Project Manager vs Product Manager: Who is heavier on his shoulders?
If you work in a large company and your team consists of different strategic divisions, positions and roles, then you could be confused with the understanding of the roles and functionality of employees. In the case of a product manager and a project manager, such confusion happens very often.
How often do your colleagues confuse the responsibilities of both managers? If you are one of PM, you should have heard the question: “Is there any difference at all?”
So, Product Manager and Project Manager are completely different roles. Let's try to consider the difference between the two strategic positions in IT companies, so that it no longer causes confusion.
')
However, even after this, there will be a lot of questions, because even in the field of product management today in many companies there are several job options from junior to product owner, director or VP for a product.
Managers of the product and the project can be safely compared with the Atlantes, who carry a heavy burden on their shoulders. This is a company, a product itself, which consists of smaller products and projects. Both strategists are responsible for their part of the burden, both depend on one another’s efforts.
Whose burden is heavier? And what happens if one of the Atlanteans gives up?
A product is an end result that you provide to your users or customers. This may be a physically tangible product, software platform, service, application or service.
A project is a concrete plan consisting of various activities. All activities have a specific result and fixed start and end dates. When the result is completed, respectively, your project will be completed.
For example, a product is a new mobile game. The development of this game involves many projects. One of them is the launch of a corporate website. This project has its own starting and ending points. Product and project managers have different responsibilities and functions.
Product managers are usually responsible for global product strategy, prioritization of functions and the final product version. Product managers create ideas and initiatives to help achieve strategies and goals using road maps (product roadmaps) and manage product backlog.
If you recall the association with Atlanta, the following will be a valuable burden on the shoulders of the product manager:
A project manager is usually less focused on specific product goals. His main responsibility is the project itself. Project manager receives initiatives and product features for the development and approval of the timeline. In his responsibility - the risks, potential constraints, resources and the scale of the tasks.
Project managers are responsible for:
Both. And this is illustrated by the Atlanta picture. If your company has both positions, then you have full order with the organizational structure. How to understand which of the managers is more important?
Ask yourself two questions:
Most likely, your answers will show that both positions are important and irreplaceable. Their collaboration is the key to success.
It is easy to assume that if the roles and functions of managers are different, then the professional tools for their effective work are also different.
However, there are exceptions. Today, many platforms, such as Hygger, offer a useful feature set for a product manager and project manager.
Product management software is used to track requirements, document product vision, strategy, and prioritize.
A product roadmap is one of the primary tools for product managers. Special services for building and working with a product roadmap are intended to inform the team about the product strategy, to demonstrate all initiatives and ideas.
In Hygger.io, you can share your roadmap and share the perspective of what will happen in a product over time, indicating releases, projects and initiatives. This option looks very competitive, because many other strong market players often cannot offer this option. For example, using Jira, you have to pay for Portfolio for Jira.
Backlog management is another feature that a tool for product management should offer. You can visualize priority tasks, for example, using a graphical display of the Backlog priority chart . The tool helps to optimize product priorities by identifying important and less important tasks.
Professional services for project managers is a strategic tool that is used to track and manage all project details.
After you get the green light to start a project, you can plan all your development activities using any project management platform.
PM services help to fix and share tasks and subtasks, deadlines, necessary assets and interaction between team members.
Hygger offers comprehensive opportunities for project managers from user-friendly Kanban and Scrum boards to tracking time and project reporting.
Summing up, we emphasize once again the most important thing:
What tools do you use to manage? What is the difference between project and product managers? Write in the comments.
How often do your colleagues confuse the responsibilities of both managers? If you are one of PM, you should have heard the question: “Is there any difference at all?”
So, Product Manager and Project Manager are completely different roles. Let's try to consider the difference between the two strategic positions in IT companies, so that it no longer causes confusion.
')
However, even after this, there will be a lot of questions, because even in the field of product management today in many companies there are several job options from junior to product owner, director or VP for a product.
Managers of the product and the project can be safely compared with the Atlantes, who carry a heavy burden on their shoulders. This is a company, a product itself, which consists of smaller products and projects. Both strategists are responsible for their part of the burden, both depend on one another’s efforts.
Whose burden is heavier? And what happens if one of the Atlanteans gives up?
Product Manager vs Project Manager
A product is an end result that you provide to your users or customers. This may be a physically tangible product, software platform, service, application or service.
A project is a concrete plan consisting of various activities. All activities have a specific result and fixed start and end dates. When the result is completed, respectively, your project will be completed.
For example, a product is a new mobile game. The development of this game involves many projects. One of them is the launch of a corporate website. This project has its own starting and ending points. Product and project managers have different responsibilities and functions.
Main responsibilities of the product manager and project manager
Product Manager
Product managers are usually responsible for global product strategy, prioritization of functions and the final product version. Product managers create ideas and initiatives to help achieve strategies and goals using road maps (product roadmaps) and manage product backlog.
If you recall the association with Atlanta, the following will be a valuable burden on the shoulders of the product manager:
- Global product strategy
- Release Releases
- Ideas and initiatives
- Prioritization
- Profit and loss issues
- Market research
- Competitive environment
Project manager
A project manager is usually less focused on specific product goals. His main responsibility is the project itself. Project manager receives initiatives and product features for the development and approval of the timeline. In his responsibility - the risks, potential constraints, resources and the scale of the tasks.
Project managers are responsible for:
- Releases
- Project Resources
- Updates and statuses
- Project's budget
- Team collaboration
- Solving current problems within the project
Who is more important in the hierarchy of the company?
Both. And this is illustrated by the Atlanta picture. If your company has both positions, then you have full order with the organizational structure. How to understand which of the managers is more important?
Ask yourself two questions:
- Can a team work efficiently and get results without a product manager?
- What happens if the project manager leaves the team?
Most likely, your answers will show that both positions are important and irreplaceable. Their collaboration is the key to success.
Tools and services for product managers and project managers
It is easy to assume that if the roles and functions of managers are different, then the professional tools for their effective work are also different.
However, there are exceptions. Today, many platforms, such as Hygger, offer a useful feature set for a product manager and project manager.
Product management software
Product management software is used to track requirements, document product vision, strategy, and prioritize.
A product roadmap is one of the primary tools for product managers. Special services for building and working with a product roadmap are intended to inform the team about the product strategy, to demonstrate all initiatives and ideas.
In Hygger.io, you can share your roadmap and share the perspective of what will happen in a product over time, indicating releases, projects and initiatives. This option looks very competitive, because many other strong market players often cannot offer this option. For example, using Jira, you have to pay for Portfolio for Jira.
Backlog management is another feature that a tool for product management should offer. You can visualize priority tasks, for example, using a graphical display of the Backlog priority chart . The tool helps to optimize product priorities by identifying important and less important tasks.
Project management software
Professional services for project managers is a strategic tool that is used to track and manage all project details.
After you get the green light to start a project, you can plan all your development activities using any project management platform.
PM services help to fix and share tasks and subtasks, deadlines, necessary assets and interaction between team members.
Hygger offers comprehensive opportunities for project managers from user-friendly Kanban and Scrum boards to tracking time and project reporting.
Conclusion
Summing up, we emphasize once again the most important thing:
- Product managers and project managers have completely different roles and both positions are important for any modern IT company.
- Product managers manage product development. They work with initiatives, prioritize them and make strategic decisions on products. Project managers usually oversee the implementation of plans that have already been developed and approved.
- Every manager needs professional tools to correctly visualize all products and projects.
What tools do you use to manage? What is the difference between project and product managers? Write in the comments.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/352880/
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