Lately, I’m seeing organizations re-title from Project Manager or Program Manager to Product Manager. This could be a positive shift away from emphasizing individual project execution, toward enabling the management of whole product lifecycles. However, the speedy adoption of these title changes indicates some organizations are jumping on a trend, rather making intentional and considered moves toward becoming a Product led organization.
Project Managers are responsible for planning, organizing, and managing the resources and activities necessary for delivering a project, while Program Managers handle these tasks at a program level. They also communicate status updates to stakeholders. On the other hand, Product Managers communicate the vision and strategy for a product and focus on delivering outcomes. They determine the right product OKRs and KPIs, prioritize features for delivery, and work with a Product Team responsible for the entire product lifecycle. Clearly, these are distinct roles, with very different responsibilities. Beware that rebranding from one title to the other can be risky!
If you are considering making these changes or already have, below are some of the top risks with mitigation strategies (in no particular order):
Risk: Your newly titled Product Managers aren’t enabled and supported.
Are you providing adequate training, coaching, and organizational support to these folks in their new roles? If not, this will create additional challenges or difficulties for them as they try to adapt to the different expectations and responsibilities. You will see attrition after the shine of a new title wears off. Mitigation: Enable these folks by investing in Product Management and Product Thinking training. Engage Product Coaches who can help your new Product Managers succeed. Make sure leaders understand how managing projects differs from managing an entire Product Lifecycle.
Risk: You continue to fund in a Project Model instead of a Product Model.
Don’t do this - Many companies have already made this move and it’s the riskiest. Why? In a Project model, funding is open and closed based on dates and project completion. In a Product Model, funding is based on alignment to business strategy and supporting data, such as potential market capture, performance, and stage in the product lifecycle. As long as you continue using a project funding model, you need the good work of Project and Program Managers to manage resources to budget and time. Otherwise, you risk financial inconsistencies, and reporting issues. Mitigation: Change your funding model to a Product model before changing titles or expecting your employees to apply Product Thinking. If have already changed titles, make it clear that this is a change in name only, not a change in responsibility. Then start shifting your organization to a Product Model.
Risk: Roles aren’t properly clarified or communicated.
Title changes can lead to confusion or misunderstandings within the organization. Is this an organization-wide change? Is this change being make only in particular part of the org such as engineering? Do Product Managers already exist in other parts of the organization? If not well communicated, employees will not fully understand the difference between roles or how they fit into the overall organizational structure. This could lead to miscommunication and impact organizational effectiveness and attrition. Mitigation: Work with HR and others in the organization before you make title changes to understand who else will be impacted so you can provide clarity in advance on role expectations.
Risk: Product Manager turn-over.
Perhaps you think you’ll hire a couple of seasoned Product Managers to help your newly titled legacy Project Manager off the side of their desks? Experienced Product Mangers will be out the door quickly after trying to do the strong Product Management work while expected to pull the weight of others who don’t know what they should be doing. Mitigation: Invest in outside help for upskilling. Don’t use the title changes as a technique for recruiting and do not oversell internal Product capabilities to new hires.
Risk: Organizational instability.
Is this change a superficial rebranding effort, or a substantive shift in organizational focus? If you are at a large organization, you may have the authority to change titles. You may be motivated to do it to keep a particular employee happy, or perhaps to communicate that your department is ahead of the curve. However, this can lead to skepticism or fear from employees in other areas of the organization, or even your own peers. Change that is imposed without clarity or sufficient explanation causes churn that leaders can’t always see. Mitigation: Learning how to manage change, no matter how small a change you feel it is, can make or break productivity. Transparency and communication are key here – upward, down, and horizontally.
To wrap it up – while the shift from Project Manager to Product Manager titles may indicate a desire to manage the entire product lifecycle, it does not always mean a change to Product orientation is afoot. Carefully consider this move, and mitigate the potential risks involved in a title re-brand. Better yet, architect a real change in roles, responsibilities, funding models, and create true organizational alignment toward becoming truly Product-led.