Program Manager vs Product Manager [closed]

Question

What is the difference between a Program Manager and Product Manager? Is there actually a difference in the roles/responsibilities or our the terms mostly used interchangeably.

Answer 1

Depends entirely on the company. Microsoft, for instance, has its own rather unusual definitions:

• Program Manager = one of the members of the core technical staff (alongside developers and testers). Typically responsible for designing & specifying features, planning release cycles, triaging bugs, presenting at technical conferences, managing compliance with technical regulations (internal & governmental), connecting with online communities, and more.

• Product Manager = basically a synonym for "marketing suit." They design the product's ad campaigns, sales website, and related swag. More generally, they define the "message" that they hope people (mainstream media, word-of-mouth, and everything in between) will associate with each release.

Both positions gather a lot of data about where the market is heading -- Program Managers from their relationship with the technical community, Product Managers from their industry & media contacts -- but the ultimate decisions about what to build are made by someone higher in the chain. (not the nitty gritty, of course; Program Managers & UX designers are the experts at specifying the details. thinking more of "vision" / "value props" that individual product subunits then go "align" themselves toward)

Answer 2

The difference is usually that the program manager handles the whole series of related products, their schedules, budgets, etc, and the product manager handles just the internals of a particular product such as scheduling of individual components and dividing team tasks, as well as leading the particular product team.

Usually, product managers report to the program manager, and the program manager has the final say on budgeting for each product team and the scheduling. The product manager then takes the resources he or she has and divides them amongst the team, coordinating the team's efforts.

Answer 3

AIPMM and PMI, two professional organizations in these fields, have both defined unique knowledge areas (KA) associated with their professions that can answer this question. Both product and program managers must master their unique KAs and manage the activities and deliverables associated with them in order to successfully complete their products or programs.

PMI has defined 9 unique project management KAs required to manage projects and programs. They are: Integration, Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, Resources, Communication, Risk and Procurement. Programs are collections of related projects but still require mastery of the 9 unique project management KAs.

AIPMM has defined 6 unique product management KAs as part of a universal, cross-industry Product Management Framework (PMF) required to manage products. They are: Customer, Strategy, Product, Market, Business, and Program. The Program KA involves the management those cross-functional projects required to bring products to market. (and very often the Program Manager is a member of the cross functional product management core team).

Hopefully this explanation has introduced some clarity and consistency into the discussion. For more information on the AIPMM unique KAs and the PMF, go to the www.AIPMM.com web site and download the APMF whitepaper.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_International_Product_Marketing_%26_Management