Project Manager and Product Manager — What’s the difference
A Project manager and Product manager- not only do they sound similar but there’s literally two words that separate them.
The above written two roles often cause a lot of confusion to people. So much so, at times, people working in the tech-savvy companies fail to differentiate these two roles. To top it off, in most organizations, the responsibilities of these job titles overlap each other in more ways than any other roles. Don’t be surprised when I tell you that in some cases, one individual is both a Project manager and a Product manager.
While the roles sound and spelled similarly but it’s important to understand that these roles are complimentary but distinct in nature. Before we proceed, let’s brush up our basics first and define the words ‘Project’ and ‘Product’ first before we jump to Project and Product managers.
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Project
Simply put, a project is a series of tasks that needs to be completed in order to reach a specific outcome. It is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service.
Projects can range from simple to complex and can be managed by a single person or a team of hundred.
Product
A product is anything that is delivered to a market to solve a problem or satisfy a need. It can be anything from a physical product you hold in a hand, a software or a service you might be offering to someone.
A product comes with a life cycle along with multiple stages. It is conceived, developed, introduced, managed, and ended when it isn’t required anymore.
How a project and product are related?
A product can only be developed within the context of a project, and there can be multiple projects within a product’s lifecycle.
Let’s help you understand this with an example, your product is a mobile application. Now, it might contain many projects before it is ready to be launched. All of these projects can have different starting and ending dates. The mobile application is a product which will be continued to be improved as long as it is being sold to customers.
With time, the needs of customers change and so does the product. Thus, product management isn’t a temporary jig rather a continuous process of delivering new features and improving the product.
It’s possible for one person to take the role of a Project manager and Product manager. As the responsibilities of both the titles may intersect but it is essential to know the difference between the two and dive deeper into these jobs.
Role of a Project manager
A Project manager is someone who manages everything about a project. He or she manages the operations within a project — time, budget, delegation of tasks, scope creep, identification of risks and more. All in all, he is responsible for the successful delivery of the project within the decided budget and deadline.
As they are mainly focused on the operational elements such as meeting deadlines, budget and completing deliverables, they are required to be little tactful in nature. One of the most difficult things for them is to manage the scope of the project i.e to complete the project on time and within the allotted budget.
Scott Berkun, the American author of ‘Making Things Happen’ rightly points out, “A Project manager is like a doctor who leads the trauma team and decides the course of action for a patient — both at the same time. Without the right kind of authority to efficiently handle all the project management issues, development teams can easily get into trouble.”
Responsibilities of a Project manager
The responsibilities of a Project manager vary from one organization to another and they keep on changing as well depending on the project requirements. But the core responsibilities of project managers remains the same in any company. Let’s see what these responsibilities are.
- Planning
Planning the project is the key responsibility of a project manager. In this phase, he defines the project scope and accordingly develops the plan and other requirements. He focuses on developing strict procedures and guidelines so that the project can be successfully delivered meeting the constraints of time and budget.
- Organizing
After planning, Project managers focus on organizing the team structure and resource allocation. While organizing, they have to be mindful of the existing structure in the organization as well.
- Leading
One of the most challenging parts of being a Project manager is to lead a team effectively. He is expected to coordinate with the different levels of an organization to ensure the smooth execution of projects. They always need to motivate team members so that they can meet specifies deadlines on time and within budget.
- Control
Project managers have to ensure that the project is heading in the right direction. As the needs of the project keep changing with the time, they might need to make some changes and control the project differently so that project members can deliver it within the time-frame.
- Communication
Besides planning and executing projects, Project managers also have the responsibility to communicate with the senior management and other key decision-makers. They have to provide status reports, risk management issues and also get approvals of deliverables from the sponsors.
Why you need a Project manager?
No matter if your organization deals with large or small projects, you need someone who can consistently keep teams on track and help you deliver projects successfully. According to a survey, 80% of high-performing projects are led by a certified Project manager.
Thus, it won’t be wrong to say that Project managers are an indispensable part of project management.
Role of a Product manager
Wikipedia defines the role of a Product manager something like this,
“A Product manager communicates product vision from the highest levels of executive leadership to the development and implementation teams. He is often called the CEO of a product.”
He is someone who is responsible for the strategy, roadmap, and feature definition for a product. Other responsibilities may also include marketing and profit and loss (P&L) responsibilities.
A Product manager analyzes market conditions and then lays out a product vision accordingly to deliver a product that meets the customer demands. His role covers different activities from strategic to tactical and bridges the gap between engineering, sales, marketing and support teams.
Responsibilities of a Product manager
Here are some of the common aspects that all Product managers aspire to work for:
- Strategy: He is responsible for the vision of the product and making strategies for it.
- Ideation: He takes care of generating, developing, and curating new ideas for the product.
- Features: The product manager defines the features and requirements to deliver a complete product in the market.
Why you need a Product manager?
Every organization needs an individual who sets a vision and strategy for the product. Someone who articulates the business value to the product team so that they understand the intent behind the new product release. With that, they own the strategy behind the product along with its roadmap and work with engineering team to build what’s required.
Conclusion
For a project to be successful, you need a complete team effort. The roles, responsibilities, and contribution of all project members might vary but at the end of the day, it’s the collective team effort that makes a project successful.
Product and Project managers see the same work through different lenses. And when they join forces to collaborate and work as a complete team, everyone in company benefits.
What are the responsibilities of Product and Project managers in your organization? You can tell us by dropping a comment in the comments section down below.
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Vartika Kashyap runs the marketing team at ProofHub — a project management software for teams of all sizes. She is a seasoned marketing professional who is an expert in digital marketing and entrepreneurship. She’s been featured among LinkedIn’s Top Voices for the year 2016. Connect with Vartika on LinkedIn, Medium and Twitter.
Also follow our company page @ProofHub to get the recent updates about our tool, published articles, motivational quotes & presentations.
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