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Product management vs. Project management
Posted on September 24, 2007 by Jeff Lash · 28 Comments
If you want to be a bad product manager, confuse product management with project management. The words are so close because the two concepts are so similar. Product managers should manage projects since they need to ensure that the projects get done. They’re both management roles (right?) so the skills and experience are virtually the same. Project managers just get in the way and try to take control of the project away from the product manager.
If you want to be a good product manager, learn the difference between product management and project management. Despite the similar names, there are big differences between product management and project management. Confusing them is common, even among those experienced in product development.
Project managers are responsible for the successful delivery of a project — a one-time endeavor with a goal, scope, deadline, budget, and other constraints. A project manager will work to align resources, manage issues and risks, and basically coordinate all of the various elements necessary to complete the project. As they relate to products, projects can be undertaken to build a product, to add new features to a product, or create new versions or extensions of a product. When the project is complete, the project manager will usually move move to a new project, which may be related to a different product.
Product managers are responsible for the overall and ongoing success of a product. Once the project to build the product is complete and the project manager has moved on, the product manager remains to manage the product through the entire lifecycle. Other projects related to the product may be initiated, with the product manager being the one constant stream throughout, defining the project goals and guiding the team to accomplish the business objectives that have been defined.
One challenge of the two roles is that they can appear to be at odds with each other. A product manager may want to add a lot of features to meet observed customer needs, but the project manager may want to keep scope as small as possible so that the project is delivered on time and under budget. Traditional definitions (and probably those above, too) often mischaracterize the project manager as singularly focused on getting the project finished on time and under budget without any concern as to whether it meets the market or customer needs.
Good product managers and good project managers are able to create a balance of these conflicts. Good project managers know that the true success of a project is not whether it is on time and within budget, but whether it meets the defined goals and objectives. Good product managers know that all the features in the world will not matter if the project is continually delayed and never makes it to market or if it is too over budget to be completed.
Especially for web-based and technology products, the confusion between project and product management is common and potentially harmful to organizations who do not acknowledge the distinction. As Rob Grady writes in Are you a Web Project Manager or Web Product Manager? (Part I):
Today, as websites have become increasingly important in business, they are, unfortunately, still being managed as projects. This becomes a problem in meeting defined business objectives, prioritizing, having the right skills to manage what has now become a core business function. If the website has become or is a core business function there is a greater need than managing a project, it has become a product which will have a series of projects driven through business objectives.
There are some important points to keep in mind related to project management and product management:
- Just like every product needs a product manager, every project needs a project manager.
- Just because product managers think they can manage their own projects does not mean they should.
- The skills, talents, and traits involved in project management are very different from those involved in product management.
- Just like it is hard to find one single person who can fill the product management role and the product marketing role, it is hard to find one person who can be successful at both the product management and the project management role.
- Project management is not a stepping stone to product management, nor vice versa.
- Good project managers are just as valuable as good product managers.
- Finding a good project manager to manage your projects will help you be an even better product manager.
- The less time product managers spend on project management, the more time they will be able to spend on product management.
- To avoid conflicts between product management and project management, product managers, project managers, and project teams should all agree on shared goals and objectives as much as possible.
Note: This article has been reprinted at PM Hut.
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28 responses so far ↓
links for 2007-09-24 « D e j a m e S e r // Sep 24, 2007 at 9:20 am
[...] Product management vs. Project management: How To Be A Good Product Manager: Product management tips (tags: projectmanagement) [...]
Michael Sheeley // Sep 24, 2007 at 7:17 pm
Don’t forget the confusion between product manager and program manager. They are all PMs so they must be the same.
Charlie // Sep 24, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Nice post. People who are confused with Project management and Product management shows that they don’t really understand the real meaning of both.
Bastiaan // Sep 25, 2007 at 11:31 am
From the product management point of view I would say that project management is a subset of product management. Project management techniques can/have to be applied in the product management area: planning, communication, scope management, budget, risks, issues, quality, …
Jeff Lash // Sep 25, 2007 at 11:57 am
Bastiaan: Most of the time that may be correct, if a project is to build or update a product. When you have projects that impact multiple products, it is no longer a subset of product management and make involve many other areas as well. Also, calling it a subset seems to connote that project management should be subservient to product management, which is certainly not the case. Bottom line — a good product manager certainly needs to understand project management (as you say a lot of the same concepts apply) and should know how to manage small projects himself/herself, but should also realize that project management is usually a separate animal from product management.
