Product Management vs. Product Marketing

Posted by Marty Cagan on August 28, 2007

Industry pundits claim that 9 out of ten product releases is failures in that they don ' t meet their goals.  I don ' t know if that's the exact stat or not, but I bet it's not far off.  I do believe strongly the most releases is ill-conceived.  Countless release cycles is wasted on products that is either not useful or not usable. There was many reasons for these bad products, and each article I write was intended to address some aspect, but I had Lon G argued that the root cause of these wasted releases can most often being traced to how the role of product manager is Defin Ed at your company, and the capabilities of the people you choose for this role.

I have been meaning to write this article for over a year now. It ' s a topic I ' ve been thinking about for a long time, but one that I consider critically important as it gets to the core  Of the job of the product manager truly needs to be. It's hard-to-write because I know how tough it was to try to get a industry to change the it thinks of roles, and Eve N to change the nomenclature it uses in talking about these roles.

Before we get started, to explain this issue I'll have to define some terms, fully aware that these definitions would con  Tradict their use in many companies. I define the role of the Product manager first and foremost as the person responsible for defining–in detail–the Produ  CT that the engineering team would build. I define the role of product marketing as responsible for telling the world on this product.

More on each of the role below, but as a can see, these is extremely different jobs.

To is clear right from the start, I argue this every product needs a single, accountable product manager, responsible for The product definition (the combination of product requirements and user experience that describe the product to be built) .

However, unfortunately, all too often if I begin working with a company I encounter one of three different situations:

1) There is a product marketing or product manager titled person responsible for the high-level product requirements, and Then the product goes straight to engineering–bypassing detailed product requirements and the many tough decisions that Go along with this (and also very often bypassing user experience design, but that's the topic of an earlier set of ARTICL Es

2) The product definition role is split between a product marketing person responsible for the high-level Business/product requirements, and a product manager person responsible for the low-level product requirements

3) A product marketing person are asked to cover both roles (and the company sometimes calls these people product managers and sometimes product marketing)

Let's discuss each of the these three problem situations:

-Marketing-driven Product

This situation are pretty easy to spot.  the rest of the product team views this person as "the marketing resource" That might is useful for creating data sheets, training the sales force, and coming up with the naming and pricing, but I n Terms of defining the product, this person was largely discounted and ignored.  there are plenty of Dilbert cartoons Portraying this person, and we ' ve all known this type of product manager.  While these people might is great at mark Eting, they is in the their heads trying to define in detail a useful and usable product.  in this situation , hopefully someone else on the product team steps in and performs the true product management function, sometimes a leads Engineer, sometimes a designer, and sometimes a manager.  If that person has the skills, and also the bandwidth, the Product may still succeed.  more often, however, the product was in trouble right from the start.

My first exposure to product management is with this situation, and it initially kept me from wanting to has any Associa tion at all with this role, and then I met a guy, showed me, product management is really all about. So then my reaction is to rename the role of something different, but that's a battle I soon realized had its own problem s, so instead I ' ve worked to highlight the successful product managers and work to redefine the role around these people.

-People, one Role

This situation are also easy to spot, as there are no single product owner.  A product Marketing person (sometimes I n this model called the ' business owner ') is responsible for the high-level business requirements, and a product manager i s responsible for the low-level product requirements.  the problem are that neither person truly owns the product, and More importantly, neither person feels and behaves like they is the one ultimately responsible for the product.  Fu Rther, this model was based on a flawed view of software that believes so you can define high-level product requirements Independent of detailed requirements and especially the user experience.  when you had this model, the product Manag ERs become essentially a spec-generation service.  It's a frustrating job that tends to stifle innovation, and Rarel Y produces winning products.

Many larger companies with multiple business units evolve to this situation and then wonder why they can no longer come Up with innovative products, their customers love.

-One person, double Roles

The problem with combining, product Manager role with product marketing was that it was very hard-to-find someone who Can do both types of the jobs well.  each of the these roles are critical, and each requires special skills and talents. Creating a product is much different than telling the world on that product.  I had known some truly exceptional People that can excel in both roles, but these people is very rare and as an organizational model it doesn ' t scale.  Further, for all but the simplest of products, the role of Product Manager as defined this is a all-consuming, full-time Job, requiring a dedicated person.  If you ask the product marketing who to cover the product management role, Ev En if the person had the skills and talents required for both, it was unlikely he would have the bandwidth to do both jobs W Ell.

Frequently a problem at enterprise software companies where supporting the sales force is a big job in itself , and there is a strong tendency for the product managers simply to pass along (perceived) requirements from the big Custo  MERS, to the sales reps, to the product managers, and then to the engineers. Almost never results in useful and usable products.

It is important to recognize that there be reasons for each of the organizational models described above, but I argue tha  T the companies is sacrificing far more than they realize.  They is wasting entire product release cycles. They is creating products that customers don ' t want, or must struggle with to use.

The on-the-clearly define the distinct roles of product manager and product marketing in your company. The Product manager is responsible-Defining–in detail–the product to being built, and validate that product with real  Customers and users. The product marketing person are responsible for telling the world about that product, managing the product launch, Providi NG tools for the sales channel to market and sell the product, and for leading key programs such as online marketing and I Nfluencer marketing programs.

Article should be construed as claiming, the product marketing role is unimportant.  I have learned the it is, and the great product marketing is extremely valuable. But it had little to does with the Product Manager role, that I had described here.

In general the Product manager and product marketing person would communicate often and collaborate occasionally on Specifi  C topics, but there is the main interactions. First, the product marketing person would be a one of the several sources of input to product requirements owned by the Produ  CT Manager. Second, the product manager would be one of the several sources of input to marketing messages owned by Product marketing.

By whatever title or organizational model, behind every great product, I promise you so you'll find someone responsibl   E for the definition of this product. Remember that it doesn ' t matter how great your engineering organization are if you don ' t give them something useful and USA ble to build.

Product Management vs. Product Marketing