Product Manager Vs. Project Manager: What's the Difference?

Product Manager and Project Manager are two job descriptions that are often confused with each other.  In spite of the fact that they might have a few comparable functions.

If you are interested in knowing the difference between these two positions, then you are on the right page. In this article, you will learn about the distinct features that differentiate product managers and project managers from each other.

What is a Product Manager?

Product managers are often considered visionaries. Their primary function is to lead the product to success and it is a vital position, especially for tech companies.

Therefore, it brings satisfaction to the client as there are devoted and hardworking people who are focused on the success of the product via product management software. On the other hand, a different person supervises the entire project ensuring the process executes within the period, scope, and budget.

Scope of Responsibility

The responsibility of a product manager is quite broad. However, these are the primary tasks and areas that they are responsible for: 

1. Creating Strategies:
The product manager's primary role is to set a vision and strategy for a product. You need to be able to satisfactorily articulate the product's business value so that the team and executives will understand the intention behind it or know how to make improvements.

2. Defining Releases: Product managers are also responsible for executing the strategy that they plan. This includes creating a detailed timeline of each milestone for the product.

3. Evaluating Ideas: Evaluating ideas requires the product manager to crowdsource fresh suggestions, develop existing ideas, streamlining them so that the product would provide value to the customer.

4. Prioritizing Features: Deciding on which feature to prioritize on the product is also under the role of the product manager. Although having many features is a big bonus for a product, you will need to compromise later on.

Skills Required as Product Manager

If you plan on becoming a product manager in the future, you must possess the following skills to be successful: 

1. Strategic Thinking: Strategic thinking is vital for creating a vision and direction for a particular product. The success rate of a product is highly dependent on this because this is what will serve as a roadmap to tackle the day-to-day work. 

2. Leadership Skills: As a product manager, you will have a team of people that you have to lead. Although there is no formal authority that obliges most of these members to follow you, you must still drive them to become motivated in achieving your common goals. You can do this by being compassionate, convicted, and diplomatic.

3. Communication Skills: Another essential skill that you will need as a product manager is communication skills. You need to report vital information to salespeople, marketers, developers, and even executives. 

4. Research and Technical Skills: An excellent product manager has a good grasp of the market and its customers. To achieve this, you must have exceptional research skills and the ability to interpret information out of your research.  As for the technical skills, it is not necessary for you to be well versed in coding. However, you need to have an in-depth understanding of the technology of your product. You can do this by familiarizing yourself with its manufacturing, process, and applications.

5. Empathy Skills: You need to be able to put yourself in the shoes of others to understand their needs and create a product that they will love. Thus, you need excellent empathy skills.

What is a Project Manager?

Unlike product managers whose responsibilities are focused on the development of a product, the roles and responsibilities of a project manager are much broader.

Scope of Responsibility

Here are the main responsibilities of a project manager: 

1. Initiating: During the initiating phase, project managers need to define the project's main goals, purpose, and coverage. They also need to identify the key stakeholders from both internal and external perspectives. 

2. Planning Executing: Another essential responsibility of project managers is planning. This involves figuring out things such as communication, cost, timeline, and project risks. 

3. Executing: Just like product managers, they are also responsible for the execution of the project. The difference is that they hold formal authority over the team that they are working with. During this stage, the project manager is also responsible for mitigating the distraction of the team and facilitating issue resolution. 

4. Monitoring & Controlling: This is a responsibility of a project manager the moment that they are assigned to oversee a particular project. This responsibility includes monitoring the project progress, managing its budget, and ensuring milestones are achieved in the right schedule. 

5. Closing: This is the final responsibility of a project manager. During this stage of project management, managers will closely work with clients to get a formal sign-off acknowledging that the project is completed. 

Skills Required as Project Manager

Here are the primary skills required to become a successful project manager: 

1. Communication Skills: As a project manager, you will be required to do reports and to talk with different stakeholders of the project. This means that you need to be able to effectively convey plans, issues, and resolutions to ensure that everything is smooth sailing. 

2. Accountability and Stress Management Skills: It goes without saying that there will be a lot of pressure on your shoulder as a project manager. This is because you are responsible for ensuring that everything is running smoothly. Unfortunately, that is not the case most of the time setbacks are sure to happen. However, being able to know how to be accountable for these things will help you move forward and keep the morale of your team members. 

3. Leadership Skills: Another important skill that you must have as a project manager is leadership skills. You need to know how to motivate your workforce and delegate tasks properly to ensure that everything is done efficiently. 

Conclusion

Product managers and project managers may be two positions that are often interchanged with each other. However, they have a lot of differences. The biggest one is that product managers specialize in product development while project managers are focused on ensuring that projects are executed well from start to finish. Regardless of their difference, both positions are essential in all organizations.