I have read (examples here and here) and heard in numerous places that a Product Manager is like the CEO of the product. I’ve even used it to describe what I do to folks who are unfamiliar with the job. It makes for a nice visual and makes Product Managers feel good about themselves and the role that they play in a company. But it’s not really true.
Sure, the Product Manager is responsible for the overall success of the product, just like a CEO is responsible for the overall success of a company. And the Product Manager has to juggle priorities and manage expectations, just like a CEO. And Product Managers have to be able to effectively communicate outwardly to customers and prospects and inwardly to ENGR, Sales, etc., just like a CEO. But we are not CEOs, not even of our product(s).
Here’s why–
- I don’t control staffing
Even if I control my own P&L, the staffing I need most is usually in someone else’s P&L. Typically, I don’t need to hire more Product Managers (although if you know any good platform PM’s send me a note). What I need is more developers and QA folks and in a dream world, a UI prototyping team (or at least a UI person dedicated to prototyping and usability issues).
- I don’t control strategy
I control strategy at a micro level, which is to say that I can prioritize features and set the release calendar, but I don’t set the strategy for the company at the macro level and that affects what resources are afforded to me and my product(s). No matter how beautiful (from a content perspective) my MRDs are, without the necessary focus and resources, I am not likely to be able to launch or manage a successful product.
- I am not invincible
What I mean is that my role within the company is much more transient than that of a CEO. That’s not to say that a CEO couldn’t lose their job, (look here for some high profile examples) but in the big picture, any number of people above me in the company food chain could send me on my merry way for a variety of reasons: corporate downsizing, personality conflict, change in company strategy, discontinued product, and/or performance.
What we Product Managers are more like is the Chief Operating Officer or COO. If you take a look at the difference between functional responsibilities of the CEO and COO, you can see what I mean.
CEO (paraphrased from Wikipedia)
The CEO is the highest-ranking corporate officer, administrator, corporate administrator, executive, or executive officer in charge of total management of a corporation, company, organization, or agency
COO (paraphrased from Wikipedia)
The focus of the COO is on strategic, tactical, and short-term Operational Management, which means he or she is responsible for the development, design, operation, and improvement of the systems that create and deliver the firm’s products/services.
The CEO role is much more administrative in nature, focusing on the process of running the business while the COO is more involved in the day-to-day. The COO is a roll-your-sleeves-up and get-your-hands-dirty function, which is more aligned with the type of activities that a Product Manager is tasked with handling.
I’m OK with that. I have always fancied myself as someone who could easily transition between process and execution (a recent episode where I was called by my CEO into the exec team meeting to tackle some product release “challenges” confirms that, at least in my own mind). I know that I am more adept at the execution side than the process, but it’s important to recognize that there are times when a Product Manager has to do both.
There, I’ve said it. I am NOT the CEO of my product. Although truth be told, I’ll probably still describe being a Product Manager as being “like the CEO of my product” because folks who don’t know what a Product Manager is are just as likely to not know what a COO is. Or maybe I’ll just smile and point them here, because that will clear it right up.