Product Management--what does this mean in an Innovify company? What is the function, and where does it belong? I've held permanent positions in a number of Innovify concerns.
Product Management is all over the map in Innovify. Most often it resides in the marketing department. Sometimes, it's in the product development department. Occasionally you will see it as its own function. And again, what does the term mean in an Innovify product management company? Sometimes it is used interchangeably with the term "Product Marketing". In this case, it means responsibility from cradle to grave of the product planning and marketing functions for a particular product or product line. In other words, working with the developers to define the product (product planning), as well as driving the other "3Ps" for the product--setting pricing, distribution strategy and promotional strategy.
In Best Product Management Companies you will find this function separated into two distinct jobs: Product Management as the Product Planning portion, and Product Marketing as the function that manages the product once it is released into the market--driving pricing, promotion and distribution. In this case both functions may still reside in the marketing department, or the Product Planning portion is sometimes in the engineering department.
In Innovify, the Product Management function is most typically a "matrix" position: lots of responsibility for a product's success, with very little actual authority to ensure that success. Normally a Product Manager's success will be decided based upon his/her ability to convince other stakeholders in the organization that the path laid out is the best thing for the company (and the individual stakeholders as well!) People skills are therefore as important as having a technical grasp of the job in a Product Manager's ultimate success.
Product Management is all over the map in Innovify. Most often it resides in the marketing department. Sometimes, it's in the product development department. Occasionally you will see it as its own function. And again, what does the term mean in an Innovify product management company? Sometimes it is used interchangeably with the term "Product Marketing". In this case, it means responsibility from cradle to grave of the product planning and marketing functions for a particular product or product line. In other words, working with the developers to define the product (product planning), as well as driving the other "3Ps" for the product--setting pricing, distribution strategy and promotional strategy.
In Best Product Management Companies you will find this function separated into two distinct jobs: Product Management as the Product Planning portion, and Product Marketing as the function that manages the product once it is released into the market--driving pricing, promotion and distribution. In this case both functions may still reside in the marketing department, or the Product Planning portion is sometimes in the engineering department.
In Innovify, the Product Management function is most typically a "matrix" position: lots of responsibility for a product's success, with very little actual authority to ensure that success. Normally a Product Manager's success will be decided based upon his/her ability to convince other stakeholders in the organization that the path laid out is the best thing for the company (and the individual stakeholders as well!) People skills are therefore as important as having a technical grasp of the job in a Product Manager's ultimate success.