HN Explorer

Ask HN: What is the role of Product Manager?

2 points by going_ham ↗ HN
A while ago, I was surfing twitter and noticed a video from 23 year old product manager @Meta. The video doesn't seem to reflect the true role of one such product manager. However, it has a lot of "highlight reel" material. If I were to judge by the video, I would get an idea that product managers do not much.

So what is actual role of product manager?

I am genuinely curious because I come from CS background and even getting an interview for a software engineering internship at such huge company is a pretty big deal for me. So the video felt quite out of place.

Disclaimer: Please google for the link. I do not think it is a good idea to share the link.

4 comments

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PaulHoule
To be cynical I think that "Product Manager" is like "Data Scientist" in that it's a title desired by people who want high status but don't want to work, particularly who want the right to cross out any work they don't feel like doing and delegate it to somebody else or maybe it just doesn't get done at all.
diceduckmonk
Ensure that engineering works on features that are what customers want. This includes negotiating on refactoring work, and de-risking over-engineering on low priority aspects of the features.
PaulHoule
How's that different from a "project manager?"
maxrf
[loosely] a project manager is responsible for process, a product manager is responsible for the end result.