Product vs Project Management: It’s the same role. Except when it’s not.
This has always been a debate, and I think one’s perspective is shaped largely by the type of environment, team structure, and — most importantly — the type of product and project managers one interacts with.
On digital product teams, there’s the argument for combining the product and project management role that usually has to do with streamlining responsibilities, reducing headcount, avoiding over-specialization, and leveraging customer knowledge to inform every step of the product development and delivery process.
Those who argue for keeping them separate cite different required skill sets that don’t all exist in one person, the need for stakeholder management vs process management, the discipline and rigor required to run projects correctly, and the actual mental headspace required to strategize vs execute.
My POV? Like most things in life — it depends.
Enter the overly-simplified diagram:
Note:
I don’t want to downplay the importance of either product or project managers to a successful project. You need both sets of skills. This article is about the situations in which you can consider combining the roles into one person or not.
When you should consider combining them
You have a lean, high functioning team
The power of lean teams has been talked about by many — see Jake Knapp, Eric Ries, Dan Olsen and more. When you have individuals that are multi-disciplined, that can generate AND execute ideas, don’t mess up that dynamic.
You are focused on developing a concept or prototyping a new idea
When you are more focused on generating a proof of concept rather than delivering a final product, your product specialist can help drive the inertia.
You have individuals with deep domain knowledge that know how to navigate an organization and drive decisions at multiple levels without additional support
Often times, project management acts as the ultimate enabler and unblocker — coordinating and negotiating with stakeholders. If you’re in an environment where the working team can handle that, and do it as part of their regular job, it reduces the need for a dedicated project manager.
Your product roadmap doesn’t require many requirements definitions or selling.
Such as when you’re in a maintenance / bug fixing phase — Many requirements are already set, or easy to turn into actionable design / development tasks. And stakeholders are already bought-in to the backlog and priorities.
When you shouldn’t combine them
You have many complex interdependencies between projects that span different areas of expertise
This is when you need to separate the product discipline from that of planning a complex project, as both likely require someone’s full attention.
Your stakeholders outnumber your product managers
Even if you have a hybrid individual, you’ll hit a point where managing stakeholder relationships gets in the way of managing the product.
You project managers skill set is primarily technical or executional
If you have individuals without the skills or experience (or career desire) to focus on the consumer needs and project vision, you shouldn’t force it.
Your working team is large
Complexity and scale — for better or worse — often begets specialization.
You get more or equal value from generating customer insights and new ideas as you do from shipping releases
Ask yourself this question — what does your organization get more value from? What are your success metrics? This may change for different phases of the project.
