After reading Matt LeMay’s preface and first chapter, I understand a product manager to be a team leader. Of course, it seems there’s user research and other nitpicky product-specific research and resourcing issues involved, but it sounds like the main job description is to figure out what the team needs, interface between executive leadership and the team that has needs, and do what it takes to a) get the resources the team needs and b) make sure the team meets goals.
I came into CS177 with little understanding of what a PM job looks like. Certainly, I was under the impression that project management and product management were two very distinct positions, and I would have been much more likely to equate a project manager’s role with the responsibilities that LeMay describes. I’m particularly interested to learn that a product manager’s job is mostly human interfacing within the company to help the actual development team get the necessary work done, and that the job is highly flexible. I’m also interested to learn that the terms “project manager” and “product manager” are used differently and sometimes apply to the same roles in different companies.
I’ve held student leadership positions in which my basic job was to take responsibility for the overall outcome of the group, and I always find this a difficult line to walk. A question I have for LeMay is this: Given that product managers are expected to be extremely resourceful, work with serious ambiguity, and take responsibility for most problems that they encounter during their work day, under what conditions does a project manager know that it’s a good time to tell management they need more clarification/support instead of just swallowing the issue and making it work?
