PM vs. PM vs. PM

How information asymmetry, deliberate concealment & general ignorance have caused misinformation to reign supreme among ‘PM’ roles.

A recent wedding that I went to gave me the opportunity to meet quite a few of my friends from engineering college whom I hadn’t been in touch with for a while now.

While I branched off to pursue my MBA after working for two years in the data analytics industry, quite a few of my friends continued on the same path of Analytics to eventually end up as Product Managers now, OR started off in a fairly technical profile to end up, again, as Product Managers.

Much like me, who after two years of Analytics, another two years of MBA, a year & a half of Consulting finds myself in a Product Management role.

As we indulged, I continued talking to ‘a friend’ who had been working as a Product Manager with a leading ‘IT services’ company. This came as a pleasant surprise because I hadn’t really known the said firm to specialize in having a Product outlook. But then, what do I know.

Being a ‘Product Manager’, the activities that he described had more of an overlap with the role of a conventional Project Manager and less with that of a Product Manager as we know of it in the modern sense (I realize that this in itself is a debatable topic but I’ll park this for now and return to it in a separate article)

I had heard of such incidents but never paid too much thought to it. It was until I heard my friend talk about it, that the gravity of the scenario dawned upon me.

He was being made to believe:

1. That he is working as a Product Manager, by
2. Being awarded with a notional title of a ‘Product Manager’, while
3. Actually doing activities that do not fall in the core skillset of a Product Manager

Being a concerned party, who can see a metaphorical train entering the tunnel and who cannot actually call that train out, what options did I have?

The Rise & Rise of Product Management

That Product management opportunities have been on the rise and PMs are selling like hot cakes (pardon the objectification) would elicit nothing but a yawn from a discerning Product Manager.

The reasons for this sudden rise are more nuanced than what you may generally find floating on the internet but suffice to say that a glut of PM opportunities appeared while there were very few competent folks available to fulfill those opportunities.

An intended or unintended outcome of that situation has been that some folks on this side (employees) are trying to pass themselves off as what they are not (knowingly as well as unknowingly) as well as people on the other side (employers) are trying to sell a profile (more often than not knowingly) which they know entails a lot more than what meets the eye.

Some of the confusion that prevails has been on account of:

1. Limited understanding / Misunderstanding surrounding the role and activities of a Product Manager
2. Degree of overlap (depending on the maturity of the firm) in the roles of a Product, Project and a Program Manager
3. Lack of clarity around what does a Product/Project/Program Manager do, and lastly
4. Tendency of people to form associations among roles belonging to similar sounding domains (IT and Tech in this case; hence Product Manager and Project Manager)

It was at this juncture that I felt there needs to be some semblance of demarcation around what these three entirely different roles entail and how people, for their own good, would be better off in being able to differentiate one from the other.

Please note, the purpose of this blog is not to tell that one role is better than the other. Instead it is to stoke the critical thought process of people to evaluate and judge what is being offered to them on the table.

The Project Manager

Project Manager is probably the most well known and recognized version of the ‘PM’ acronym that has been around. At least in India.

Truth be told, Project Managers are and can be found in pretty much every industry which has a ‘project’ to be executed i.e. Civil, Construction, Mechanical, Heavy Electrical, Tech & IT, Data Analytics, Consulting.

Although the role has been around for a while, it truly captured the imagination of the Indian talent market in late 90s and early 00s thanks to the fortune that companies like TCS, Wipro, Infosys and HCL made for themselves and their employees.

Managing large teams of Engineers and traveling to client locations came to be associated as ‘perks’ of being a Project manager.

To put it simply, key responsibilities of a Project Manager are:

1. Conceptualize the delivery timeline and milestones of a project
2. Allocate budget and resources for successful execution of the project
3. Oversee & resolve red flags which may impede the progress of the project

A simple Gantt Chart which a Project Manager deploys to keep a track of the constituent activities making up the entire project.

In order to fulfill these responsibilities, Project Managers employ methodologies such as, but not limited to, Waterfall, Agile, Kanban, Scrum.

Program Manager

The requirement of a Program manager came to the fore when the number of interconnected or disconnected projects became too much to handle under the portfolio of a CXO.

A Program Manager in this case may not necessarily lead all the projects, but it would be his/her responsibility to be aware of the health of each project constituting his/her ‘program’.

Let’s consider a hypothetical scenario, where an e-commerce player is trying to improve its customer NPS. In order to drive the NPS, they have multiple projects that are underway. These are:

1. Setting Up NPS capture at different customer touchpoints (delivery, customer complaint, customer query etc.)
2. Setting up a ‘Customer Helpdesk’ focused towards quick resolution of customer complaints
3. Making the NPS capture process more intuitive and interactive for customers

A very very simplistic representation of how a Program Manager may track the projects under his/her charter.

There can be more but you get the drift. In this scenario, the responsibility of a Program Manager would not be to bother with the day to day operations of these projects. But to ensure that these individual projects are moving as per the timelines that have been carved out for them and they are achieving the milestones that they are meant to. All of this, so that the ‘uber goal’ of driving the NPS up remains uncompromised. In this way, the role of a Program Manager is a lot more strategic and forward looking instead of just being restricted to the ‘execution’ of a single project.

