The PM dilemma and the Product Owner

The Development team wants the PM to enable them to build the product by prioritizing requirements. The Sales folks want the PM to help them on their demos. The Marketing team needs PM inputs to plan for the launch. The Product Manager thus spends a lot of time trying to support other departments doing tactical work. But in order to take strategic decisions (macro and micro level) with regard to the product, the PM needs to have a deep understanding of his/her customers (the market), which requires interaction with customers and prospects. Striking the right balance is the key.

Some companies that follow agile methodology have advocated a new role called “Product Owner” to support the product development team with customer/market information or in other words the MRD/PRD.

In such cases the Product Owner!= Product Manager. The Product Owner’s role is in fact a small subset of the Product Manager.

Difference between Product Manager, Product Marketing Manager and Program Manager

Product Marketing is external-facing and is responsible for the go-to-market strategy: communicating about the product to the world, providing tools for the sales channels to market and sell the product, online marketing campaigns and basically managing the launch.

Since most of us are familiar with the 4P’s of marketing,
Product – Product Manager
Price – Product Manager/Product Marketing Manager
Place – Product Marketing Manager
Promotion – Product Marketing Manager

Having said that, in some cases a Product Manager may be responsible for all of the above. It depends on the company, the size, the nature of the project etc.

In Micrsoft and hence most companies in Seattle, the folks who define the product and drive the project are called Program Managers, which can initially seem a little confusing because Program Management can also mean multiple Project Management.