Who Owns PM?
Product managers have a lot to do - from learning about customers to working with development teams to planning business strategies. So should PMs be based in Marketing, Engineering , or "none of the above"?
I've worked in all three types of organizations, and while each can work, one is better.
"Traditional" consumer products companies put PM in Marketing, under the rationale that Marketing is the customer-facing part of the company. That works well for consumer products, but when frequent interaction with a development team is required, it breaks down. When based in Marketing , there's often an expectation that the PM will have significant "outbound" marketing responsibilities. Product marketing is a big, important job, and it's too much to expect a true product manager to have primary responsibility for product launches, collateral creation, advertising and the many other tasks that marketers do. There just isn't enough time left for listening to customers, competitive analysis, articulating product requirements and following through with the development team to ensure that the product meets the requirements.
I've done both these roles at once, and while I've successfully launched products and created marketing plans, I've found that it's difficult to be an effective product manager and product marketer over multiple release cycles.
Many technology companies place PM in Engineering. That's where the product is built, so why not put the person responsible for defining it there? The problem is that a development organization is all about how a product is built, not what product is going to be built. Engineering management's responsibility is to maximize the development productivity of its staff, and there is a tendency to have PMs focus on the development effort, moving into more of a program manager role. This is becoming particularly common in Agile teams, where the PM sometimes takes on "product owner" responsibilities, with little time available to understand the customer or the competition. There are exceptions, usually when Engineering management fully understands the importance of product management, and gives the PM license to do what needs to be done, or hires multiple PMs to cover all the bases.
The "none of the above" solution is best exemplified by a product management department that is at a peer level to Engineering and Marketing. It means that PM's voice will be heard by senior management as equal to the other groups, giving the organization a strong voice for product strategy and definition. It means that Product Management can set its priorities according to its understanding of what needs to be done to succeed. And the PM organization is best equipped for cross-product synchronization and roadmapping.
PMs always need to be a "go-to" resource for both Engineering and Marketing. Whether it's joining a development scrum, organizing usability tests, briefing Sales on a new feature or preparing/delivering a trade show demo, these are all part of the job. It's all part of "owning" the product. But a PM can do these things most effectively if the organization is structured to maximize each PM's ability to understand customer problems, identify market opportunities, and then define products that address these.
I've worked in all three types of organizations, and while each can work, one is better.
"Traditional" consumer products companies put PM in Marketing, under the rationale that Marketing is the customer-facing part of the company. That works well for consumer products, but when frequent interaction with a development team is required, it breaks down. When based in Marketing , there's often an expectation that the PM will have significant "outbound" marketing responsibilities. Product marketing is a big, important job, and it's too much to expect a true product manager to have primary responsibility for product launches, collateral creation, advertising and the many other tasks that marketers do. There just isn't enough time left for listening to customers, competitive analysis, articulating product requirements and following through with the development team to ensure that the product meets the requirements.
I've done both these roles at once, and while I've successfully launched products and created marketing plans, I've found that it's difficult to be an effective product manager and product marketer over multiple release cycles.
Many technology companies place PM in Engineering. That's where the product is built, so why not put the person responsible for defining it there? The problem is that a development organization is all about how a product is built, not what product is going to be built. Engineering management's responsibility is to maximize the development productivity of its staff, and there is a tendency to have PMs focus on the development effort, moving into more of a program manager role. This is becoming particularly common in Agile teams, where the PM sometimes takes on "product owner" responsibilities, with little time available to understand the customer or the competition. There are exceptions, usually when Engineering management fully understands the importance of product management, and gives the PM license to do what needs to be done, or hires multiple PMs to cover all the bases.
The "none of the above" solution is best exemplified by a product management department that is at a peer level to Engineering and Marketing. It means that PM's voice will be heard by senior management as equal to the other groups, giving the organization a strong voice for product strategy and definition. It means that Product Management can set its priorities according to its understanding of what needs to be done to succeed. And the PM organization is best equipped for cross-product synchronization and roadmapping.
PMs always need to be a "go-to" resource for both Engineering and Marketing. Whether it's joining a development scrum, organizing usability tests, briefing Sales on a new feature or preparing/delivering a trade show demo, these are all part of the job. It's all part of "owning" the product. But a PM can do these things most effectively if the organization is structured to maximize each PM's ability to understand customer problems, identify market opportunities, and then define products that address these.