What is really the difference between Project and Product Management?
When it comes to Product and Project Management, there is serious confusion. This is mostly because, even if it is not a new discipline, Product Management has been marketed quite aggressively in the past years. By comparison, Project Management is not as popular. Both roles are crucial for any software project, and below I am explaining the differences between them. (And, yes, ideally, you hire both!)
To better understand what each of these two roles does, let’s start with the questions each asks themselves and the project stakeholders.
Project managers must answer questions like:
- When will the project get delivered?
- What resources do you need?
- What are the tasks you will delegate, and whom?
Meanwhile, product managers must answer questions like:
- What are you building?
- What problem does your product solve?
- What benefits will your product bring?
While project managers have explicitly defined targets and use their specific background and working methodologies to solve particular challenges, product managers act on the challenges of digital innovation, have their working methodologies constantly changing, are generalists, and must be prepared to adapt to the challenges, as there are no set targets.
It’s obvious why projects need a good project and product managers. Below you can see some common pitfalls in software development projects and the solutions each role brings to the table:
Both roles are essential for any successful project. To better understand the impact that each of the managers can have on a project, here is a short description of the essential skills that project and product management positions require.
A project manager is a person who has the overall responsibility for the success of the project. They are in charge of the initiation, planning, design, execution, monitoring, and controlling of the project and take responsibility for its success. To accomplish all these duties, a project manager needs a set of abilities, which includes:
- Leadership. Some people think it is something you are born with. My opinion is that everyone can build leadership skills and apply the techniques, as long as they set these goals and have the willingness to work hard for them.
- Scheduling. A team must break down the project’s goal into tasks on a timeline to accomplish their goals. Setting up a realistic schedule, managing the project resources, and keeping track of the progress are three critical duties of a project manager. Luckily, there are many helpful tools (such as Asana, JIRA, Trello, etc.) to make a project manager more comfortable.
- Asking penetrating questions and lessening risks. Risk is inevitable and occurs in every project, either big or small. It’s part of the project manager’s job to see these threats and manage them before becoming real problems. Therefore, a good project manager must gather as much information about the risks and anticipate them to avoid failures. Of course, you can’t expect quite everything that will occur in the life cycle of a project, but, as a project manager, you have to be prepared to handle the obstacles when they come up. The more you can manage risk, and the more likely your project will become a success.
On the other hand, product managers need a combination of business acumen, sharp attention to detail, marketing chops, abilities to comprehensive technical issues, and sales savvy. So the list with their the most important skills would be:
- Strategic thinking. As a product manager, it helps you define its vision and set realistic and achievable goals. Well done research, information gathering, and practice are, from my point of view, three essential aspects that every project manager should focus on before shaping the strategy of their project. Although it might seem like a never-ending race, this approach will reduce your chances of facing unforeseen risks. The more information you have, the shorter will be your path to success.
- Design and User Experience know-how. As a product manager, these skills are a must-have. To build the best version of a product, you must intuit how your future customers will use it. Sometimes, the way that owners look at their product is not the same as how customers do. Interviewing clients, getting aware of your product’s strengths and weaknesses, and looking at your product as impartially as possible is mandatory for a product manager.
- Business skills. It is essential to know at least the business basics. Knowing the ins and outs of your product is not enough for the project. You must be in touch with what is happening on the market, stalk your competition, and always get the latest updates and news outside of your company. Speaking about business skills, ‘positioning’ is a part of a product manager’s job that many people don’t treat with enough importance. Product positioning is a form of marketing meant to present the benefits of a product to the target audience. Based on the research and focus groups’ responses, product managers can determine which audience to target.
A product and a project manager's roles may look similar but are fundamentally different because they regard the project from different points of view: strategy and execution. Of course, there are general qualities we may find in both roles, but the skills required differ and are complementary for a successful product.
If you choose any project or product management paths, there is no unique recipe for any roles. You can only increase your chances to succeed by staying informed, reading, being connected to as many sources of information as you can, and always focusing your attention on work.
The willingness to overcome your limits leads to quality.
If you chase to be great not only as a manager but as whatever you want to become, you have to build your path and always set goals that challenge and develop your skills. Overcoming your limits will bring you the greatest satisfaction.
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