{"id":764,"date":"2017-10-02T03:00:23","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T10:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clickup.com\/blog\/?p=764"},"modified":"2024-03-25T07:49:18","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T14:49:18","slug":"product-vs-project-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clickup.com\/blog\/product-vs-project-management\/","title":{"rendered":"The Difference Between Product Management & Project Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

Products?\u00a0<\/span>Projects? Product management or project management?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What does it all mean? <\/span><\/p>\n

If your company is involved in creating a product \u2014 whether it be SaaS or something different\u2013 you\u2019ll hear these terms on a daily basis, but confidently understanding the difference is critical to avoiding the \u201cdummy\u201d label with colleagues. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re deciding to focus your career in one of these roles or you just want to understand what people are talking about, let\u2019s nail down the distinction between project and product management and find how they relate to one another. <\/span><\/p>\n

What Are Project Managers?<\/a><\/b><\/h2>\n

Project managers are conductors of the general workflow, efficiency, and communication of teams<\/a>. Their goal is to simply execute on the vision of the product manager. They bring together every skill they\u2019ve picked up in life to employ the most efficient process they can imagine and get things done right with the resources they have. <\/span><\/p>\n

The best project managers are able to exercise an organizationally strategic mind and ambitious goals. Basically, they\u2019re the people you avoid when asked to play board games. You\u2019ll want to replicate their approach to viewing systems as a whole. They carefully orchestrate their team to accomplish an astonishing number of tasks in a limited amount of time. They think about risk, scope, time management and what resources are available. And people. Yes, they have to deal with team members, their workloads and how they juggle various other tasks. <\/span><\/p>\n

All in all, project management involves overseeing complex efforts from many participants with varying skill sets. A project manager will ultimately be judged by his or her ability to successfully complete project objectives on time and on budget, so the goal is to place the best people in the right places to do productive things at the right times. <\/span><\/p>\n

What Are Product Managers? <\/b><\/a><\/h2>\n

Product management<\/a> is all about planning, designing, and improving the product. Decisions made by product managers are then transferred to project managers, who execute on the overall vision. \u00a0To stay competitive, they must keep a keen eye on existing products in their industry as well as the evolving needs of their potential customers to define how products should change or what new products need to be made. <\/span><\/p>\n

A product manager holds the responsibility of design choices, core branding and ensuring that the right tech requirements are in place to make the product a success.<\/span><\/p>\n

Check out these must have product management skills<\/a> & Product Manager Interview Questions<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

So\u2026What\u2019s The Difference Between Product Managers and Project Managers? <\/b><\/h2>\n

Basically, product managers envision the product, and project managers ensure that vision is realized in a timely and under-budget fashion with project plans<\/a> and project charters. Why both? While many teams and products have only one person acting as both product and project manager, it\u2019s crucial for any scalable product to have two separate entities. <\/span><\/p>\n

Project managers must concentrate on process and efficiency while avoiding the dreaded \u201cscope creep<\/a>\u201d that sometimes product managers desire. Product managers exclusively concern themselves with strategy, design and making sure the finished product really will work the way they want it to. <\/span><\/p>\n

Ideally, the product manager should be free to maximize his or her time on product metrics, customer analysis, and defining\/refining the product core vision. The project manager should use those defined parameters to initiate, plan, control, and execute on project goals<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

How Do Project Managers and Product Managers Work Together? <\/b><\/h2>\n

Great project managers work closely with their product manager, realizing that delivering as much value as possible in a collaborative, resourceful way is the team\u2019s mutual goal. The digital era has spurred incredible leaps in productivity by bringing together both management styles. <\/span><\/p>\n

Resource Management<\/b><\/p>\n

The product manager will ensure that the overall team has the capability and skills to create and build a new product. The project manager will work with individuals and specific schedules to balance out the workload, set up project milestones<\/a> and figure out the schedule. The project manager will also coordinate with the product manager on the scope and budget making sure that everything is aligned. <\/span><\/p>\n

Time Management<\/b><\/p>\n

Think of time as <\/span>external <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>internal. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Quite often, the product manager is responsible for managing the external time. That could be client or leadership team\u2019s expectation and working with marketing on the go-to-market timing and strategy. On the other hand, the project manager is responsible for <\/span>internal <\/span><\/i>time management\u2013ensuring that the development, manufacturing or production of the product is going as planned and those project milestones are being met.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bonus: AI Product Management Tools<\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Communication with Project Management Software<\/b><\/h2>\n

Has this ever happened to you before? <\/span><\/p>\n