Central to the product development process is the role of product manager.
“The CEO of the product”
The key to their role is holding the vision of the Product and ensuring that the product team is able to make progress towards that vision.
Their task is to spot ideas that won’t work early in the process, reduce the risk of failure, and make sure the organisation is learning at every stage of development.
There is a difference between the roles of product manager and product owner.
Being Product Manager involves leading on managing the development of a digital product. This role is typically used to describe someone who is familiar with modern methods of project management, particularly in the area of software development.
The Product Owner is the single source of information for a product development team about the product they are trying to build. This term comes from the Scrum method that is widely used in software development and that we use at Founders and Coders.
A Product Owner is the point of contact with the development team. The development team are lead by their Scrum Facilitator.
The Product Owner supplies all content and copy for the product, supports in setting the priorities of the product, and supports prioritisation of the product backlog.
All good product managers should be good at playing the role of product owner. It is one of their 6 key competencies.
Set business objectives and measure outcomes
Being a responsive, empathetic and well-organised Product Owner
Having attention to detail when collecting and interpreting data
Having empathy and experience working with a user group
Understanding of (and authority to act on) the needs, practices and objectives of the organisation
Knowledge of the sector they are working within