3 Kinds of Product Managers
More than 4 years ago, I introduced Super Product Managers. You had time to wonder: are all Super Product Managers alike? Do they all use the same superpowers and the same tricks in all situations? And do those superpowers and tricks work the same in all situations?
The answer is no.
Yes, in Software products, all PMs’ day-to-day life has plenty of overlap. But the strategy, goals and execution can be very different. It mainly depends on the kind of user base the product they are working on has.
Not only on the user base in fact, but on stakeholders generically. Not only people that the product is being built for, but also people who rely on what is being built to be good and have any input on it.
Each product is unique, as are its stakeholders. Likewise for PMs, they all have their unique superpowers and use them differently in each situation.
Given the impossibility of describing them all, I’ll use my childish technic of breaking everything in three.
Here go three kinds of PMs:
Internal PM
The Internal Product Manager works for products that are going to be used internally on his own organisation.
Back-offices, CRMs, back-end platforms, etc — it’s all about creating efficiency. He’s like Santa Claus for his co-workers.
All the stakeholders are internal and the amount of users is small. Yes, the risk isn’t high and he’s given a lot of independence, but that doesn’t make it easy anyhow.
He’ll juggle with all the requests from the people sat right next to him. He’ll be organised and diplomatic about it, but he’ll still need to be very decisive at prioritising. He won’t be able to make everyone happy and that’s ok.
He might be dreaming that one day his product will be sold to other organisations as well. If so, he’ll start sharing the Business PM struggles.
Business PM
The Business to Business Product Manager (or the Software as a Service Product Manager) works for products that are going to be sold and used by other organisations.
Being sold is what’s key in this game and it puts stakes much higher, as its results might affect the real state market. Priorities are weighted heavily on $$$.
On this kind of products, the person buying it isn’t typically the one who uses it. And the truth is that the buyer’s happiness is far more impactful. To moderate the conversation with buyers, there will typically be a sales team, with whom the Business PM will interact a lot as well.
He’ll collaborate with all these uber-confident people, navigate through the stormy sea of opinions and get his point across. He’ll rely on his industry knowledge to make sure that what’s built meets the requirements of the business the product is being sold to. He’ll make it work, not just for the here and now, but also for what he anticipates to come next. All of these while meeting tight deadlines, as results are expected to come fast.
As for users, he’ll have to deal with a bigger amount than in internal products. Still, probably small enough to keep a good sense for who’s using it and how to keep them engaged.
Even so, he can’t predict everything. He might take advantage of the experimentation culture of the Consumer PMs as well.
Consumer PM
The Business to Consumer Product Manager works for products that are for an average consumer.
There are over 7 billion consumers in this world and this kind of product can have millions of them as users. It’s the Consumer PM job to figure out which ones to make happy and how to keep them engaged. No one will be there to tell item X is the best thing to do next, as no one can predict it. Neither can he, at least without proper research.
He’s strategic, creative and empathetic. He’ll come up with several ideas and get them from the ones around him as well. Then he’ll rely on experimentation, user testing and data analysis to make judgement calls. Even if they conflict with his initial thoughts.
There’ll be a lot of uncertainty and pressure, and every detail might be a make or break. He’ll need to iterate and test in a very agile way.
From the Internal PM and the Business PM, he learns that, although experimentation is crucial, he also needs to be confident.
There will always be multiple solutions. Sometimes intuition can be the most cost-effective method to decide on which one.
