Product Management in Practice: A Real-World Guide to the Key Connective Role of the 21st Century

by Matt Lemay

Did your designers and developers miss a launch deadline? That is your responsibility. Did the product you manage fail to meet its quarterly goals? That’s also your responsibility. As a product manager, you are the person who is ultimately responsible for the success or failure of your product — regardless of how well supported that product might be by the rest of the organization.

The guiding principle for research is, “live in your user’s reality.” Every product has a user — whether it’s a consumer, another business, or an engineer utilizing an API. The things that matter to you, such as hitting project deadlines, managing the product backlog, or balancing the profit and loss statement, do not matter at all to them. Your users have their own set of priorities, needs, and concerns, the most critical of which might not seem directly related to their interactions with your product.