Then, after a bit of research, we found that there was a library that did exactly what we needed to do. Products have a life cycle that consists of multiple stages. Product management and project management are complementary but distinct.In order to fully understand the differences between these functions, one must first understand the difference between a product and a project.A product is anything that can be offered to a market to solve a problem, or to satisfy a want or need. The project manager focuses on "How" (work-oriented), whereas the product manager focuses on the "What" (functional requirements-oriented). Although it’s possible to have one person fill both the product and project manager roles, it’s ideal to separate these roles to avoid conflicts of interest and underperformance. What triggered me was the part where we discussed the difference between having a project- or product focus. It is a continuous process of delivering new features and improving a given product over time. It can deliver a complete product, or a part of a product, or just one aspect of a complex product. Related: Product Manager vs Project Manager. These are all questions that enterprise leaders grapple with today. The terms product management, program management, and project management are often associated with the software industry – especially product and program management. The Difference Between Product, Program and Project Management. After speaking with dozens of customers, the product team knew that we had touched a nerve. The other major question that product managers answer is “Why are we building this?”. within a specific deadline and budget. A project model of staffing runs the risk of disbanding teams just as they enter the norming or performing phase. Are project managers even useful in a world of continuous software delivery? Both project and product managers work with customers to contain the scope. This paper examines the critical differences in--and advantages of--implementing and managing projects and programs. Product vs Project Management — Batman & Robin or Marvel & DC? Product Marketing).But many companies suffer from a related problem, which is when the roles of product management and project management are combined. Technology — Product management happens, day to day, in the … to be delivered. , on the other hand, consists of the application of processes, methods, knowledge, skills, and experience to achieve the objectives of a specific project. I’ve been in software a long time, and I’ve yet to meet someone who could reliably predict how long it would take to deliver some feature—not even a whole project, just a little part of that project. Adding new features to an existing product, Creating new versions or extensions of a product, Managing a team of designers and developers, and tracking their work, Using a variety of project management tools to accomplish their task like, Explaining The Dynamic Between Project Managers and Product Managers. take complete responsibility for the overall and continuous success of a product throughout the ENTIRE product lifecycle. Product Manager vs Project Manager: A Product Manager is ultimately responsible for making sure that her product is as successful as possible both short-term tactically and long-term strategically. For those features, speed is often a more important factor than usability. Gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, Working with sales and marketing to ensure revenue and customer satisfaction goals are met. This idea would be an excellent way to increase our market share against our competition. Product and project managers each perform unique functions. You can easily understand the difference between product management vs project management by understanding which of those questions each job answers. Have you had difficulties distinguishing between the concepts of product and project management in the past? For those features, prioritizing simplicity and usability is most important. But what about product management? The question that we’re asking here is “What are we building?” This is a fundamental question for your enterprise. Thus, product development is not a temporary or occasional endeavor. Additionally, many software teams transition toward agile software principles, which makes the collective software team responsible for the question of how. When I understand why we’re building something, it becomes much easier for me to understand how those connections should work. In order to fully understand the differences between these functions, one must first understand the difference between a product and a project. Eric is a software developer and development manager who's done everything from IT security in pharmaceuticals to writing intelligence software for the US government to building international development teams for non-profits. Product vs. Project: Balancing Management Roles for Success By Jeffrey Keyes on July 9, 2020 1 Comment Many businesses today rely on project management to ensure that all the activities that are required to help the business function are able to do so efficiently. Compare project vs. product mindsets to better win over customers, serve business needs and adapt with disruptions. For this reason, many teams are transitioning away from using dedicated project managers. Important projects require organization and accountability. Product Management vs Project Management in an Age of Continuous Delivery. 