The competition among businesses is getting tougher by the day. Apart from the pressure to stay at the top, they also have to continue to work within their budget. This is oftentimes the reason why many employees work multiple roles. Being a skilled and competent worker can be one of the reasons. However, most often than not, their employers had no choice but to stretch their roles as a resource utilization strategy.

Among the positions that a single person usually holds at the same time are Project Manager and Product Manager. The two sound really similar and are both managerial positions, so it may seem like it is a sound decision. Unfortunately, the opposite is almost always true. To be able to understand this better, a closer and more detailed look at these two job titles is necessary.

Project vs. Product

The words that have to be defined first are project and product.

A project is a one-time endeavour that has a definite start date and end date. It is usually related to creating a product or service and has a defined outcome. A project is completed through five stages, namely, initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, and closure.

A product, on the other hand, can be a physical or non-physical product like software that is created to answer a need for a specific group of people. It has a life cycle, beginning with its creation and introduction to acceptance and maturity and ending with its retirement.

What is a product manager?

A product manager is also referred to as the CEO of their products because their role is strategic. It is their job to oversee the general direction of the product and stay with it until it is removed from the market. Their most basic responsibility is to understand the needs of users and translate them into a design. It is the product manager who leads a team to develop the product.

The product manager needs to do the following tasks:

  • Researching
  • Communicating to stakeholders
  • Setting the product’s vision
  • Creating a strategic plan
  • Maintaining a product roadmap

The above tasks begin with the product manager setting the vision for the product based on the results of the research. He then communicates this to the organization, with the goal of persuading the management, executives, and stakeholders to understand and accept the practicability of the planned product. If he is successful, the product manager proceeds to create a strategic action plan that will bring the product to the market. Then, he also creates a roadmap and makes sure that the product follows the roadmap for it to stay in the market for a long time.

What is a project manager?

The project manager, on the other hand, focuses more on the project’s execution side. This makes his job more tactical. His job begins with taking the product vision from the product manager and developing a project timeline from it. It is also his job to plan the responsibilities of the development team to help them achieve their deadlines. In a nutshell, the project manager is tasked to bring the project to fruition within its budget, time, and quality.

There are three basic activities for project managers.

  1. Risk and issue management. This process helps make sure that risks are spotted earlier on. It aims to combat whatever potential risks that can cause delay to the completion of the project.
  2. Planning and resource scheduling. There are two things that are to be considered here—planning and resource. Planning involves making a timeline of the project, complete with the start and end dates. It should contain names of the employees assigned to it, as well as the budget. Resource scheduling may include the daily management of task lists, infrastructure reports, and other related issues.
  3. Scope management. This is the toughest part of being a project manager. It requires that time, budget, and quality are always balanced.

Where do these roles overlap?

Project managers and product managers are obviously two different roles but they somehow overlap, especially in their required skills sets which include:

  • Excellent interpersonal and organizational skills
  • Time efficiency
  • Leadership management

Though it is common to find project managers that also take on product manager roles and vice versa, it does not mean that it is practical action. Indeed, the company can save several thousand dollars as they do not have to pay another person. But the risks of failure are higher.

Problems with overlapping roles

It is important for organizations to be aware that the overlapping of roles has consequences. Here are some of these consequences.

  1. Decreased focus. This situation is similar to the case of multitasking. According to research, multitasking does not result in efficiency and increased productivity. Instead, it leads to poor-quality output. Product managers are more into talking to clients and following their teams as they interact with clients.
  2. Skills not sufficient. Project managers are more technical and they can easily estimate the time required to finish a task. This might not be the same for product managers and it may pose problems if they take this position too.
  3. Because of decreased focus and insufficient skills, the project may stall. The processes may slow down and the team will not meet their deadline. This consequence can be avoided if project managers and product managers do their own jobs.

Conclusion

Project managers and product managers have their own specialties. Both of them are also integral positions to every team. However, it is best that they are handled by two different people to yield better results. Instead of thinking about cost-cutting by stretching roles, it would be better to make use of tools that help teams become more productive.

What are the skills a good project management should have?
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