Do you find it hard to explain what you do? Even better, is it hard to write a job description?  On one hand, it can be hard to define the ambiguous role of “corralling the cats”. Too often do we see the gaseous definition including the phrase, “intersection of business, technology and users” or “gravitational force” (a quote from Steve Jobs), or my favorite, “mini-CEO”. To that end, we attempt to help clarify the role not only for the Product Manager but for the organization as well. Successful Product Managers not only clearly understand and define their role, but work with teams that equally see the value of the role. This understanding allows for clear expectations and understanding. Let’s give it a shot…

Product Managers are responsible for the following:

1. Partnering with the cross-functional teams (legal, marketing, sales, etc…) within the company to ensure everyone knows the product/service priorities and activities. Deliverable: a product ‘Roadmap’.
2. Responsible for a logical sequence of development occurs without surprise. It’s important that this is logical, seamless and predictable. Deliverable: a Product Lifecycle Framework.
3. Advocate for the Customer throughout the entire organization. The best Product Managers retell customer’s experiences within most discussions. Their presentations comes with verbatims…Always.  Deliverable: Consistent customer interviews.
4. They quantify success. Their products have success metrics that include Revenue (or Unit) Targets and a Sales Funnel. Deliverable: Sales forecast.
5. They understand the customer’s issues and work tirelessly to reduce negative experiences. They have a strong handle of the current engagement from a collection of issues from the call-center, email, tweets and online feedback. Deliverable: A Pereto Diagram and a plan to improve the customer’s engagement with your company.

The remaining role definitions can be of your own and specific to the company’s culture and goals, but these five are the foundation of all Product Management. I hope this helps to provide the clarity we all seek in our jobs.