Michael: I’ve found that there is a lot of agreement on what a Project Manager does, slightly less on what a Product Manager does, and very little on what a Program Manager does. (The similarities in name certainly don’t help.) Fewer companies seem to have program management, and those that do all seem to treat program management differently. How would you differentiate between program management and the other PMs? Has it been your experience that people have a common understanding of program management?
Howie // Sep 25, 2007 at 8:06 pm
Confusion often happens to people when they fail to realize the true meaning of what they are doing.
Michael Sheeley // Sep 26, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Program Management is usually defined as a manager who oversees a set of interdependent projects. The Project Management Institute (PMI), the organization mainly responsible for clearly defining the role of a project manager is now attempting to clearly define the role of a program manager. They are now offering a new certification for program management called the Program Management Professional (PgMP) Credential. The handbook for their certification can be located at http://www.pmi.org/PDF/PgMP%20Handbook%202007.pdf
I have seen the descriptions of the product and program management roles as follows. A product manager looks to define the requirements and their priorities.
Once requirements are defined a project is started to develop these requirements into a new release of the product. A project manager is responsible for the management of this project.
While this project is still under way, the product manager might come up with another set of requirements also needed to be implemented, so another project may be started. Another project manager will manage this project. Now we have multiple projects running at any given time on a same product line. A program manager is in charge of overseeing these projects.
In summary:
Product Manager: in charge of creating and prioritizing new requirements for the product line
Project Manager: in charge of project that are implementing a set of new requirements.
Program Manager: in charge of organizing and overseeing multiple projects being run by the project managers.
Also the, Product Marketing Manager is then in charged of marketing the new releases of the product line.
Jamie // Sep 27, 2007 at 12:20 pm
In my experience, I have noticed that a root cause of the confusion is not necessarily the product or project manager, but can be the “higher level” sales & marketing team who make promises which may not be technically sound. And upper management doesn’t always define clear objectives. Some companies are better at this than others, of course.
I worked for the UN where management is almost entirely non-existent. Very frustrating indeed.
产品经理 vs 项目经理 -- Xilin: My Blog // Sep 28, 2007 at 12:55 pm
[...] 注：本文的部分观点来自对Jeff Lash: Product management vs. Project management的翻译。 [...]
Bruce McCarthy // Sep 29, 2007 at 6:06 pm
I interviewed a couple of program managers at my company and I agree with the definition of program management cited above relating to multiple interdependent projects.
For the most part at my company, program managers manage the same product over multiple release projects, but at least one of the PgMs I work with manages the release projects for three closely related products as well.
I interviewed these couple of PgMs about what they want from product managers and wrote up what they had to say here:
http://www.userdriven.org/blog/2007/7/24/what-program-managers-really-want.html
Steven Haines // Dec 2, 2007 at 10:36 pm
Good job on this article.
A couple of other interesting articles can be found at
http://www.sequentlearning.com/articles.php
Shilpa // Dec 3, 2007 at 6:01 am
Hello Jeff,
I have been a consistent reader of your blog. I am constantly learning product management reading your blog. I have a query:
I am an Electronics Engineering graduate. I have 12 years of IT experience with nearly 6 years as a Project Manager and 2 years as a Program Manager. I also have Pre-Sales and Marketing experience. My communication skills are good and am able to pick up domain knowledge with ease.
I am interested in moving into Product Management. Please guide me on the skills/qualifications that i will need to equip myself with in order to make a good Product Manager? Is a move from Program Management to Product Management recommended?
Bruce McCarthy // Dec 3, 2007 at 7:55 am
It sounds to me like you have a good background for product management at an entry level.
Additional areas you could concentrate on would include any form of customer contact and business analysis/requirements development.
Consider whether there is a product manager in your organization you could approach about mentoring you. With your supervisor’s okay, you could do valuable research, interviews and functional spec or requirements creation under the guidance of a product manager. You would gain experience and take work of the PM’s plate at the same time.
Shilpa // Dec 5, 2007 at 2:49 am
Thank you Bruce. This is good advice. My organisation could possibly be hiring a Product Manager soon. I will look for opportunities to assist the Product Manager and thereby gain expertise. Thank you once again.
