Understanding the Product Management Team’s Roles and Responsibilities

The product management team’s roles and responsibilities are broad, involving a wide range of tasks related to a product’s life cycle. They are in charge of overseeing a product, or a portion of it, from conception to distribution, ensuring market success.

The team responsible for overseeing a product includes several product manager positions. In this article, we’ll look into the four most common ones as well as their responsibilities in making their product a success.

 

1. Associate Product Manager (APM)

The APM is a position where most graduates or newcomers to the industry will begin. You must have a graduate degree in any field to be considered for the position. However, candidates with degrees in computer science, business, and other related fields may stand out.

APMs are typically assigned to major project tasks and assist more senior product managers. Some of their roles and responsibilities include:

• Collects and analyses market and competitor research data
• Works together with internal teams to develop product specifications.
• Works on a product’s specific features, improving them, and developing new ones as directed.
• Assists with product testing, troubleshooting and problem-solving
• Develops and presents reports on findings, defects, improvements, statuses, and risk management
• Assist product managers with every business process.

 

2. Product Manager (PM)

Product managers are the product’s point of contact. They are deeply involved in processes that span the entire product life cycle. PMs play a vital role in decision-making because they have a thorough understanding of the customer’s needs, the product and the demands of stakeholders.

Some of their roles and responsibilities include:

• Collects data to generate ideas for new products and features, including curating ideas and deciding which ones to pursue.
• Analyses market and competition data to develop products that meet or exceed industry standards
• Determines the product vision, roadmap and positioning.
• Develops, maintains and modifies product-line strategy and production schedules
• Communicates product vision to sales and marketing teams
• Manages testing in order to detect and correct problems and make necessary improvements.
• Collects customer feedback to enhance the product.
• Collaborates with different teams regarding product launch
• Monitors and manages their teams’ health and performance
• Monitors product performance
• Oversees the product’s lifecycle

 

3. Senior Product Manager (SPM)

SPMs play a similar role to PMs, but they interact with executives, the legal department, and other higher-ranking teams more frequently.

Some of their roles and responsibilities include:

• Oversees the entire project (possibly more than one) from ideation to distribution
• Assists HR in the recruitment of PMs and other relevant hires
• Serves as a mentor to junior PMs
• Establishes the long-term vision and product-line strategy
• Develops business and product strategies and budgets
• Promotes the product to its users
• Serves as the product team’s representative at the leadership table
• Conduct market research and creates new products based on research data
• Constant communication with legal and other upper-level teams
• Monitors product usage and its impact on end users.

 

4. Group Product Manager (GPM)

GPM is more of a people management position. They are responsible for the development of junior product managers within their groups and are not directly involved in technical aspects of product management.

Some of their roles and responsibilities include:

• Participates in the development and revision of annual budget plans to ensure proper resource allocation
• Oversees multiple product management processes and works with teams to develop schedules for the product life cycle.
• Manages, mentors and motivates junior members of one’s group
• Conducts performance reviews on performance metrics and develops performance improvement plans.
• Prioritises team health by identifying and resolving people’s problems
• Demonstrates a thorough understanding of customer needs and instils in team members a user-centric mindset.
• Encourages a culture that values and prioritises data based on research and customer feedback.

Certificate Courses For Aspiring Product Managers

Product manager roles require a deep understanding of the industry as well as a good mix of hard and soft skills to manage teams and lead organisations to success. And if you want to be considered for one of the positions, sign up for top product management courses offered by leading B-schools in India.

These advanced certificate courses offer an ideal blend of practical skills and theoretical knowledge in product management, allowing you to advance your career.