Product Manager Job Description

A Product Manager is in charge of a product throughout its product lifecycle. That includes working out what customers want, helping the business to build the right product, and then supporting the business to sell it. They also provide the product vision and leadership for the many other roles involved in developing, supporting, marketing, and selling the product. That includes ensuring the product supports the company’s strategy and goals.

In most businesses, there are several different roles that are involved in product management. A product manager’s job description will depend on the responsibilities a role has and the activities it does.

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The different product roles

Product management is done differently from one business to the next. It depends on the size of a company, if the products are software, physical products, or services, and if the company is selling to businesses or consumers. It makes a single product manager description very difficult. Product Manager - Product Owner - Product Marketing Manager - a diagram which shows how the different roles overlap

To add to the confusion, there are lots of different job titles that focus on different product-related activities. Three of the most common – Product Manager, Product Owner, and Product Marketing Manager are shown in the diagram.  

As you can see, these product roles often overlap. And what makes it even more confusing is that these roles are set up differently from one company to the next. 

Many other product roles and job titles exist: Propositions Manager, Portfolio Manager, Technical Product Manager, Product Specialist, Associate/Junior Product Manager, Senior Product Manager, Product Development Manager, User eXperience (UX) / Design Manager. Collectively these are known as “product people,” and they work together to define, build and deliver products.

Our course, Product Management & Product Marketing for technology-based products, is suitable for all of these roles.

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