In my experience, the existence of the numerous roles of product manager, program manager, product line manager, product marketing manager, etc. will depend upon the size of the company. In the smaller company, these are all the various hats worn by the title of product manager. In larger companies, the roles become different individual jobs, that overlap each other in some aspect. The exact definition will be contextual and driven by the specific company, culture, processes, resources, etc.
One way to understand the differences is to look at the different role participation in the different stages of the overall product life cycle.
The product manager owns the front end of the product life cycle. The focus here is on defining the what (problem to be solved) and why. Note this is not a detail product requirements document but a problem / opportunity definition and value proposition definition.
Many companies have move to an agile approach where the detailed requirements are determined by the agile team in conjunction with customers. However, before this can happen, a decision needs to be made to spin up an agile team to address a defined opportunity.. Identifying this opportunity, structuring the problem to be solved, forming the value proposition, creating the business justification for it, and navigating it through the approval and funding/resourcing process is at the core of the product manager function. This is why tasks such as competitive analysis are within the domain of this role.
Once funded and resourced, the engineering takes the lead to define the "how". This is where engineering product line managers take the lead to determine how to leverage (or modify) existing platforms to solve the defined problem. As this work continues, the shape and definition of the actual product evolves in an agile manner. Project managers keep the cadence on track. The product manager is involved by not the lead. Their role is to assure the evolving product does in fact solve the stated problem and delivers the define value proposition.
As the product moves to launch, product marketing takes the lead, and develops messaging, collateral, training, and provides all other sales support material and activity.
So in summary, in the larger organization where the references activities are different roles.
- Product Management - owns the front end of the product life cycle (definition of problem, and value proposition)
- Product Line Engineering - owns the creation of the actual product.
- Product Marketing - owns the market introduction, launch, and sales support.
When you also have a role such as Product Line Manager, the focus of this roles depends their location in the organizational structure. If on the engineering side, they are focused on platform architectures. If on the marketing side, their focus is on portfolio management. While a product manager is focused on a specific product.
Hope this helps,
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Daniel E. Lewis PhD, PE, PMP, NPDP
President - Product Acuity Consulting
www.productacuity.comThe Woodlands, Texas
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-16-2020 15:02
From: Mario Sabourin
Subject: Product Management vs Product Line Management
Hi,
If we say that product marketing / product management covers functions such as:
- Conducting market and competitive research, including competitive product research
- Creating sales collaterals
- Eliciting market/ customer needs and generating market requirements doc.
- Collaborating with downsteam domain experts to translate market requirements into technical requirements that engineering team can use
- Prioritizing product initiatives
- Defining the go-to-market strategy
- Defining the product positioning and messages to market
- Etc.
How would you split roles & responsibilities between product managers and product line managers when an enterprise makes use of Product Line Engineering techniques to create product platform from which a product family is created e.g. a group of related products that is achieved from a product platform to satisfy a variety of market niches ?
How would you distinguish Product Line Engineering from Product Line Management ?
Thank you for your reply,
Mario
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Mario Sabourin
Product Line Engineering Manager
Alstom Transport S.A.
Saint-Ouen
+33698587886
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