What do Product Managers do? A Comprehensive Guide with Examples

The job description of a Product Manager can vary from company to company. PMs have two core goals: one is to successfully lead product development to create a useful product, and two is to effectively work with cross-functional teams to ensure that the product direction is aligned with the objectives of the company. No matter what the company size is or which industry the company is in, these two goals are commonly the same for all Product Managers. 

The difference in the responsibilities of PMs in different levels and industries are made apparent when it comes to how the goals are reached. This is why it’s still a bit challenging for many to answer the question, “What do Product Managers do?”

In this article, we’re going to answer this question by going more into detail about the main responsibilities of a PM, what a typical day of a PM might look like, and other information that may be helpful for those who want to break into Product Management. 

What do Product Managers do in Product Development?

Product Managers are responsible for three parts of product development: product discovery, solution finding, and finally, leading the development of the product. To do their job effectively, PMs sit across three cross-functional teams in an organization:

• The consumer-facing team
• The creative team which is composed of software developers 
• The core business team which is composed of the main stakeholders

Depending on their level of seniority, PMs focus on different parts of product development. Junior Product Managers focus on execution and helping with product building, while Senior Product Managers focus on discovery and solution finding because these two aspects of being a PM require experience.

Let’s break down the three parts: 

1. Discover Problems

Depending on the stage of the company and product lifecycle, Product Managers take different approaches to discovering problems. At the most fundamental level, every organization exists to solve one big problem – and each Product Manager focuses on solving a subset of issues within that big problem. 

The more senior a Product Manager is, the more general the product statement becomes. 

For example, Google is solving the disorganization of data by organizing the data. The Google Maps Head of Product focuses on solving for easy access to finding directions and locations. Meanwhile, a particular Product Manager might be focusing on the delivery of bike lane data within Google Maps.

Problem Solving Methods

Product Managers employ a variety of methods in the problem-discovery phase of development:

• Interview target users: Product Managers take various approaches to interview their target users.
  • Past experiences: Sometimes, it’s better to focus on past experiences and ask questions about previous user experiences/behaviors to discover patterns and pain points. For example, a PM might ask “Tell me how you went about booking your last vacation?”
  • Wish lists: This works better for existing customers, although it should be used carefully. Sometimes expect that lists do not match with the reality of what is needed.
  • Surveys

• Observing user interactions: Good Product Managers know that most user interviews do not reveal everything because users don’t always realize they have a problem. Imagine you asked someone in the year 2005 what trouble they had with their phone. Most would not have told you they would like access to the internet from anywhere at any time. But by observing how users gained access to information, one could realize that “lack of constant access to the internet at your fingertips” was a pain point. This step is sometimes conducted as part of a market research study where Product Managers closely monitor and study a group of target users and their interactions with the product’s alternatives or the product itself.

• Measure performance of existing product/user behaviors: By leveraging usage data and analytics, a Product Manager can discover behavioral patterns and friction points in user behavior.

• Market developments based on current news: For example, if you find out that your competitor released a feature, sometimes you have no choice but to compete with them and prioritize solutions to stay relevant to your target market.

After discovering the problems, Product Managers usually estimate the severity of the issues. There are different ways to determine the severity of the issues. Some of the more popular methods are market research, user feedback, market testing, prototyping, and user testing.

Good to Know

Product Managers are so knowledgeable about the space that they can anticipate their users’ needs. They understand the importance of a problem (at a qualitative level) and typically do not need to conduct research.

2. Find Solutions

This is the part where Product Managers determine how to solve their problem. There are different ways to go about finding solutions. Sometimes, PMs work with product designers, UX designers, and the engineering team to find solutions to their core problems. 

Once a PM determines how to solve a problem, they estimate the work involved in developing the product based on required resources (human, financial, time, etc). Problem and solution discovery both happen on an ongoing basis. But, depending on the size of the company, Product Managers may use both to develop a product roadmap and backlogs for their product. For example, the smaller the company, the more frequently this is revisited and adjusted according to new information.

What is a product backlog?

The product backlog is a set of features and capabilities that the PMs will be developing in the future. Backlog management and roadmap development usually require some work and collaboration with the team.

Going back to the roles and responsibilities of a Product Manager, junior PMs are responsible for ensuring their roadmap and backlogs are approved by more senior Product Leaders in the product development team and meet their long-term product strategy. In many cases, the development of a product and its priorities have many dependencies and require buy-in from other teams. 

In smaller companies, Product Managers work with the CEO and key stakeholders to ensure that they are comfortable with the approach.

For example, suppose you are updating a mobile banking app to solve a new problem [e.g., enable mobile check deposit (solution) to solve a user’s lack of desire to visit a branch (problem)]. In that case, you need to ensure various stakeholders (banking team, legal, compliance, securities, etc) are aligned and their opinions are taken into consideration. 

One might ask: How do you know if your proposed solution is any good? There are different ways to go about it. Sometimes, it is market research; sometimes, it is user testing, sometimes it is prototyping and observing how users interact with your solution.

It is also important to measure the effectiveness of the solution to ensure that it does not create bigger problems. Big consumer technology companies such as Meta/Facebook pay a lot of attention to various metrics to make sure that their new products and features help the company continue moving towards its goals. 

For example, if the problem with Facebook Like is the user’s lack of ability to see it, making the Facebook Like icon much bigger might not be a good solution. It might negatively impact engagement in other parts of the Facebook product.

