I’m new to the life of Product and how big it is! Being new to the Product world I am forever asking, “what makes a great product manager?”, and I am fascinated by the cool things they get up to! I don’t think anyone can ever answer that! A Product Manager comes with a never-ending list of skills. A long list that would include things like; innovativeness, strategic thinking, subject matter proficiency, amazing communication, market knowledge, the gift of leadership, strong researching abilities etc. I honestly never thought about the fact that someone is responsible for making customer experience online that easy! Or the way my apps work, someone’s put this vision together and worked with a cross-functional team to make my life easy and simple!
I’ve now spoken to hundreds of Product Managers at a variety of levels and a diversity of companies. THEN my mind started boggling when Product Owners came into question! I started working with a start-up company hiring Product Owners and then I had to ask myself, “what’s the difference?”. So after speaking to people and researching I now can give an answer! It’s quite obvious that numerous Product Owners perform Product Management responsibilities and many Product Managers conduct Product Ownership responsibilities.
A Product Manager has a wide range of everyday jobs which come with a vast variety of tasks. In general, the Product Manager is accountable for motivating the strategy and the success of the product. The Product Manager is involved with communication of the voice of the customer, succeeding with both customer and business success. In the meantime, Product Owners articulate detailed user stories, they get involved with daily scrum rituals and answer questions from a consumer perspective.
Much like a Product Manager role, Product Owners’ tasks may vary on the situation but constructed on the Scrum Guide, there are certain tasks that categorically need to be done by the Product Owner. It is the role of the Product Owner to make the most of the value of the product and the work being done by the development team, ensuring them to understanding the product backlog and why it is important. A Product Owner is a sole person accountable for managing and ordering the product backlog.
Written by Cami Faiella, Talent Acquisition Manager – Product
LinkedIn: Cami Faiella / RedCat Digital
Twitter: @Cami_RedCat / @RedCat_Digital
Facebook: RedCat Digital
Google+: RedCat Digital
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