This role is very similar to what Management Consultants do in many implementation oriented projects. Although a key nuance being that the degree of power vested within a Program manager may vary from one firm to the other. Needless to say, many Consultants find themselves in the role of a Program Manager or CXO Office once they move on from Consulting.

Put simply, Program Managers:

1. Bring certainty by tying together interconnected projects which contribute towards a common KPI
2. Focus not just on project completion but also long term success of the project towards the overall program
3. The projects or the KPIs in itself are subject to a state of flux due to an internal/external change in an organization’s priorities

Product Managers

The latest ‘kid on the bloc’ which has captured the attention of employees and employers alike, has been the Product Manager.

A Product Manager maybe responsible for the conceptualization, adoption, transition or success of a product depending entirely on which stage of the product lifecycle does the company or the product find itself at. You may very well come across terms like a ‘0 to 1’ or ‘1 to 10’ company/product. In simple terms, they are a reference to the maturity and scale of the topic of discussion.

Product Managers get the product/feature delivered by working in close coordination with Business, Operations, Engineering, Design and Analytics teams. It is worth noting, that none of these teams actually report to the Product Manager and yet it is incumbent upon the Product Manager to exercise his ‘influence’ and ‘mobilize’ these teams to work towards the vision defined by the Product Manager.

The analogy might be weird, but a Product Manager holds different teams together, much like a cell membrane, to get stuff done. Mind you, without any actual control.

Much like their Program Management counterparts, Product Managers do not function at a Project level but have a larger strategic goal while conceptualizing product interventions.

For example, Shubhi is the Product Manager for ‘Logistics’ for a hyperlocal grocery player. The product charter that Shubhi is meant to deliver includes everything that impacts the logistics experience for a customer, seller or delivery partner. Some of the projects that Shubhi may directly work on would be:

1. Decreasing the percentage of delayed deliveries
2. Expedite returns & replacements
3. Ensuring timely dispatch from seller stores

To put simply a Product Manager:

1. Works in coordination with multiple stakeholders without actually exercising any organizational control over them
2. Depending on which stage of the product lifecycle the product is at the nature of product interventions may differ
3. Is responsible for adoption, scaling, transition and success of his/her product
4. Reconciles the customer’s need & organizational objectives together to decide on the way forward

Okay. But where is the confusion exactly?

One might get the impression that given the description it is fairly straightforward to differentiate among the three profiles. But there are several aspects which make this task not so straightforward:

1. Cross Functional Teams: Across the three roles there is a significant bit of work which involves interaction with multiple teams. While for a Product Manager, this cross functional interaction is mandatory as he/she has to get work done through these different teams. For a Program/Project Manager these interactions are more need driven, but cannot be ruled out nevertheless
2. Strategic Focus: Both the roles of a Program Manager as well as a Product Manager are focused on the long term. It is quite likely for someone to get confused between the ‘Product Charter’ of a Product Manager and the bundle of Projects getting driven by a Program Manager. The key to differentiate, is the manner in which the two go about approaching their respective charters and driving them.
3. Negotiation & Stakeholder Management: Since there is ample cross functional interaction involved for all the three roles, the possibility of negotiation cannot be ruled out for any of the profiles. In case of a project, it is very likely to find a Project Manager negotiating and at times literally ‘bargaining’ with the Engineering and QA teams to ship a project earlier than what is being proposed. In a Product org, very often a Project Manager might be driven to have this conversation on behalf of the Product Manager himself. Similarly for a Program Manager, he/she may ask the concerned team to ‘push the pedal on the gas’ depending on the visibility and impact a project may have in the organizational context.

Quite a few companies, depending on their scale, understanding of the three roles and requirements may ask a Product Manager to double up as a Project/Program Manager or any of the other permutations and combinations that you can think of. Needless to say, this further adds to the confusion as very often people find it difficult to differentiate one side of their PM-ship with another.

Why is this distinction important in the first place?

The reason why it is important to tell one role from the other is because:

1. The compensation bands differ vastly for the three profiles and the inability of a candidate to differentiate may impact his/her compensation negotiation significantly
2. As mentioned earlier, quite a few recruiters would try and pass off ‘wolves’ as ‘sheeps’
3. Candidates very often highlight their project management credentials in the hope that it conveys their diverse understanding while positioning them favorably for a Product Manager role. Truth be told, these certifications and terminologies are used by recruiters to separate Project Managers from the contention for a Product Management role

What do we takeaway from all this?

Imagine a scenario:

When you are early in your career, your enthusiastic self will not really differentiate and nitpick depending on the nature of the task that you are asked to do. Infact, you will take up more and more responsibility in an effort to show the value that you are being able to add to the firm. This would come across as a win-win situation for everyone: but more so the firm and the recruiter as it saved on their need to hire another employee.

A few years down the line is when this seemingly ‘non-issue’ becomes a bit of an ‘issue’ or a genuine ‘problem’ when you trying having a conversation with other prospective companies. Although your CV says that you’re a Product Manager but your ‘responses’ and ‘choice of words’ betrays the choice of the acronym.

Being able to play multiple hats at work sounds all fun and hunky dory. But be cognizant and vigilant enough to make sure that it does not becoming a barrier on the road which you actually want to pursue.

PS: How did I tell my friend that he may very likely not be doing Product Management? I didn’t or I couldn’t. Instead I shared a bunch of Product Management blogs and books with him and asked him to share some from his end too, hoping that in the process he would get to understand a thing or two.