Talk:Product management

Response to 71.36.193.95
Response to 71.36.193.95 I don't necessarily agree that product management should be lumped in with brand management. The two responsibilities are inherently different, albeit related. xtmonax.

I have added a link on Feb 21st, 2007 to a clear definition of Product Management and the activities of a PM: http://michael.hightechproductmanagement.com/2006/04/product_management_product_marketing.html

The article is overly broad in terms of the typical aligment between product managment, corporate marketing and product marketing. Further, in some companies, the role of product manager may also be more aligned with general management including responsibility for the overall Profit and Loss for a line of business. I'll try to add some of these details as possible and would welcome any thoughts or assistance in this regard. 71.36.193.95 16:05, 6 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Yes, this article was written from classic marketing textbook material and treats product management as a subcategory of marketing managment. In the real world, product managers must be more diverse in their activities and responsibilities. The real world activities of product or brand managers is better covered in the brand management article. Your input into either article would be appreciated. mydogategodshat 01:53, 8 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Should be clearly distincted from Product Configuration Management as can be understood by many people from industrial areas, esp. from automotive and aerospace.


 * I don't like this article at all. It seems to take an old marketing textbook's definition of marketing + assumes the "P" refering to Product defines product management, but this is far from the truth. Any objection to restructuring this article? Similar work already in progress under term: product manager.--Areback 22:36, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

Cleanup
The link to the reference article that is the basis of this topic is not spam. Please do not remove it as I shall reinstate it. I can create a link directly to the PDF if that is needed for compliance. Lets discuss this.

Also, the topic is after cleanup.--Spinacia 16:56, 30 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks for responding to my edits. First, why haven't you been linking directly to the article?  Second, I think the article still needs cleanup since it's not encyclopedic and has poor references.  Third, I think the article should have the marketing tag to provide better access to the related subjects.  Fourth, we need but do not currently have reliable sources per WP:RS and WP:V. Fifth, if the sources listed are the only and best available, then we may have a proble with notability.  Sixth, this applies to each and every article that lists such sources, which there seem to be a rather large number of on related topics.  Seventh, the references are borderline advertising, especially when not directly linked - I'd rather have better references that are clearly not promotional. --Ronz 17:17, 30 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the detailed reply. I shall link directly to the article.Spinacia 19:29, 30 November 2006 (UTC)


 * I've removed both sources as dubious per WP:V - authors are not notable, articles are self-published. --Ronz 01:00, 2 December 2006 (UTC)


 * I shall defer discussion on the issue of external links and references. Do note that the topic of product management is different than other "encyclopedic" topics with many of its thought leadership emanating outside of academia.  In the meanwhile I shall continue to expand the article.  Thanks.  Spinacia 08:37, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Add the reference from which the first section of this article was taken.Spinacia (talk) 16:37, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

Recent revert by 68.127.209.150
I've reverted this edit, because: --Ronz 20:29, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
 * it did not specify what version it was reverting to
 * it restored spam
 * it removed numerous, valid edits to the article
 * I can't find anything from this revision that I think should be added back in. I'd appreciate others' perspectives. --Ronz 20:35, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Moved from article for discussion
'''Comment: A more accurate view may be that the overall function is Product Marketing in the sense that marketing is "Satisfying a customer's need for a profit." Product Promotion is more accurately defined with the terms above regarding placment and outgoing messages. For the above discussion, replace Product Planning with Marketing and replace Product Marketing with Promotion.'''

The above was added just before the See Also section. If it didn't introduce so many new phrases I would have taken a stab at incorporating it into the early paragraphs. --Ronz 04:41, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Disambig, etc?
Product Portfolio Management redirects to this page, but there's nothing here. Can we have a little description on one of those pages? -- TimNelson (talk) 00:08, 12 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I think PPM and PM are different things, aren't they? Or maybe related, but a different levels.  Portfolio Management has to look at the overall picture of how a suite of products fit together and into the marketplace.  Things like release timing are concerns.  With Product Management, it is the specifics of an individual project and how to go from idea to product and continue maintaining it.  Right?  Jackvinson (talk) 14:53, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
 * PPM and PM are very different. PPM is about the governance of investments. The article on Project Portfolio Management is more related then product management. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.65.145.162 (talk) 21:08, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

Needs serious updates
The writing in this article is poor. This could be refined over time by people who understand the intent, but it's not always clear.

Take this sentence; "Product Managers may also have one or more direct reports such as a Product Executive who can manage operational tasks or a Change Manager who can oversee new initiatives."

What? How is a "product executive", ie, a team of people, classified as "report." ? Is this a new business jargon, to shorten "people or groups you report to" to simply "reports"? If so, lose the jargon. There is a reason few people understand business-ese -- mangling English to save a few words rarely results in clarity. I can't even edit this to fix it as I haven't a clue what is meant.

Thank you to whoever started the page, but could someone who has a better understanding of this please see about clearing up some bad writing and ambiguity so this page can move forward and become more helpful to those trying to understand the concepts? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.146.192.74 (talk) 19:03, 13 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks, and I totally agree that this article is below WP standards. It seems that some 8 years later this article still isn't much better; I've therefore added some cleanup tags. If I get around I'll improve it, but at the moment I don't have the time beyond tagging it. Otherwise it might be a candidate for WP:AFD.
 * invenio t c 05:05, 12 September 2018 (UTC)

Simple description of product management
I'm assuming that we want the opening section of this article to provide a simple, accessible, and useful summary of product management for people who want to learn more about the profession?

If so, it's possible to improve on the current introduction:

"Product management is an organisational lifecycle function within a company dealing with the planning, forecasting, and production, or marketing of a product or products at all stages of the product lifecycle. Similarly, product lifecycle management (PLM)[1] integrates people, data, processes and business systems. It provides product information for companies and their extended supply chain enterprise."

Marty Cagan describes the profession simply and is widely referenced within the product management profession. 'Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love' suggests that product management begins with discovering a product that is valuable, usable and feasible. This might be a good way of describing product management? It is a simple, accessible and useful description.

We could probably extend Marty's description to cover the full life cycle as follows: '. . . It then makes products more valuable, usable and feasible over time. It retires products when they are no longer sufficiently valuable, usable and feasible.'

Add all this together and an improved introduction could be:

'Product management begins with discovering a product that is valuable, usable and feasible. It makes products more valuable, usable and feasible over time, and retires products when they are no longer sufficiently valuable, usable and feasible.'

Scottcolfer (talk) 22:37, 7 July 2019 (UTC)

product management PDFs
A basic question about the section "further reading" deleted yesterday: How about transfering/uploading the 3 books to Wikimedia Commons? Would that meet the guidelines or would these PDF-documents still be inappropriate content? Thanks for your support, --BCharly (talk) 16:57, 22 February 2021 (UTC)

"Inbound marketing" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Inbound marketing and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 April 8 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Cabayi (talk) 14:13, 8 April 2022 (UTC)