3. Build the Product

Once Product Managers know how they want to solve a problem and have decided to prioritize it, they work with the stakeholders to develop detailed requirements for the product or feature they want to build. If it is a simple consumer app, the Product Manager might only need to engage with a UX designer and engineering team to build the product.

The outcome of most of those works is usually a set of written information that helps PMs and the rest of the building team (e.g. engineering and UX designers) have clarity on what is being built. 

Here are the three most common documents that are written before a product is built:

• Product Requirements: it describes the objective of the product, why it’s being built, how it’s being built, timelines, etc.
• Technical Specifications: the senior member usually writes this document of the engineering team that represents the engineering team in the product-building process.
• User Stories: the Product Manager and engineering team generally write the stories as a way to break down the delivery of the product into very small deliverables that can be tested and verified to be completed. An example of a story is “As a Facebook user, I should see ‘your login credentials are incorrect’ if I enter an email address and password that do not match with a user’s login credentials.”

Once the engineering and Product Managers have developed the user stories, there is usually some testing and QA process to ensure that the development was done according to the standards described in the Product Requirements, Technical Specs, and User Stories. 

The person responsible for QA and testing usually varies depending on the size of the team and the team culture. Sometimes, the Product Manager is responsible for testing. In larger teams, there is a dedicated QA team who is responsible for making sure that a product is working well.

It is also important to know that no matter how much research and planning is done, there will be things that come up that might require Product Managers to adjust their plans accordingly. Examples are:

• The engineering team realizes a previously agreed-upon path for building a feature is hard and asks to consider a different solution.
• The team comes across edge cases that have not been thought of (e.g. for enabling mobile deposit of physical checks, they might realize many users do not have clean phone camera lenses and take blurry pictures).
• They need clarity on the scope of the project.

The best Product Managers can work closely with the teams and adjust their plans if needed according to new information provided.

Communication & Meetings

As the person responsible for the product, it is important for the Product Manager to ensure that various company stakeholders are aligned with the product directions and understand the perspectives of the product team on various topics. As a result, a big part of a PM’s time is usually spent on communication and working with non-functional teams across the company.

From the detailed description of what Product Managers do in the context of product development, you may be thinking that there’s already a lot that needs to be done in a day. It’s true but communication will mostly be at the center of all of it. A product manager’s job changes every day and is different depending on the company’s priorities, new information coming from teams and the market, and the company resources.

We’ve written a blog post about what a day may be like, working as a Product Manager. If you’re interested to know more about this topic, read: The Typical Day of a Product Manager.

Different types of Product Managers

The product development and product management process could change for PMs based on specialties. For example, there’s a PM who is more inclined toward the technical aspects of the product called a Technical Product Manager. This type of PM doesn’t do the hands-on building of a product. Instead, a TPM mostly collaborates with engineering, reviews engineering estimates, checks engineering trade-off decisions, and assesses technical specifications.

There’s also a Growth Product Manager (GPM) that focuses on the growth problems of a company. There’s an API Product Manager (API-PM) who is responsible for creating, implementing, and overseeing APIs within a software organization. 

There are so many more types of Product Managers in the industry. To give a good answer to the question, “What do Product Managers do?” one would have to understand what PMs do concerning their specialty.

If you would like to read more about different PMs and their functions, check out: The Different Types of Product Managers.

Conclusion

Product Managers have a hand in every phase of the product life cycle and frequently wear numerous hats. They commit to a range of responsibilities, from supervising the creation of product strategies to coordinating with cross-functional teams to launching finished products. The responsibilities can seem challenging but with the right skills, knowledge, and mindset, you can be a valuable asset to any company.

Become a Product Manager

If you’re ready to take the next step, you have to prepare for the PM interview. Doing this is a major obstacle but with the right help, resources, and attitude, you’ll gain more confidence even before your PM interview is scheduled. So, where do you start with your preparations? We have some suggestions:

1. Go Through a Self-Paced PM Interview Course

The PM Exercise Interview prep course prepares you for every aspect of the Product Manager interview. It contains over 100 video hours and more than 100 online lessons.

Note: You would need an upgraded account to access the entire course.

2. Understand and Practice Answering PM Interview Questions

On the PM Exercises website, we have compiled over 2,000 Product Manager interview questions. There are also responses from members of our community who have been through it. Review all of the questions and sample answers on the database. Go through it one category at a time.

3. Do Mock Interviews

A good way to gain more confidence when answering PM interview questions is by doing a mock interview. You can be an interviewer and interviewee in this setting. This allows you to get feedback from your partner (and vice versa). On the PM Exercises website, you can look for community members eager to do mock interviews. 

4. Repeat the Process per Category

Because the Product Manager interview is composed of different question categories, it’s highly recommended that you go through each category. Once you’re comfortable with one category, repeat the process until you have gone through everything.

FAQs

What is the primary role of a Product Manager?

A Product Manager’s primary role is to know and represent users’ needs. The PM has to make them into a product that would bring value to the company and other stakeholders. PMs accomplish this role by working with cross-functional teams to create products with features that users will find helpful.

What are the functions of a Product Manager?

A Product Manager serves a variety of functions inside the organization. The duties of PMs include presenting and proposing fresh concepts for making products. Additionally, it also involves working alongside engineering and design teams to create those products. Lastly, it ensures that they are tailored to the demands of their intended market.

Who does a Product Manager work with?

The responsibilities of a Product Manager vary drastically, which is why they work with numerous stakeholders. Because of this, PMs frequently serve as the bridges connecting engineering, designing, marketing, and sales teams with the customer base.