in a product management plan?

After your product management strategy is created, it’s time to translate it into a plan. 

Since a product manager’s job is to focus on strategic initiatives, this is generally a high-level plan. At this point, there’s no need to get down into the weeds of what steps need to be executed each day. 

The product management plan will typically include only high-level product initiatives. If your vision is to expand a product line, your product management plan may outline something like this:

• Step 1: Work with marketing to elicit current customer feedback
• Step 2: Create a new design based on product data, feedback & market trends
• Step 3: Build a prototype or beta version of the product
• Step 4: Gather early user feedback
• Step 5: Refine the prototype based on feedback and re-test the market
• Step 6: Go to production
• Step 7: Work with marketing to launch the release campaign
• Step 8: Go to market
• Step 9: Ongoing management of product life cycle

Essentially, you want to include an overview of the different steps that will be covered, the departments or people involved, and a general timeline of how long each step or phase may take.

What do you put in a product management roadmap?

A product management roadmap takes your product management plan and transforms it into an easy-to-understand visual. 

By creating a product roadmap, you can see the product plan's overall timeline and where steps overlap. Plus, a visual of your plan makes it easier to share with stakeholders, such as the marketing director, operations manager, and other executives. 

Your roadmap is similar to a project Gantt chart. It should include all of the high-level steps covered in your product launch plans, as well as general timelines and any key milestones, such as targeted release dates. 

Level up your product management with Wrike

Managing a product is rewarding, but it’s no easy task. It helps to have the right software to keep you and your team on track. 

With customizable reports, detailed workflows, powerful automations, advanced resource management, and more, Wrike has everything you need to avoid getting lost in the weeds.

That means you can spend more time and energy focused on what really matters: delivering products that your customers want. 

Ready to simplify your product management? Get started with Wrike today.