The Strategic Role of Product Management

I wrote The Strategic Role of Product Management in 2008 when I was a vice president and a lead instructor for Pragmatic Marketing.

A lot has changed since then.

In those days, companies relied more on intuition and a few sales discussions to determine which products and features to build.

Back in 2008, the title product manager was less well-known and poorly understood. Was it a development job or a marketing job? Or something else? Today, product management is a specialization in many university programs and one of the top jobs desired by recent graduates.

Agile methods were new initiatives for many companies in 2008; today, they’re pretty much the industry standard. But alas, the Scrum method introduced a new role—the product owner—that added even more confusion to roles and responsibilities.

But some things haven’t changed. Great product managers still focus on problems in the market, identifying friction for those who buy and use our products, and systematically turn good ideas into successful products.

In the 2024 edition, learn how agile created role chaos, how Quartz clarifies the product management triad, and how to reclaim product management.

Get your free copy of The Strategic Role of Product Management.