.png)
.png)
Who is a Product Manager?
A Product Manager is a certified professional who is responsible to manage the products using tools, techniques and practices of product management. The product managers may manage a single product/line of products/small features or financials products in an organization. The role is often confused with Project Manager, Program Manager, Product Owner or Marketing Manager but the responsibilities of PM are very diverse and different. There are many activities that need to be managed to get efficient results. Agile Product Management has many different roles and PM is one of them.
What are the responsibilities of a Product Manager?
A PM has a lot of responsibilities throughout the process that are important for successful delivery of the product. Here are some of the responsibilities of a Product Manager:
Researching market demands by communicating with the customers or stakeholders.
Comparing and analyzing products developed by competitors.
Planning product development.
Strategizing product roadmap with the help of team members.
Leading the product development process in Agile Product Management.
Skills required to be a Product Manager
The career of Product Manager starts as engineers or specialists and then progress into product management. To lead the management the Product Managers have to acquaint many hard and soft skills to get the work done properly. Some of the skills required to be a Product Manager are as follows:
Communication
Technical skills
Budgeting
Time Management
Data analysis
Marketing
Problem resolving skills
Knowledge about Agile
Who is a Product Owner?
A Product Owner is one of the main roles of a Scrum team who is responsible for the success of a project. They are responsible for creating the user stories and product backlog in order to maximize product value. They make the backlog by aligning it with the needs and requirements of the customers or stakeholders.
Product Owner Responsibilities Product Owner is a representative of customers and stakeholders to prepare a backlog to work on. They have handful of responsibilities to get the work done in an organization. Here is the list of responsibilities of a Product Owner in Agile Product Management:
Defining the product vision after doing market research or collecting feedback from stakeholders.
Prioritizing the tasks by creating the product backlog.
Clearly defining backlog items in the backlog.
Collaborating with the other teams.
Contacting with the stakeholders for product related discussions.
Product compliance.
Product Manager vs. Product Owner The ultimate goal of both Product Manager and Product Owner is successful delivery of products but both have different roles and responsibilities in the teams. SAFe POPM defines and guides both the roles to deliver their best. Let’s compare the two roles involved in the process:
POINTS OF COMPARISON | PRODUCT OWNER | PRODUCT MANAGER |
Role | A product owner is a professional responsible to align the needs of customers with the vision. | A product manager is a professional responsible to manage the product development process. |
Focus | Prioritizing the task. | Managing the tasks next in line. |
Owner of | Product Backlog, user stories, epics. | Unified Product Roadmap |
Responsibilities |
|
|
Success metrics |
|
|
Conclusion Product Managers and Product Owners are two important roles in an Agile organization with a lot of responsibilities. They require certain skills and knowledge to justify their roles in the team. SAFe courses can be helpful to learn Agile practices that can help to gain the designation. Acekube is a digital platform that offers many courses that can help you to grow professionally in your career.
FAQs
1. How do Product Managers and Product Owners communicate with stakeholders?
The stake holders of the organization are the ones involved in the decision making of the project of making any changes during the production. Communicating with the stakeholders is one of the Product Owner responsibilities and the common ways of approaching are:
E-mails
Submitting monthly progress reports.
Updating notice board.
Presentations about changes or progress.
Meeting and reporting the stakeholders.
Publishing the news on online web portals.
Focus Groups.
2. Are there any certifications or training programs specifically for Product Managers and Product Owners?
Yes, there are many certifications or training programs for Agile Product Management through which Product Managers and Product Owners can learn and update their skills. Some of the best certifications are:
Agile Certified Product Manager and Product Owner
Pragmatic Certified Product Manager
New Product Development Professional
Certified Product Manager (AIPMM)
Product Management Certificate Program
Product Manager Certification
Certified Technical Product Manager
Certified Scrum Product Owner
Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner
Project Management Professional
3. How do Product Managers and Product Owners handle feedback from users and stakeholders?
Product Managers and Product Owners have different ways of communicating with the users or stakeholders. With the help of SAFe POPM Remote Training they can learn to handle the users efficiently. Some companies use web portals, notice boards, surveys, etc to collect feedback and make changes after review. Here are the steps for handling feedback from users:
Collecting the feedback.
Reviewing the feedback.
Identifying opportunities.
Improvising User experience
Understanding and prioritizing negative feedback.
Comments