Product Manager vs Project Manager

A product manager and project managers play different roles in ensuring a project runs smoothly, but what are the differences between the roles?

Product management

A product manager owns the WHY and WHAT for a product.

Some of the key responsibilities our product managers are in charge of are:

User Stories

Creating a narrative that defines products features from a users perspective.

Acceptance Criteria

Clearly outlining the conditions that must to be met for a feature to be considered complete.

Design Review

Collaborating with the design team on the visual and functional aspects of the product’s design.

User Testing

Ensuring the product meets user expectations through user testing, in collaboration with the design team.

Sprint Planning

Organising and prioritising tasks for upcoming development sprints based on client and user needs.

Backlog Grooming

Refining and prioritising the backlog of product features for future development sprints.

Unit Testing

Verifying individual components or units of the product’s functionality.

End-to-End Testing

Ensuring seamless integration and functionality across the entire system.

Sprint Retrospective/Review

Reflecting on the whole team’s performance and identifying any areas for improvement to incorporate in future sprints.

Client Feedback

Incorporating valuable input from clients to improve the product.

Project management

A project manager owns the WHEN for a project.

Some of the key responsibilities our project managers are in charge of are:

Primary client contact

The main day-to-day point of contact in the client relationship.

Resource, timeline and budget

Being responsible for planning and managing resources, ensuring the project is running smoothly with the timeline and budget.

Risk identification

Spotting any risks in the project and managing this correctly so that it causes as little disruption to the client as possible.

Status tracking and reporting

Finally, tracking and reporting the status of a project and sharing this with the team and the client.

Where do product managers and project managers work together?

At the start of a new project during the planning stage a product manager and project manager will work together to look over the requirements of the project to plan, prioritise, create timelines and resources. Throughout the project they will work together to review progress, overcome challenges and readjust when necessary.

Benefits of having both product management and project management

We get multiple benefits from having product and project working closely together in this way but to name a few are:

Vision Alignment

Working collaboratively can ensure a close alignment of the product vision and its delivery.

Team Communication

Facilitating clear communication within the product team helps a project run smoothly.

Collaborative Prioritisation

Collaborating on the project helps with prioritisation and facilitates the early identification of any challenges.

We hope this blog gives you an insight into the differences between product management and project management and how they work together at Hiyield. Get in touch today to find out how a product manager and project manager would work on your digital product to bring your ideas to life.