A New Approach for Defining the Product Manager Role

The problem of product manager role clarity is (almost) as old as the title of product manager.  Yet, it still remains the most common complaint amongst the product teams that we speak to daily.

What are our product managers expected to do and (just as importantly) not do? The answer to this question changes not just across organisations, industries and geographies, but can also be inconsistent for two product managers within one organisation.

No wonder our teams are confused! This lack of clarity increases stress and contributes to feelings of unfairness, in turn, increasing the risks of disengagement and burnout for our teams.

Even with these risks, it seems that most employees are still struggling with role clarity. Only about 50% of employees globally strongly agree that they know what is expected of them at work (Gallup). Anecdotally from our experience, this statistic would be much worse in many product teams across Australia and New Zealand.

So, if a lack of role clarity is damaging to our product team’s wellbeing and engagement, why is it still the most common challenge that product managers express? Why haven’t we solved it yet? One of the biggest contributors we see is that most product leaders struggle to articulate a role in a long lasting and dynamic way.

Many organisations have no structured tools or frameworks for articulating the needs of the product management role and rely on informal conversations alone to set expectations. This lack of structure can cause confusion if expectations change conversation to conversation.

When considering more structured tools, the most commonly used are job descriptions. A standard job description can go a long way to better defining the product manager role, but they have significant limitations when it comes to establishing long term role clarity.

The Limitations of Job Descriptions

This one makes people squirm. It’s easy to ignore, rationalise, or hope it goes away. But culture is shaped by what we tolerate, not what we preach.

Start by preparing for the conversation not with a script, but with a mindset. Focus on the behaviour, not the person. Be curious, not accusatory. And above all, don’t enter the conversation trying to control the outcome just be clear, kind, and willing to listen.

Also, consider the power imbalance. Even the most well-intentioned feedback can land heavily when it comes from a manager. Tread thoughtfully.

When you notice performance gaps

The most common issues that arise from using job descriptions to create role clarity are:

1. Jobs are usually more dynamic than the job description – they change and evolve, often rapidly – with expectations, knowledge and tools evolving over time to reflect the changing needs of products and organisations.
2. Job descriptions are usually outdated – because of the detail contained in these descriptions – potentially including knowledge, tasks, tools, technologies and other frequently changing elements – they have a short lifespan (when available at all).
3. Team managers often have ‘non-standard’ expectations – last but not least, this is the reason why a ‘standard’ job description often doesn’t stay standard for long. Product team managers embellish and tailor what is ‘standard’ to reflect what in their opinion is needed. This can lead to vastly different expectations for product managers who have different reporting lines.

All of the above means that while standard job descriptions may seek to create clarity, they often create greater confusion by not reflecting what is needed, not moving with the times and not aligning expectations across teams. This adds to a lack of role clarity.

We need to go beyond job descriptions to build a more flexible and dynamic toolkit that will support not only role clarity but also aid in the development of more exciting careers in product management.

A Capability-First Approach to Defining the Product Manager Role

A more dynamic way to look at defining the product manager role clearly is through the lens of capability. This is because:

1. Capability is slower moving and so less frequently outdated than job descriptions.
2. In a changing environment, if individuals have the capabilities they need to deal with new knowledge, tasks, tools and technologies, they will have an easier time adapting.
3. Differences in capability expectations usually underlie all disagreements from managers on what should be expected from a product manager and so are a good place to start aligning for consistency (rather than job tasks, which are more varied).

To use capability to define a role, first you need to define what capabilities you could expect across all product roles in your organisation. For instance, all your product roles may include Associate Product Manager, Product Manager, Senior Product Manager, Group Product Manager & Head of Product.

A capability framework defines capabilities independent of a role title by asking the questions (i) what capabilities does someone need to perform and excel in any product role within our organisation and (ii) what does good look like for that capability (from a behavioural perspective) irrespective of the person’s actual role title. To find out more about defining and using capability frameworks, read our white paper on the subject.

While a capability framework defines capabilities irrespective of the role a person is in, a Capability Role Profile then aligns capabilities to roles and sets a realistic expectation for what level of capability should be expected from someone in the role in order to succeed. This acts as a powerful alignment exercise across teams as there should only be one profile for one role – not different ones depending on each manager’s personal opinion. The role profile then becomes like a ‘fingerprint’ for the role and assists in all elements of workforce planning. It is also a powerful tool for career discussions by comparing one role to another.

A quick note on roles, if you have a simple structure (as described above) you may be able to map 1:1 your job titles to role profiles. But if you have more complicated job titles – e.g., PM – Apps, PM – Search, PM – Web etc – you may have many job titles that match to one role (in this case Product Manager). This is because role profiles do not take into account specialist knowledge, like app or web development technologies, but rather define capabilities that underlie success – e.g. strategic thinking & communication. The realisation that capabilities can be separated from specialist knowledge allows for greater flexibility in filling roles and the potential for using talent mobility strategies. It also means they are longer lived artefacts.

Job descriptions (and job postings when hiring is required) then fill in greater detail as to specialist knowledge, reporting lines, tools and accountabilities for instance. These elements are most likely to change, meaning they are more likely to end up out of date as opposed to capabilities. By using capability frameworks and capability role profiles this allows for deeper planning about slower moving and harder to develop elements of your team profile and allows for greater role clarity through describing the behaviours and capabilities that are expected in a way that is more resilient to change.

Lastly, it is important to recognise that frameworks alone won’t solve all the problems with product role clarity. They have to be used consistently in the right way and within a broader system that is supported by leadership and the product operating model.

Teams Flourish when Culture, Environment and Capability are Aligned

No matter how good your capability model and role profiles are, product teams can’t flourish without the right systems in place to establish a culture and environment where capability is supported and rewarded. This requires a focus on:

1. Appropriate structures for recognition: Product teams want to be recognised for their good work, especially when that work goes above and beyond expectation. Creating formal and informal structures for recognition, where peers and managers recognise great work frequently, re-enforces expectation setting and acknowledges behaviours that go above and beyond expectations.
2. Ongoing support from and for managers: Product team managers are the key users of the toolkit and the frontline supports for our product managers. It is essential that they are trained to use tools like capability frameworks, role profiles and job descriptions to have better quality conversations at all stages of the talent lifecycle, including which tool to use at which stage.
3. Frequent and open development discussions: To truly embed a capability approach to improving role clarity, it is essential that development planning is firmly embedded at the core of all talent conversations. However, most often we are only having performance conversations, which are not sufficient for achieving the best talent outcomes – to learn the difference, check out our blog on the topic.

By focusing on combining the right frameworks in the right environment, it is possible to not only create clarity and decrease the risks of disengagement and burnout in our product teams, but to create more vibrant, diverse and exciting careers for our product managers. And isn’t that the product world we all want to live in?