I feel like every book chapter or article I have read about product management and the related
“Ambiguously Descriptive Product Roles” has come up with a derivative discussion about how those jobs can’t be defined. They list out what each position looks like at top companies and small startups, and when put together, their anecdotes and explanations comprise a large swath of potential product manager duties. Of course, the universal truth is that it looks different everywhere. The duties range from minute tasks like getting coffee and donuts for an overworked team to more nebulous jobs like facilitating engineers and designers. Still, with an ever-shifting idea of the product manager role, I can only see a product manager’s job in abstract.
LeMay describes it in the first chapter of Product Management in Practice, and we saw it in the Airbnb org chart from the first lecture: the product manager interfaces with every branch of the business. This can either be a circle of stakeholders, isolated from the rest of the org structure, with designers, engineers, researchers, and others all acting as spokes that lead to the center hub. This could also be the Airbnb structure, a woven map with the PM crossing through every vertical strand. Either way, they have to interact with everyone at some point. Beyond that image, I don’t have a clear grasp of what they do.
I see them as an advocate in every direction, but the image I have crafted of them could be off base. In my mind, they motivate engineers to churn out software features while respecting and accommodating their limits. They discuss what the customer and user needs are and how the product and its features can better support that. They interface with designers to ensure mockups are development ready. At some companies, they might work with multiple stakeholders (like research or analytics) to identify new opportunities. At others, they facilitate the C suite’s desires for the product.
I can see in future chapters LeMay gets into skills required for product management. My question for him and other proclaimed product management experts is with the endlessly broad job description of ADPRs, how does one portray themself as fit for the job? Who shouldn’t be a product manager?
