3 ms·

OP is talking about product mangers. Why are there so many comments about project managers

muzani 5y ago
To clarify for the others, a project manager keeps the project on time and budget, and makes sure that the right person are in the team, reports progress, protects the team from political influences, and so on. A product manager is more like a movie director. She protects the product from feature creep, remains in close contact with users/stakeholders, chooses which bugs to prioritize, etc. Often there's overlap between the roles but they'll split it up into specialty roles.
- bradleyhb 5y ago
  Probably you mean movie producer.
  - muzani 5y ago
    If I understand film roles correctly, producer would be like a project manager, and director would be like product manager. Product doesn't deal with budgets, profits, markets. Product is closer to user experience. Just like the director knows a script inside out, product knows customer problems inside out. Just like a director knows what happens in script writing and editing, product knows what happens in the requirements and testing/QA stages, but isn't entire responsible for it.
    - codingdave 5y ago
      > Product doesn't deal with budgets, profits, markets. This is different at every organization. I have seen companies that make PMs 100% about profit and market, who then delegate everything else down to others. I've seen ones who work exactly as you describe. And I've seen one where Product manager == Jira monkey. Based on my experience, while there is a lot of variety, most PMs do worry about the markets and profits as part of their job, even though other teams do the actual sales and marketing. Those concerns are part of understanding the product - who is the market, what are they willing to pay, what monetary value aligns with the solution value. Those answers help drive decisions on roadmap prioritization.
      - muzani 5y ago
        I took a good look at the term as used in many companies, and it seems that your definition is more accurate than mine.

To clarify for the others, a project manager keeps the project on time and budget, and makes sure that the right person are in the team, reports progress, protects the team from political influences, and so on. A product manager is more like a movie director. She protects the product from feature creep, remains in close contact with users/stakeholders, chooses which bugs to prioritize, etc. Often there's overlap between the roles but they'll split it up into specialty roles.

bradleyhb 5y ago
Probably you mean movie producer.
- muzani 5y ago
  If I understand film roles correctly, producer would be like a project manager, and director would be like product manager. Product doesn't deal with budgets, profits, markets. Product is closer to user experience. Just like the director knows a script inside out, product knows customer problems inside out. Just like a director knows what happens in script writing and editing, product knows what happens in the requirements and testing/QA stages, but isn't entire responsible for it.
  - codingdave 5y ago
    > Product doesn't deal with budgets, profits, markets. This is different at every organization. I have seen companies that make PMs 100% about profit and market, who then delegate everything else down to others. I've seen ones who work exactly as you describe. And I've seen one where Product manager == Jira monkey. Based on my experience, while there is a lot of variety, most PMs do worry about the markets and profits as part of their job, even though other teams do the actual sales and marketing. Those concerns are part of understanding the product - who is the market, what are they willing to pay, what monetary value aligns with the solution value. Those answers help drive decisions on roadmap prioritization.
    - muzani 5y ago
      I took a good look at the term as used in many companies, and it seems that your definition is more accurate than mine.