After reading these chapters and in combination with my prior knowledge if product management, it seems that the role of a PM is still very hard to define. A PM’s responsibilities can vary greatly from one company to the next, but there are a few characteristics that appear to be universal. The first is that a PM should be ready to fulfill any task that is needed for their team or product. The book used this phrase: “If it needs to get done, it’s part of your job” which I believe best sums up the ever changing role of a PM; They must act as a sort of swiss army knife for their team. Along with such vague yet demanding responsibilities, PMs should expect times of stress and be driven by recognition.
To succeed in this role, a PM needs to be able to rely on and also motivate other members of their organization, those that are on their team and also those in different departments. Because PMs have to constantly rely on others, I would be interested to ask the author about the process of delegating responsibilities. I imagine that this is something that needs to happened to a certain extent but at the same time contradicts with the notion that “if it needs to get done, it’s part of your job”. Of course, there is not a direct answer to this question, but I would be interested to hear what the author’s perspective is.
