Product management

Product management is an organizational lifecycle function within a company dealing with the planning, forecasting, and
production, or marketing of a product or products at all stages of the product lifecycle. Similarly, product lifecycle management
(PLM)[1] integrates people, data, processes and business systems. It provides product information for companies and their extended
supply chain enterprise.

The role may consist of product development and product marketing, which are different (yet complementary) efforts, with the
objective of maximizing sales revenues, market share, and profit margins. Product management also involves elimination decisions.
Product elimination begins with the identification of elimination candidates, proceeds with the consideration of remedial actions,
continues with a projection of the impact on the business as a whole if a candidate product is eventually eliminated, and concludes
with the implementation stage, where management determines the elimination strategy for an item.[2] The product manager is often
responsible for analyzing market conditions and defining features or functions of a product and for overseeing the production of the
product. The role of product management spans many activities from strategic to tactical and varies based on the organizational
structure of the company. To maximize the impact and benefits to an organization, Product management must be an independent
function separate on its own.

While involved with the entire product lifecycle, the product management's main focus is on driving new product development.
According to the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA), superior and differentiated new products—ones that
.[3]
deliver unique benefits and superior value to the customer—are the number one driver of success and product profitability

Depending on the company size and history, product management has a variety of functions and roles. Sometimes there is a product
manager, and sometimes the role of product manager is shared by other roles. Frequently there is Profit and Loss (P&L)
responsibility as a key metric for evaluating product manager performance. In some companies, the product management function is
the hub of many other activities around the product. In others, it is one of many things that need to happen to bring a product to
market and actively monitor and manage it in-market. In very large companies, the product manager may have effective control over
shipment decisions to customers, when system specifications are not being met.

Product management often serves an inter-disciplinary role, bridging gaps within the company between teams of different expertise,
most notably between engineering-oriented teams and commercially oriented teams. For example, product managers often translate
business objectives set for a product by Marketing or Sales into engineering requirements (sometimes called a Technical
Specification). Conversely, they may work to explain the capabilities and limitations of the finished product back to Marketing and
Sales (sometimes called a Commercial Specification). Product managers may also have one or more direct reports who manage
operational tasks and/or achange manager who can oversee new initiatives. Manufacturing is separate from the research function, the
product manager has the responsibility to bridge the gaps if any exist.

In most technology companies, most product managers possess knowledge in the following areas: computer science, business, and
user experience.

Contents
Product marketing
Product development
Inbound and outbound
See also
References
Product marketing
Product Life Cycle considerations
Product differentiation
Product naming and branding
Product positioning and outbound messaging
Promoting the product externally with press, customers, and partners
Conducting customer feedback and enabling (pre-production, beta software)
Launching new products to market
Monitoring the competition

Product development
Testing
Identifying new product candidates
Considering new candidates
Gathering the voice of customers
Defining product requirements
Determining business-case and feasibility
Scoping and defining new products at high level
Evangelizing new products within the company
Building product roadmaps, particularlytechnology roadmaps
Developing all products on schedule, working to a critical path
Ensuring products are within optimal price margins and up to specifications
Ensuring products are manufacturable and optimizing cost of components and procedures.

Inbound and outbound

[4]
Many refer to inbound (product development) and outbound (product marketing) functions.

Inbound product management (aka inbound marketing) is the "radar" of the organization and involves absorbing information like
customer research, competitive intelligence, industry analysis, trends, economic signals and competitive activity[5] as well as
documenting requirements and settingproduct strategy.[6]

In comparison, outbound activities are focused on distributing or pushing messages, training sales people, go to market strategies and
[5][6]
communicating messages through channels like advertising, PR and events.

