The Digital Product Ecosystem

Many times I have been asked, what is the difference between a Project Manager vs. Product Manager. It is confusing. Who does what? Can’t Creatives and Developers just make stuff?

This is a simplified breakdown to help differentiate. This post is inspired by a LinkedIn chat with Zarqa Imtiaz.

Project Management

The Process.

Project Management is about getting shit done. To deliver value you need to ship work.

When I was in a project management class years ago, the instructor said..

“I helped the US military build submarines. Ask me what I know about submarines? Yep. Nothing.”

Project management is about the process of getting stuff done. Not about the work itself.

Creative & Dev

The work.

This is all domain knowledge and expertise. Coding, art, animation, etc. These are specialized skills that function in cross functional teams to make stuff that delivers value.

Product Manager

The business.

A Product Manager is focused on the customer and the business of the product. The product being the output of work the Creative & Devs, organized by the Project Manager.

A product manager’s focus is the customer of the product. What do they want? How do we give them something valuable? Using research and analytics, they decide what we are going to work on. Making bets that the customers will want it.

The product needs to make money. They need to figure out what work will lead to that result. Things like revenue projections, risk, market position, differentiation.

The Ecosystem

The formula.

MONEY = Product decisions = Work for Creative & Devs = Work to organize.

And Voila…. Ecosystem.

Thoughts?