I would argue that everything you described above falls under the umbrella of business development and should be in the hands of a VP level exec and their staff

I would argue that everything you described above falls under the umbrella of business development and should be in the hands of a VP level exec and their staff. Unfortunately very often I've seen this role handed out to a person who does not have either the qualifications or experience for this role, despite perhaps being adept at the clerical parts of the job (the meetings, the JIRA management, the Power Points, the Agile theatre). My sense is that product managers are a layer of management which frequently causes disconnects and friction between the executive team, engineering, and ultimately customers. They typically have no power to influence business strategy and frequently no expertise on the complexities of engineering the product. (As always there are exceptions - but few and far between). I'll even point to a perfect example playing out with Creative Assembly, the studio behind the Total War game franchise. Here's a nice dissection of the situation (complete with insider company leaks) by Bellular News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDcgpaypkQI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDcgpaypkQI The TLDR is that an excessive focus on a product management driven strategy is hurting the long term viability of a multi-million dollar franchise with a very commited but increasingly dissapointed fan base. Also some good points on the dangers of letting technical debt accumulate and how not to intereact with your customers. There's an MBA case study unfolding here I think.