Product Management is an organization lifecycle within a company dealing with the planning of forecasting or marketing of a product or products at all stages of the products lifecycle.
Product management (inbound focused) and products marketing outbound focused) are different yet complementary efforts with the objective of maximizing sales revenues, market share and profit margins.
The role of products management handles many activities from strategic to tactical and varies based on the organizational structure of the company.
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Product management can be functioning separate on its own and a member of marketing or engineering.
While involved with the entire product lifecycle, product management’s main focus is on driving new product development.
According to the product Development and Management Association (PDMA) superior and differentiated new products – one that deliver unique benefits and superior value to the customer – is the number one driver of success and products profitability.
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A Products manager investigates selects develops products for an organization performing the activity of products management.
A product manager considers numerous factors such as intended demographic the products offered by the competition and now will the products fits in with the companies business model.
Generally a product manager manages one or more tangible products however the term may be used to describe a person who manage intangible products, such as music, information, and services.
A products mangers role in tangible goods industries in similar to a programme director role in service industries.
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Diverse interpretations regarding the role of the products manager are the norm. The product manager title is often used in many ways to be describing drastically different duties and responsibilities.
Even within the high – tech industries where product management is better defined, the product manager’s job description varies widely among companies. This is due to tradition and intuitive interpretations by different individuals.
In a scrum environment, a product manager is also referred to as a product owner, and usually has the main role of representing the product to the customer.
Sum of the responsibilities of the product owner include marketing of the product and analysis of the competition.
In some companies the product manager also acts as a:
i. Product marketing manager – may perform all out bound marketing activities
ii. Project mangier – may perform all activities related to schedule and resourse management.
iii. Programme manager: – may performe activities related to schedule, resource, and cross – functional execution.