Type of Product Managers

A simple job description that originated in 1931’s hiring memo, has now become a full-fledged discipline by 2020! You will find many product manager jobs, requiring slightly different responsibilities or skills. Honestly, each product manager performs different duties depending on the type of product (B2C, B2B, internal tool, etc) and phase the product (product lifecycle)is in. The team structure and culture also change expectations from product managers.

As a core function, product managers define product roadmap and drive the success of the product by understanding user needs, and leveraging market economics and technology trends. They take an idea (originate or inherited) and convert it to solve a problem.

When you are applying for product roles understanding differences could help you find the right fit for your professional success. Let’s see the three main categories for product roles explained below.

Enterprise product manager — As the name suggests enterprise product managers work on products that solve business or enterprise needs. For example, we need to collaborate, manage or make certain functions efficient like payroll, CRM, etc. Think of workday, ADP, Asana, and Salesforce these are some common B2B products. The user is usually different from the buyer demanding product managers to collaborate with different stakeholders. Even the sales team is a critical stakeholder in some of the product functions.

Consumer product manager — COnsumer product managers work on products that solve a need for a user. For example, ordering grocery, need to find a route, booking flight tickets, etc. Think of all the apps you use like LinkedIn, Google maps, Ubereats, and the list goes on.

Internal productivity product manager — this is an upcoming category where product managers work on internal productivity tools to make e employee’s day-to-day functions efficient. These tools address the gap that most B2B tools do not solve or most B2B tools become expensive to implement for. These product managers also deal with stakeholders but at the same time, they have access to these employees for their input as users. Many tech companies create DevOps tools or performance evaluation tools for internal employees only.

Let's look at them closely below

This article is just the beginning of understanding these differences and each type could be a series of blogs if one wants to learn the details. Treat this article as a starting point for you and find product opportunities that complement your skillset and support your aspirations of becoming a successful product manager.