Difference Between Project Management and Product Management

The business world is getting more and more competitive every day. And to remain relevant in the competition, organizations need stable and sustainable planning along with steady and experienced management that can guide their business strategies and prepare them to achieve success. Both Project Management and Product Management play a vital role in these business strategies. People often get confused between these two. They both sound similar but they are distinct positions and have some key differences. Many a time Project Manager and Product Manager work together. These roles complement each other but still have different responsibilities. Many elements form the process that creates and completes the initiatives of an organization. Project Managers and Product Managers play a crucial role in completing these initiatives. In this article, we will understand what is Project Management and Product Management and know about the main difference between product and Project Management.

What is Project Management?

Project Management is a function that worked for actually creating and executing a product or service. It is about managing an endeavor that has a fixed timeframe within which a product or service is created and delivered to the customer. In Project Management, the objectives and goals of a specific project are achieved by applying the processes, skills, approaches, and experience relevant to the project. Project Management includes every activity involved in the project from its start to finish. The Project Manager and the project team organize, monitor, and execute the work of a specific project. This means they manage the stakeholders, tasks involved in the project, and its progress till its completion. It promotes team collaboration and implements all the tools necessary for completing the project successfully and makes sure that all the project goals are met.

What is Product Management?

A product can be any physical thing like a mobile phone, a car, software, or even a service offered to customers. And Product Management is a function that involves managing the complete lifecycle of a product - right from the time of its conceptualization, through its development phases, its introduction in the market, its gaining acceptance with customers, and ultimately till it completes its life and is taken off from the market. Thus, Product Management works all through the planning, forecasting, actual creation or production of the product or service, and its marketing stages. Unlike Project Management, there is no fixed timeframe for Product Management as the timeframe depends on the product's life in the market which in turn, depends on the success of the product with the customers. It is the Product Manager who ensures that the product created is actually good and meets the customer expectations and requirements of the market. Product Management is about creating a product or service that is needed in the market and then making sure that it reaches the customers. It is not that timeline does not have any importance in Product Management. It is the goal of every organization to introduce the product in the market while there is demand for it. Sending the product into the market when the demand has reduced or the market does not need it anymore would not serve any purpose and would be against the organizational goals and strategies. Therefore, time is certainly an important factor in Product Management but is not a limiting factor.

Having defined Project Management and Product Management, we will now look into the main differences between the two.

Project Management vs Product Management

When we talk of the difference between Project Management and Product Management, it is important to understand the roles Project Managers and Product Managers play as this will make it easier to understand the difference between the two. There is a distinct difference between the roles and responsibilities of a Project Manager and a Product Manager. We will first have a look at the respective roles of a Project Manager and a Product Manager.

Role of a Project Manager

The Project Manager's main role is to manage and oversee a project from beginning to end. The Project Manager plans the entire project, builds the team, sets schedules, manages budgets, and continues to communicate with the stakeholders till the completion of the project. The Project Manager breaks the strategic plans into actionable tasks and initiatives. He or she determines the key parameters like the scope of the project, its timeline, and budget estimates. Holds extensive communication with the leadership and other stakeholders and constantly collaborates with them. The Project Manager also creates the change management processes and maintains them. He or she keeps the team motivated and makes sure they collaborate well. 

The Project Manager manages the execution of the tasks within the project that need to be done to achieve the project goals. This role requires leadership, coordination, and delegation because the Project Manager has to steer the interdependencies, and team dynamics, and handle occasional challenges. And all this has to be done within the limited time and resources available. Within the overall responsibility for the success of the project, the Project Manager holds responsibilities like project planning, implementation, and tracking. A Project Manager is supposed to closely monitor the Project Manager from start to finish to foresee challenges that might come up during the course of the project and be able to solve the issues as soon as they crop up. He or she has to also make sure that the project remains within the allocated budget or else may need to reallocate the budget to ensure efficient use of funds. 

Role of a Product Manager

A Product Manager's role is more strategic in nature. It needs market research and broad thinking. A Product Manager needs to think of new product ideas and success metrics. In one line, a Product Manager can be described as someone who finds a product that can provide value, is usable, and is realistic. This means that the Product Manager has to first envision a product and then make sure that it meets the customer's requirements till the end of its life. While Project Management has a fixed beginning and a fixed ending, Product Management generally doesn't have a clear start or finish. 

The Product Managers mediate between the stakeholders, customers, and the product development team. This means they first comprehend the requirements of stakeholders, transform them to design goals, and then collaborate with the development team to ensure that the product being developed is in line with these goals. This requires both, a deep knowledge of the product and business acumen. The Product Manager should view the product from a long-term perspective and should be able to decide how the product would develop depending on the evolving customer needs. So, a Project Manager gathers the requirements of the product as well as those of the customers and prioritizes them, defines the product vision, and coordinates with the sales and marketing teams to ensure that organization's revenue goals and customer satisfaction goals are being fulfilled. Since the Product Manager is responsible for the product performance throughout its lifecycle, he or she has to constantly keep track of the product performance. They test new features and monitor them and keep track of the competition.

Key differences between Project Management and Product Management

Let us now look at the major differences between Product Management and Project Management.

• In Product Management, the focus is on research, product strategy, and the requirements for launching the product, and for this, the Product Manager works directly with the sales and marketing teams and the customer. On the other hand, Project Management focuses on coordinating the work to make sure that the project is completed on time and fulfills the business goals.
• Product Management is more strategic and requires product knowledge while Project Management is more about tactics and needs comprehensive planning. 
• In Project Management, the Product Manager has a vision of the product and is the owner of this vision. In Project Management, the Project Manager follows the organization's vision for the project, and how it should shape up and come out.
• Product Management requires monitoring all the product needs, right from its development stage to its actual launch and even beyond that. Project Management requires monitoring all the needs of the project, starting from assigning tasks to every member of the project team to the completion of the project.
• Another big difference between Product Management and Project Management is that the Product Manager has to keep an eye on the product even after its launch in the market. The Product Manager is involved in marketing to improve its marketability and sales while the Project Manager's responsibility ends when the projects are delivered successfully. They are not a part of marketing and launching.
• The main skills required for Product Management are market research, strategic thinking, and business intelligence. Project Management, on the other hand, needs expertise in planning, organizing, time management, and budgeting.
• Product Management requires a lot of research that helps in setting up the product vision and devising a strategic plan to convert that vision into reality. However, Project Management doesn't require much research. It is more about planning project timelines, allocating project resources, and monitoring the progress and completion of the project.

Although Project Management and Product Management are distinct roles, they still complement each other and are important for achieving successful results. Going strictly by how they are described, Project Management and Product Management have clearly defined realms of responsibilities. But in practice, these roles often complement each other in many organizations. However, the level of their overlapping depends on the type of organization. Project Management ends when a project is completed. So, it is no longer managed. Product Management entails managing the product throughout its lifecycle. Ultimately, to achieve success for a product, both product and project teams have to work closely. The key is to understand the inherent differences in the roles and responsibilities pertaining to project and Product Management.  

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