Product Managers Aren’t Responsible for the Delivery of their Products

There has been a lot of talk recently about the role of product managers in companies, and the value that they bring to the table. Part of this is a continuation of an age-old debate, and part of it has been brought into focus by moves such as Airbnb and Stripe getting rid of product managers (which, of course, neither of them did). Now, I’m no fan of stories of Airbnb’s designers whooping with delight when they thought all the PMs were getting fired, but, on the other hand, we should always be willing to ask ourselves… what are we for?

In this post, I’m going to talk about what we’re not for, because it’s something that I’ve seen often on my travels, and I think it’s at the root of much of the bad feeling between product managers and their teammates. To cut a long story short, product managers are not responsible for the delivery of the products they manage.

What? Let me explain…

About that “manager” word

Product managers have a labelling problem. That pesky manager word has connotations for many people, especially in organisations that don’t have a history of strong product management practices. This can manifest itself in one of two ways (or both):

• A product manager who believes that they are the “leader”…