08/26/2015 03:59 pm ET Updated Dec 06, 2017 It was a big day. Product and project management are similar concepts, but in order to create a successful product, you need to understand how these concepts differ. The project manager will be concerned with that project’s budget, resources, deadline, and quality. Let’s start with product management. To paraphrase Jamie Zawinski, every software product will continue to expand until it tries to read email. Customer needs naturally evolve over time, and products must evolve to serve these customer needs. Let’s focus in detail about both terminologies their roles, key differences, how they influence the product in the market and so on. Business — Product management helps teams achieve their business objectives by bridging the communication gap between dev, design, the customer, and the business.. UX — Product management focuses on the user experience, and represents the customer inside the organization. Last week I participated in a Product Owner course facilitated by Gunther Verheyen. As we’ll discuss next, product and project management each address a different W (or H) from the questions listed above. Many enterprises have a product range that spans across dozens of different markets. Successful software projects answer all four of these questions. However, both would focus on different aspects of the scope. Project management: The project management focus is on actions to ensure the tasks are done on time. When we didn’t have a good answer to one or more of these questions, the project wound up being stressful and frustrating. Release management is critical to bridge the DevOps gap. The Product Manager vs. Project Manager. Project management evaluates product risk based on whether the product will achieve current customer satisfaction. Project management, on the other hand, consists of the application of processes, methods, knowledge, skills, and experience to achieve the objectives of a specific project. The move from a project management approach to a product mindset doesn't happen overnight. Unlike with a project, with a product there is no clear definition of what. It is the responsibility of a Product Manager to focus on the “what” more than the “how.” This means that his or her job is to take a. , and decide what direction the product should grow in based on the evolutionary trajectory of customer needs. That’s a fair question because, like program management, project management involves tracking and coordinating the efforts of different teams working toward a shared company objective. All Rights Reserved •. One of the most difficult tasks for a Project Manager is managing the scope of the project, as they must balance time, cost, and quality. In my experience, both product and project management have a critical role to play in traditional waterfall software planning systems. Each question might, at times, be poorly defined. Product. The person in this role delivers the project and moves on to the next one. When you task a team with building or supporting a product, they need a clear vision of what that product will actually do. Is there value to product management in addition to project management? But when is a question that’s at the top of mind for every single team leader who waits for a software project to be finished. As a full-time developer, I find that I’m most effective when I have all these questions answered when I start working. Something we thought might take two weeks instead took only a day or two. Product Manager Published by Chris Miles on November 27, 2020 November 27, 2020 During my career, I have worked extensively as both a project manager and a product manager; within consulting and in multiple industries. Project Life Cycle vs Product Life Cycle. The key responsibility, or the purpose of the Product Owner role is to “maximize the value of the Product”. Product Management: Responsibilities Project Management “Project managers are often at the forefront of delivering new strategic objectives, so they’re able to execute key initiatives while gaining exposure to stakeholders across all levels of … Product Management takes a broader view, and focuses externally on the customer and the overall and continued success of the project. Leave your email to get our weekly newsletter. In the list of 5 W’s, product management answers the questions of “what” and “why.” These are important questions! is anything that can be offered to a market to solve a problem, or to satisfy a want or need. Learn how to organize teams, track metrics and pull it all together into a product … The Product Owner is one person (not a committee) responsible in the Scrum Framework for maximizing the value. They do that by conversing with executives and project stakeholders to understand how this product fits into the overall business need. Once the project is completed, it is no longer ‘managed’. See how it can help you by taking a free 30-day trial. Product vs. Project. In order to do so, the Product Owner is also responsible for the product vision and for managing the Product Backlog and stakeholders. is a temporary endeavor that is undertaken to create a unique product or service. For each product you build, you need concrete answers to these questions. Products have a life cycle that consists of multiple stages. But the key is that, without those answers, the project is going to struggle to ship what you want. Read this guide to learn best practices for implementing a successful DevOps release management environment in the…. A project is a temporary endeavor that is undertaken to create a unique product or service. 3 Tips for Reducing the Time to Market for Digital Products, How Mobile Is Evolving the Product Manager Role, The Growing Bond Between Product Management and Successful SaaS Companies, 5 Product Manager MUSTS for Creating a Successful App. Product and project managers see the same work through different lenses. It’s important to note that a product can only be developed within the context of a project, and multiple projects can occur within a product’s life cycle. With products, there are no clear deadlines. Project Managers oversee and manage the development of the product by aligning available resources and managing issues and risks. A product is anything that can be offered to a market to solve a problem, or to satisfy a want or need. I’ve also worked on features where, at the start, we weren’t even sure we could deliver. Both product management and project management fulfill critical roles in effective product delivery. I’ve created this chart to capture the key differences between them. Related Posts. This is where a project manager comes in. Projects are usually divided into phases for enhanced overall control of the project by the organization. Customer needs naturally evolve over time, and products must evolve to serve these customer needs. Privacy policy   /   Site map, The definitions of product management and project management, The