Product Manager VS Project Manager

Product Manager and Project Manager are both equally important positions in the business, especially when it comes to product development. It is important to note that while they do often work closely together on the same initiatives, product manager and project manager do have two distinct set of responsibilities.

The confusion between the roles are understandable, especially since the two titles are only differentiated by two letters, proJEct and proDUct. This article will discuss the difference between product and project manager in detail and examine how the two roles overlap.

Project vs Product

Before we examine the roles, it is worth understanding the differences between Product and Project.

Product: This is what the business provides to a group of users. It can be tangible, like a physical product that we can hold in our hands, or something intangible like Apps and software, or even services that the business is delivering.

Project: Cambridge dictionary defined it as “a piece of planned work or an activity that is finished over a period of time and intended to achieve a particular purpose.” In other words, it is a plan with a series of activities that has i) defined outcome, ii) a fixed start and iii) end date. The project is completed when that outcome is accomplished.

Using the example of a mobile app, the mobile app itself would be the product. The project would be the set of work undertaken to develop the mobile application. There might be several projects before the mobile app (product) is ready to be launched, and more as it is continuously being improved. All these projects will have their own unique starting and ending points. In short, the mobile app (product) is built, and continue to be improved through these defined/planned work (project).

Role of Product Manager

Product Manager works within the product management functions. Product management is an organisational function within a company that deals with the planning, forecasting, development and marketing of a product/products at all stages of the product life cycle.

Following on from that, the role of the product manager is simply, to manage the product.

The ultimate goal of a product manager is to aim to maximise value and create new revenue streams through the product that they manage. The most important questions that a product manager must answer would be “What problem does this (product) solve? What (product) we are building? What will the (product) benefits be?”

The Product Manager functions can be summarised below:

• Conduct research

• Define product vision

• Communicate vision to stakeholders (both internal and external)

• Develop product strategy

• Gathering and prioritising product and customer requirements

• Creating and maintaining product roadmap

• Overseeing and driving development

• Working with customers, sales and marketing to review product, ensuring revenue and customer satisfaction goals are met.

Role of Project Manager

Project Manager, on the other hand, work within the project management functions. Project management consists of the application of processes, methods, knowledge, skills, and experience to achieve the objectives of a specific project.

Following on from that, the role of the project manager is to manage a planned piece of work, i.e. project. The ultimate goal of the project manager is to maximise quality while minimising risk as they deliver the project scope, balancing time, cost and quality. The most important questions that the project manager must answer are: “What resources are needed? When will the project get delivered? Who is going to do what?”

The Project Manager’s function can be summarised below:

• Breaking down large initiatives into task

• Planning project timelines

• Allocating project resources

• Monitoring and tracking task completion ( with the help of project management tools like Jira, Tello, Basecamp etc)

• Communicating progress to stakeholders

• Ensuring project completion in set timeframe

• Managing a team of designers and developers, and tracking their work

• Keeping the project on time and within budget while giving tansparency to clients

After we discuss the role of both Product and Project manager, it is worthwhile mentioning the artifacts that each manager owns:

Product managers own:

• Strategy

• Releases

• Ideation

• Features

• Go-to-Market

• Organisational training

• Profit and loss

Project managers own:

• Budget

• Delivery

• Resources

• Capacity

• Cross-team organization

• Problem resolution

• Status updates

Product and Project management within Product Development

After we examine the role of product and project manager, we can put them into the context of product development to understand where they fit in.

In the product development process, the product manager will first set a vision for the product (based on research), communicate the vision throughout the organisation to get relevant buy-in from stakeholders. If successful, the product manager will work to develop the product strategy that will underpin the development of a well-designed product roadmap. The product vision, strategy and roadmap aim to help the organisation to bring the envisioned product to reality.

At this stage, the product manager will begin breaking the roadmap into strategic goals, teams and deadlines. This is where the project manager comes into play. The project manager is responsible for breaking down strategic goals/plans into actionable, task-oriented initiatives. This process involves coordination, delegation, and leadership, as the project manager must navigate interdependencies, team dynamics, and one-off challenges, all while meeting a deadline with limited resources.

Comparison between Product and Project Management

Both product manager and project manager work closely together in high-performance organisations, often in the same work. Both work with the broader product team and executive leaders. However, they see the work in different lenses.

Product manager collaborates daily with cross-functional teams, such as engineering, sales and marketing, and customer support regarding the future of the product, i.e. a longer term perspective. The project manager also works with the broader team but is focused on bringing plans to life. And their work is more time-fixed

On another note, product manager is responsible for the product throughout its lifecycle, they will naturally be involved with any project that concerns the product. It is the product manager’s job to define the scope of each specific project with the aim of achieving high-level goals for their product and business. The project manager will then take on the scope and manage the effort. Once the scope of the project is complete, they move on to organise other tasks.

For example, the product team scopes out a task (based on the product roadmap) to redesign the UX of an app with a target date that is 6 months away. Then a project team might be assembled to tackle this task. The project manager will be concerned with that project’s budget, resources, deadline, and quality. Their goal will be to ensure the completion of the UX redesign task on time, budget and quality. In order to do that, they will need understand many details of each project.

Potential Overlap

As we have seen above, there is a bit of overlap between the responsibilities of the product manager and the project manager, and this could lead to potential conflicts.

One of such potential conflicts would be to understand who owns the roadmap. In most cases, the product manager, the person responsible for the product in the long term, should be solely responsible for owning the roadmap. However, it is not uncommon that project manager, being the one more knowledgeable about resources, time and budget, shift from their primary tactical role to a more strategic stance and provide input on the roadmap, especially on what is feasible.

There are times when a product manager has to dig into the tactical, task-based details of a product’s development—work that might otherwise be done by a project manager. These situations will take a product manager into close coordination with a project manager, and in some cases the two might even share some of this task-management responsibility. In some organisation, the product manager are expected to take on a dual role of project and product management.

Most of the skills required for project management can be transferred over to the wider analytical scope often deployed by product managers. For example, a project manager with strong troubleshooting abilities is really a skilled problem solver. To channel that core problem-solving skill on a big-picture scale would be to take on the role of a product manager.

It is also worth noting that product managers and project managers alike lean on similar soft skills in order to succeed in their roles. For example, listening, communication, organisation, and product evangelism—all of which serve successful project managers as well.

Conclusion

Product and project management are similar concepts, but in order to create a successful product, we need to understand how these concepts differ. Project management focuses internally to achieve specific objectives and complete a given project on time and under budget. Once the project is completed, it is no longer ‘managed’. Product Management takes a broader view, and focuses externally on the customer and the overall and continued success of the project.

Both managerial positions' works are responsible for major parts of the project and are going to intersect, so it is important to know what their duties are and how to work and collaborate with each other for the overall success of the project. When product and project manager join forces to collaborate, everyone benefits and the company wins.