PM, PO, Senior PM, Lead PM, PMM…?🤷♂️
In the world of product management, there’s a lot of talk about titles. Product Owner (PO) or Product Manager (PM)? Senior or Junior? Lead… but leading what exactly?🤷♂️
I often witness infinite debates about which title is better or what each one should mean. And I still get people asking me: “Is X something that a PO or a PM should do?” or “Can we have PMs and POs on the same team?”. “Shally UX/PM/… lead discovery”? And it’s funny to see how opinionated people can be!
My answer? WHATEVER! 😁
Titles are misleading and secondary: the real focus should be on understanding the essence of the role itself. What goals are you expected to achieve? What are you actually going to do day-to-day? What responsibilities will you have?
The same goes for “seniority” attributes: a “Senior PM” in one company might be handling tasks similar to a “Junior PM” in another. And a “Lead” might be overseeing a team in one organization (people management), or managing a product (IC) in another.
For over a year now, I’ve been echoing a message that’s becoming increasingly evident: the tech industry and the product management field are undergoing a significant transformation. We’re moving away from the “crazy”, and no-sense times of the pandemic, steering towards a new era of normality and sobriety. Less money to “waste” in useless, complex and inefficient product teams, less product teams that look like big armies. Less room for philosophical discussions, less bla bla.
Now it’s time to DO and CREATE!
So my answer to people asking whether a PO or a PM is needed, where this or that task belong to Product Managers or Product Marketing is simple: titles are just labels, move the debate from the semantics to the bottom of the discussion. At the end of the day, it’s not about what’s written on your business card. It’s about the work you do, the value you add, and the difference you make.
👉 If you care about the Product Profession, Feel-free to re-share, comment or tag your colleagues. 👈
#productpanagement #carreer #BeyondTitles #productowner #productdiscovery #productled
Originally published on Linkedin on 18.03.2024
My name is Salva, I am a Product executive, helping tech companies discover, shape, and sell better Products. My work and writing are mainly about subscription models, product pricing, e-commerce/marketplaces, and creating top product organizations.
My superpower is to move between ambiguity (as in creativity, innovation, opportunity, and ‘thinking out of the box’) and structure (as in ‘getting things done’ and getting real impact).
I am firmly convinced that you can help others only if you have lived the same challenges: I have been lucky enough to practice product leadership in companies of different sizes and with different product maturity. Doing product right is hard: I felt the pain myself and developed my own methods to get to efficient product teams that produce meaningful work.