distinct differences between product management and project management, The responsibilities of Product Managers and Project Managers, Product management and project management are. They do care about what, but they mostly only care when the final product isn’t what they expected. The success of any product or service of the company’s prolific venture or services lay in the hand of a product manager. Whatever the responsibilities, a product manager is functionally an organizational role. In today’s competitive business world, you need steady and experienced management to guide your strategies. © 2007 - Koombea, Inc. All Rights Reserved. For example, if the deadline of a project is shortened, Project Managers must either increase costs or reduce the scope in order to maintain quality. We always seemed to answer when, even when we didn’t have the answers to any of the other three questions! is an organizational function within a company that deals with the planning, forecasting, and production or marketing of a product or products at all stages of the product life cycle. This is especially true for software products because it’s easy for software products to lose their identity and try to do too much. To iron out their differences, let’s start with the definition of the words product and project. The ultimate goal of a Product Manager is to aim to maximize value and create new revenue streams. It is the responsibility of a Product Manager to focus on the “what” more than the “how.” This means that his or her job is to take a long-term view, and decide what direction the product should grow in based on the evolutionary trajectory of customer needs. Project management is the business activity of enterprise’s living organization in the product life cycle, such as product plan, development, marketing, sales and support to manage the business activities. Great UX is how this focus manifests itself. Program Management. The key to doing so starts with the old descriptive writing touchstone that I learned during my high school journalism career: the 5 W’s (and 1 H). A Project Manager is responsible for delivering a project that meets its requirements on-time, on-budget, and to the required degree of quality. Behind every successful product is the hand of a product manager while to sustain the success of a product is the role of a Brand Manager. Product management and project management are complementary but distinct. I was taught that all factual descriptive writing should answer six questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how. When those teams implement software that duplicates some functionality already provided by your business, you’re wasting time and effort. Instead, they move much of that responsibility to the teams and focus their planning efforts on the product itself. Project management and product management are very important yet distinct positions, and they are often interchangeably confused by all levels of business executives. Successful Product Managers take complete responsibility for the overall and continuous success of a product throughout the ENTIRE product lifecycle. Other features are targeted at power users. The way the Product Owner maximizes value, is by continuously making choices about what to built and what not to built in the Product. He loves to talk about the things he's learned along the way, and he enjoys listening to and learning from others as well. Other insights about the topic? I've seen many organizations, Scrum Teams and especially Product Owners struggle with finding the balance. As a developer, I’ve worked on teams that failed to answer some of these questions before. However, you are likely to encounter them in fields as diverse as manufacturing, marketing and retail. In my experience, this kind of work is often missed by executives, who are much more focused on the second project management question: when? For instance, we build some features to be used by a variety of people. I was presenting a new product idea to the executive team. Subscribe to Plutora Blog to learn about the latest trends in software delivery and get a FREE copy of “Mastering Software Delivery with Value Stream Management” by Jeff Keyes. Unlike with a project, with a product there is no clear definition of what has to be delivered. As a developer, I find why to be even more important than what. He or she cares for the product up until the product is delivered, and then hands the responsibility over to the ‘mother’ (in this case, the Product Manager). They will understand the many details of each project. When it comes to software projects, this is also the most difficult question to answer. Project vs. Project Management vs. Service companies often find it hard to instill product thinking in teams. Too many teams struggle with the nuanced differences between Product Manager, Product Owner, Program Manager, and Project Manager. He or she cares for the product up until the product is delivered, and then hands the responsibility over to the ‘mother’ (in this case, the Product Manager). It’s the job of the product manager to understand and convey the why of the product. He conceptualizes the product to make it suitable for the right audience and at the right time, this means he sees that product has all the features that make it conducive for the people th… Sometimes, the question we failed to answer was how, but many times it was what or why. Product management software and project management software are entirely different tools — each designed for a different type of role, to help address different business needs.The key distinction: Product management software helps product managers organize, develop, and communicate the product strategy, while project management software helps project managers (and others responsible for building the product) track the execution of the strategy. Both must have good management skills to make sure employees complete their assigned tasks. Most project management involves quality assurance tests to review the project's or product's functionality for success or failure. Responsibilities that fall under a Product Manager include: A Project Manager is responsible for the successful delivery of a