The Evolving State of Product Management
Product management has seen a seismic shift over the last few decades. From the early days of Business Analysis and requirements gathering to the widespread adoption of Agile methodology, the role of the product manager has transformed—sometimes for the better, and sometimes, for the worse. The discipline, which once played a critical role in identifying, developing, and ensuring the commercial success of digital products, has become fragmented in many organizations.
This fragmentation has left many product managers feeling adrift, reduced to mere facilitators rather than strategic leaders. While this is a generalization—there are still companies that get it right—the trend is prevalent enough, particularly in the US and Australia, to be cause for concern.
What’s Going Wrong?
Across companies of all sizes, we are seeing troubling patterns emerge:
Splitting the Role into Product Owner, Product Manager, and Scrum Master
This division of labor might seem efficient on paper, but in practice, it dilutes the strategic function of product management. Each role focuses on specific tasks, but who is left to own the product's vision, the value it brings to customers, and the overall business outcomes?
An Overemphasis on Process and Coaching
Rather than focusing on the strategic discipline of product management—identifying value, commercializing solutions, and ensuring ROI—the role is increasingly centered around Agile processes, coaching, and facilitation. These are important but should not overshadow the product's end goals.
Reducing Product Managers to Order Takers
This shift assumes that what’s being built is inherently correct and that customer needs have already been validated. But where’s the learning? Where’s the continuous discovery, the experimentation, and the feedback loops that ensure product-market fit?
Each of these shifts poses a problem, not just for product managers but for the businesses that employ them.
Why Does This Matter?
Splitting the role into three separate functions leads to a diffusion of responsibility. When the focus is placed heavily on process rather than outcomes, crucial questions get lost in the shuffle:
Who is responsible for determining where the value lies?
Who ensures ROI, pricing, and commercialization are considered?
Who slices the work for rapid delivery, feedback, and iteration?
Without a strong product manager to anchor these questions, teams risk creating products that are misaligned with customer needs, over-engineered, or too slow to get to market.
Reducing product managers to order takers perpetuates the assumption that all product decisions have already been made.
Reducing product managers to order takers perpetuates the assumption that all product decisions have already been made. It eliminates the critical learning processes required to iterate toward product-market fit. Without learning, adaptation, and data-driven insights, companies will struggle to keep pace with market shifts or consumer demands.
How Can Product Managers Thrive?
Despite these challenges, product managers can still be successful—if the environment supports them. Here’s what needs to happen:
Focus on Outcomes, Not Just Processes
Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are a valuable tool for framing the outcomes that product managers need to influence. When tied to both quantitative and qualitative data, OKRs help product managers focus on driving real value rather than just delivering features. A product manager must stay close to the customer, continuously gathering insights. If they aren’t regularly speaking to customers, there’s a fundamental issue.
Own the Backlog, Don’t Delegate It
Some companies have adopted the misguided solution of having engineering managers drive the backlog, particularly when product managers lack technical backgrounds. This is an anti-pattern that leads to over-engineered solutions. Product managers need to work closely with customers and users, providing context for engineers, making prioritization decisions, and ensuring rapid delivery and iteration.
Be the Driver of Feedback Loops
When tackling significant product development, product managers should prioritize getting feedback quickly. The key question isn’t "What features can we deliver?" but rather, "What do we need to learn first, and how can we learn it quickly?" This means working collaboratively with the engineering team to slice work into manageable pieces that can be validated with real users. If product managers aren’t embedded in this process, feedback loops will lengthen, and the product’s time to market will suffer.
The Call to Action
Now is the time for companies to rethink how they approach product management. The role cannot be relegated to a mere process or facilitation function—it must be seen as the strategic heart of product development, driving commercial success through customer insights, data, and rapid feedback loops.
For product managers, it’s crucial to reclaim ownership of the product vision, customer engagement, and business outcomes. Start by embedding yourself in the customer experience, owning the backlog, and relentlessly focusing on learning and iteration.
Are you ready to reimagine how product management can drive your company's success?
Let’s talk