behind every great product - silicon valley …（每个伟大的产品u2014u2014硅谷的背后u2026）.pdf

Behind Every Great Product The Role of the Product Manager Martin Cagan Silicon Valley Product Group BEHIND EVERY GREAT PRODUCT Martin Cagan, Silicon Valley Product Group Every member of the product team is important. To succeed, a company must design, build, test and market the product effectively. That said, there is one role that is absolutely crucial to producing a good product, yet it is often the most misunderstood and underutilized of all the roles. This is the role of the product manager. In this paper we discuss the role and responsibilities of the good product manager, and then we look at the characteristics of good product managers, where to find them, and how to develop them.1 ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES The first confusion that we often encounter when looking at the product manager role is that it is often referred to by another name, or it is lumped in with another role: program manager, product marketing, project management, engineering management, or sometimes in small companies, a founder or executive. At Microsoft, and at a few other companies, the role of product manager as we use it here is known as a program manager2. To confuse things further, Microsoft also has a role known as the product manager, but that is what most refer to as product marketing. We also find some companies using the old-school definition of product manager, which is essentially the brand manager concept from the consumer packaged goods industry. This is primarily the product marketing function under the title of product manager. 1 This paper is based on work originally done with Ben Horowitz and David Weiden while we were all at Netscape Communications. Ben and David are two of the best product management minds I’ve had the privilege of working with.