In many organizations the inbound and outboundfunctions are performed by the same person.[7]

As these terms are under discussion, another way of looking at these activities is upstream and downstream product management,
where 'upstream' is referring to any activity that helps to define, create, or improve the product, while 'downstream' refers to any
activity that promotes the product.[8] This avoids the confusion with the term "inbound marketing" which nowadays clearly refers to
a way of doing downstream product management, referring to 'making the product accessible', i.e. it can be found by suspects and
prospects (compared to 'outbound marketing', where the product is 'pushed' in front of the suspect or prospect). The confusion stems
mainly from the mix up between the term "Marketing" as a discipline, comprising Product Management, MarCom (Marketing
Communications), etc. and using the same term 'Marketing' as a synonym for 'Promotion' or 'advertising', i.e. taking a product to the
market (i.e. 'downstream').

It comes as a surprise that this confusion and ambiguity is hard to understand- because if you name the main (value creating)
departments in today's organizations, you can clearly assign to Sales, R&D, Operations, and Marketing their respective core functions
and areas of responsibility. The core function of Marketing, that differentiates it from Sales, Operations, and R&D is the ownership of
the marketing mix (= 4 P: Product, Place, Price, Promotion). Still, many organizations put under 'Marketing' only Market
Communications (MarCom), which is just the operational end of marketing and only a subset of what 'Promotion' comprises. From a
Product Management perspective, MarCom is a supporting function (like IT, HR, Controlling etc.). In organizations, where the
Product Management is weak or not existent, its tasks are taken over by the other departments (i.e. sales defines the distribution
('Place'), operations defines the prices, R&D defines the product, MarCom decides on the promotion.

See also
Aggregate project plan
Brand management
Configurator
Crossing the Chasm
Customer experience
Enterprise
Marketing management
Mass customization
Product (business)
Product life cycle management
Product manager
Product marketing
Product planning
Requirements management
Software product management
Service product management
Technology roadmap
User experience

References
1. KURKIN, O., JANUŠKA, M. Product Life Cycle in Digital factory. In Knowledge management and innovation : a
business competitive edge perspective. Cairo: International Business Information Management Association (IBIMA),
2010. s. 1881-1886. ISBN 978-0-9821489-4-5
2. Argouslidis, P.; Baltas, G. (2007). "Structure in product line management: The role of formalization in service
elimination decisions".Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. 35: 475–491. doi:10.1007/s11747-006-0004-2
(https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs11747-006-0004-2) .
3. Kahn, Kenneth B. (Editor). The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development. Second Edition. Hoboken, NJ: John
Wiley & Sons, 2005. ISBN 0-471-48524-1
4. By Robert, Michael on Product Management and Marketing.Product Management & Product Marketing - A
Definition
(http://michael.hightechproductmanagement.com/2006/04/product_management_product_marketing.html)
." April 7,
2006. Retrieved March 1, 2012
5. By Steven Haines. "The Product Manager's Desk Reference(https://books.google.com/books?id=xTMWzXuPqgwC
&pg=PA389&lpg=PA389&dq=inbound+marketing+product+management+requirements&s ource=bl&ots=GpxjBIyLsV
&sig=NgO7hkl0lnRZ092marDRr8H8m68&hl=en&sa=X&ei=wPtPT_nyG8iK0QG-o8HsDQ&ved=0CHwQ6AEwAzgK#
v=onepage&q=inbound&f=false)." Published by McGraw Hill. Page 390.
6. By Scott Sehlhorst, Tyner Blain. "Foundation Series: Inbound and Outbound Product Management(http://tynerblain.
com/blog/2007/01/18/foundation-series-inbound-pm-and-outbound-pm/) ." January 18, 2007. Retrieved March 1,
2012.
7. By Tarquin Clark, Toolbox. "Which is more important, inbound or outbound product management?(http://it.toolbox.co
m/blogs/tarquin/which-is-more-important-inbound-or-outbound-product-management-48362) " September 12, 2011.
Retrieved March 1, 2012.
8. Gorchels, Linda (2012).The Product Manager's Handbook. United States: McGraw-Hill. pp. 8–10.ISBN 978-0-07-
177298-3.

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