Benny Tam // Jan 10, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Very interesting article. These are two totally different aspects of the IT community. For my developing business I had only needed to resort for a “project manager” however as much of the world transition to a web-based society. It was a difficult to change from the traditional project managing service to a web-based service, but the change was gradually easy when a affiliate referred me to CommuniClique. I am making one change at a time, hopefully I do not have to also resort to a web-based “product manging” app.
Kathy // Mar 9, 2008 at 10:17 am
These articles are really helpful. I am a software engineer and interested in product management. I have a question:
A project manager is responsible for the management of this product during the whole product life cycle. That includes not only the product development, but also the marketing activities such as customer data collection, competitor product analytics, launching product into marketplace. Is my understanding correct?
Thank you very much.
Jeff Lash // Mar 9, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Kathy — While it likely depends on the company, in most cases the product manager is responsible for the management of the product during the whole life cycle. The project manager is usually responsible for making sure a specific project related to the product is completed successfully — making sure a new enhancement to the product, for example, is completed on time and within budget and meets the defined objectives.
To put it rather bluntly, the product manager decides what should be done, and the project manager makes sure that happens. (This is an oversimplification, of course, though it basically shows the differences between the two roles.)
Bruce McCarthy // Mar 10, 2008 at 8:22 am
Kathy, you also asked about marketing activities. A product manager will often be involved in these. Rarely is a project manager involved. Sometimes there is also a product marketing manager who specializes in the marketing side of things, particularly the outbound side (promotion rather than research).
In smaller companies some or all of these roles can be collapsed into one. In larger companies there is often more specialization.
Kathy // Mar 13, 2008 at 7:41 am
Thank you Jeff and Bruce. Your answers really help me better understand their different responsibilities.
ibrahim ahmed // May 6, 2008 at 1:25 am
hi i think this is not confusing who is working as product manager/project manager. may be who is working in the construction feild knows well about the project management and who working in the FMCG sector know well about the product management
pooja // May 29, 2008 at 11:39 pm
i am new joinee as a product manager in world no 1 distribution company.I have total experience of 8 years in sales and marketing.want to pursue Ph.D.
Which subject will be beneficial for my carrier.
I am thinking about 2 subject 1st is distribution and 2nd is brand management.
Pls guide me.
pooja // May 29, 2008 at 11:39 pm
thank you.
pooja // May 29, 2008 at 11:44 pm
one of best article i have ever read.
This kind of articles helpto grow in perfect way
in its own catogory
johny // Jun 16, 2008 at 2:23 am
Hi the difference between project and product managers is all well said, and its not complete with this quote “Product managers owns the Product, and project manager manages the project to completion”.
David Locke // Jun 16, 2008 at 1:26 pm
The product manager is involved in marketing, sales, customer support, fulfillment, and development. They are the owner. All these other organizations have as their client the product manager. For a product manager to get all of this done, they must take a view from up high and deal with these organizations through economic indifference.
Instead of features, think benefits. Instead of users think populations. Determine the costs, and the revenues–the profits.
You have P&L responsibility. Move your focus to that. You are not a developer anymore.
In organizations that have product marketing managers, the product manager still must drive the messaging.
MC Salander // Jun 17, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Great article and followup comments! I live and work in the Washington, DC market, an area rich with local, state, and federal government agencies. Within the federal government arena, the role of the Program Manager is pretty clear and - in my experience - a rung up the career ladder from that of the Project Manager, even when that’s just perceptual.
In an article published by PMI about 2 years ago, they noted that the primary difference between program and project managers is that the project manager is task- and goal-oriented, while the program manager is customer-oriented. So, one entity espouses flexibility and adaptability (CHANGE) and the other is focused on meeting deadlines and delivering features (NO CHANGE). This seems to me to be two different skill sets and personality types.
The other posters have done a great job of describing the differences between product and project managers, so I’ll just let that puppy sleep.
Ritesh // Jun 22, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Fantastic effort by all the contributors of the forum. Thanks for bringing out the facts on the table for benefit of all.
One last query from my side; Is it necessary for a person to have some kind of domain/product knowledge to move/shift to Product Management stream ?
Jeff Lash // Jun 24, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Good question, Ritesh. This was covered in a previous post: Understand your product’s domain
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