Overview of Product Manager vs Project Manager
There is always confusion among people in an organization who is a Product Manager? And Project Manager? Often it is misinterpreted both the terminologies Product Managers and as well as Project Managers both are the same, but it’s not. Each has its own different roles and responsibilities, which is important and necessary for the product launch in the world market. Either Product Manager or
in strategizing and establishing the product to the market according to the requirement/customer needs. Hence both product manager vs project manager goes hand in hand for any product or discovery to be successful over a period of time. Let’s focus in detail about both terminologies, their roles, key differences, how they influence the product in the market, etc.
A Project Manager’s focus is internal and tactical, whereas a Product Manger’s focus is external on the customers’ needs and on the resulting product strategy.
It is important, to begin with, the definition of words Product and Project:
Product: It is anything that can be given to the market that can satisfy a need.
Project: The main motive is to undertake or to create a specific product, service, or result.
Product Manager
It is a professional responsibility for the development of products in an organization. The Product Managers strategize a business plan for a product, specify its functional requirements, and manage the launch activities.
They are the owner of the product and involve in its complete life cycle.
Product Managers take the onus of the product which they develop from its origin. They are responsible for satisfying the needs of the client and the financial benefits of the business. They manage the product throughout its lifecycle and ensure that it satisfies both customer and market needs.
Roles and Responsibilities
- Gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements.
- Translating the requirement into product features
- Defining the product vision and bring them to life through efforts
- Working with the sales, marketing, and support to ensure.
- They also ensure customer goals are achieved,
- The hold is responsible for product release and the control for a wider span of time.
- They involve in strategizing the product cost and also in profit/loss of their product.
Project Manager
The project manager is a professional responsible for the management of project activities. They have the responsibility of planning and executing a project. The main responsibility is to deliver the product within the stipulated time and be concerned about the project life cycle but not about the product lifecycle. Skilled experts on project management in delivering the project as planned. They provide tools and techniques for the team and distribute the tasks that need to be completed. Some of the major areas where the Project Managers employ tools and techniques are,
- Risk and Issue management: It is an important area that helps to highlight and manage any risks to successfully complete the project.
- Resource Management: It ensures that the project team has what they need and when they need it, such as a task list, materials, infrastructure, reporting, etc.
- Scope management: In this, the Project Manager has to involve a limited scope of endeavor within acceptable allowances.
Roles and Responsibilities
- They are responsible for creating the project plan to deliver the project as expected.
- They act proactively and identify the project risks and suitable action against them.
- They hold responsibilities for managing time, budget, and scope during project execution.
- Project Managers manage the project resources of the project and its stakeholders.
- Throughout the project life cycle, they update the daily status to the project stakeholders.
- They understand the project requirements with clear expectations on what has to be delivered to the customers.
- The main responsibility is to ensure the entire team is aware of the requirements which need to be delivered.
Product Manager and Project Manager roles are very difficult, but these roles are said to have some similar skillset.
- Excellent organizational and interpersonal skills.
- Leadership Qualities and Time management
- Decision making and Problem-solving
- Delegation of work
A Project Manager excels at managing to datelines, and a Product Manager knows what the clients want and their requirements.
Head to Head Comparison between Product Manager vs Project Manager (Infographics)
Below is the Top 7 Comparison between Product Manager vs Project Manager
Key Difference between Product Manager vs Project Manager
Let us discuss some of the major differences between product manager vs Project Manager:
The key difference between the product manager and the project manager is that the Product Manager deals with “what”, while the Project Manager is in charge of the “how.”
The Product Manager should manage the feature requests, create requirements, manage backlogs, and other important responsibilities with “what” the organization is building.
On the other side Project Managers, are generally in charge of managing the budget, resources, task execution and other work associated with “how” the work is getting done.
Here the thumb rule is that a good Project Manager tends not to be a great Product Manager and vice-versa. They simply operate at different levels of abstraction in an organization, one at the “forest” level and at the “tree” level.
Product Manager vs Project Manager Comparison Table
Below is the topmost comparison between Product Manager vs Project Manager
| Comparison | Product Manager | Project Manager |
| Answers the Question | Why? | How? |
| Communication | Tactically engages with senior stakeholders and turn the roadblocks into an opportunity. | Mostly communicates within the team and ensures the project is delivered on time. |
| Accountability | Accountable for the entire product establishment in the market. | Accountable only for the task or activities assigned. |
| Timeline | Ongoing lifecycle | Fixed timeline |
| Focuses on | Customer needs, decides target end-users, market research | Team structure, budget, project deadlines, problem-solving |
| Responsible For? | Product Strategy | Completion and delivery of project |
| Collaboration | Works with engineering, marketing, and all other teams to keep product lifecycle iterative | Mainly deals with team leads and members |
Conclusion
The concept of project and Product Manager is similar, but in order to create a successful product, one should know how these concepts differ. Any organization should have both a Project Manager and a Product Manager for a successful product launch in the market. The Project Manager gives more focus internally to achieve specific objectives and complete a given project on time. Whereas the Product Manager focuses externally on the client and the overall success of the project. Ideally, both are two different concepts, but it is essential to collaborate with both the Project Manager and Product Manager to grow and hold a formidable position in the market amidst competitors.
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