project within a specific deadline and budget. In today’s software teams, the person or people responsible for asking each question might shift over time. You invite at least one project manager to every meeting, and you consider their feedback about project status critical. Defining Product Management and Project Management. It rarely shipped in the time window that we wanted, and it was often missing features considered critical at the outset. A product can be anything from a physical product, to a software or a service that satisfies the needs of a group of users. Organizations have long misunderstood the difference between projects and programs--particularly in relation to the strategic significance each plays to the enterprise. The delivery of projects is not confined. A project starts with an idea. With a project, there is a clear definition of what needs to be delivered by a specified date in time. The application is seldom treated as a 'product', that needs to live in production for many years after the project is completed. In my experience, both product and project management have a critical role to play in traditional waterfall software planning systems. Your team will deliver that thing as soon as it’s ready! Something that seems simple at the outset turns out to be much more complicated. Here’s a screen shot of the whiteboard for your reference! Earlier I’ve written about how important it is to clearly distinguish the roles of product management and product marketing (see Product Management vs. It’s likely that you have many software teams, and each one is building software that’s designed to suit some part of the market. If you’re in a leadership position and you’re wondering about the difference between product management and project management, read on. Center autonomous teams around value streams to empower them to become passionate about their product and experts in customers’ needs to deliver high quality features faster. Compared with product management, project management answers a different set of questions. The most successful projects I’ve participated in have answered all four questions effectively. It’s rare for me to create a feature that is self-contained, with no possibility for expansion in the future. A project manager’s job is to answer the questions of how and when. Efficient software project managers understand those interdependent requirements and plan for them. Project management focuses internally to achieve specific objectives and complete a given project on time and under budget. We’ll dive into how these roles are similar, how they’re different, and how they can work for your business. Product management is an organizational function within a company that deals with the planning, forecasting, and production or marketing of a product or products at all stages of the product life cycle. One challenge of the two roles with respect to scope is that they can appear to be at odds with each other. However, many enterprises are moving their deployment infrastructure toward a continuous delivery model, which adopts DevOps principles. If your organization is like many organizations, you embrace project management as a critical tool. For teams that practice continuous delivery, the question of when something is coming out can sometimes feel less important. Jennifer Bridges, PMP, explains the differences between a product and project manager. Product-mode teams, being stable and long-lived can benefit from a long performing phase. It’s actually pretty simple to illustrate the difference between product management vs project management. The Product Manager is similar to the mother in this situation because he or she conceives the idea, develops it for months, eventually brings the product to market, and is responsible for it until it becomes obsolete. Product vs Project vs Program Management. What’s the difference: Product Management vs. Managing these kinds of interdependent requirements are the most valuable thing that project managers do for me, a software developer. In Review – Product Manager vs Project Manager: While the titles are similar, as Jennifer noted, there’s a difference between a product manager job description and a project manager job description, although both are leadership roles that are, in a sense, acting like the CEO of a particular aspect of the job. They organize the project’s tasks so that by the time someone is ready to work on one piece, its dependencies have already finished. Also Read: Top 13 Myths Of Product Management Project managers own the budget, delivery, resources, capacity and collaboration in a project. is akin to a midwife. Project management typically assigns funding according to milestones defined during initial project scoping, and new budget requires the creation of a new project. Product Mindset versus Project Mindset. Large software projects are complex organisms. Tweet us or shoot us an email at [email protected]! To iron out their differences, ... and preparing the project timeline through specific project management methodologies, like … Responsibilities that fall under a Project Manager include: A Project Manager is akin to a midwife. The person in this role delivers the project and moves on to the next one. In your company, does one person take on both the role of product and project manager? A product manager may want to add features to meet observed customer needs, while the project manager may want to keep sc… According to Kersten, the following are the main differences between IT project and product management: Budgeting. Project management is specifically focused on the output , and is measured by how accurately we were able to estimate the timeline beforehand and then deliver the specified output on that schedule. Understanding why we’re building something also gives me information about which trade-offs I should make when implementing a feature. In a big enterprise, that kind of “do everything” mentality winds up costing your company. So how is a program manager different from a project manager? Other pieces of software, like Plutora’s Deployment Planning and Release Management tools, make it easier for software teams to answer the how and when questions for themselves.