Project to Product From Tactical to Strategic

What Does a Product Manager do?

All product managers share a core function: set the product vision, drive product development, research, strategic plans, create and maintain the product roadmap, and ultimately be responsible for a products’ success. A lot goes into launching successful products. It’s not enough to have technical, project management, or business skills. The key to success is ensuring the product has a market and provides real value to customers. A great product manager takes the time to truly understand how customers view the product and what they are looking for next. As the dedicated resource to ensure the product’s success, you take the time to understand the customer and the market, the product, and the business to lay out a concrete plan to make and ship a successful product. You conduct thorough research, look into an aspirational vision of the product's future, and lay out the plan to make it a reality. You need to create a compelling story and strategy. A major competence of the PM role is to lay out a product story to the rest of the team as vividly as possible and excite the team about their contributions. You act as your product's biggest user, fan, and critic. You understand every aspect of every product decision, how the product fits market demands and the details of what resources are available to make your plans a reality. A great product manager does not settle for mediocrity. They strive to deliver a product that meets business goals, engages users, and makes an impact. They are always looking for ways to make products do more or do it better because there is always room for improvement. Product management is still a relatively new profession, but according to LinkedIn, interest in product management has doubled in the United States in the past five years. To become a product manager, one does not necessarily require official certification, a specific college degree, or any formal training. However, according to our 2021 State of Product Management Report, over 42% of product managers have a master's degree, and many technical product manager positions require specialized knowledge. Yet generally, a product manager can come from any background. Many product managers have a project management background, but this does not mean that they can do both roles simultaneously.