Product Management

Defining the Product Role

Balancing the strategy and tactics of product management

When I’m asked what product managers do, I often refer to one of the most memorable scenes of Office Space. Tom Smykowski, a product manager at the fictional company IniTECH, is defending his job to a couple of efficiency consultants. He explains that his responsibility is to bring the specifications for the product from the customers to the engineers. As the conversation deteriorates (in comic fashion), it becomes clear that Tom doesn’t do much of anything at all. Obviously an effective product manager does much more than this.

However, at the most basic level, being a product manager means exactly what Tom Smykowski says: being a translation layer between the customers and the engineers of a product. The difference is that there is more nuance to being a product manager. Part of this involves being able to properly balance the tactical aspects of the job with the strategic parts of the job. Incidentally, if you haven’t seen Office Space, you should probably watch it as soon as possible.

So, what is the difference between being strategic and tactical in product management?

Product strategy has to do with the vision for the product you work on. I call this the “thinking” part of the job. This requires the product manager to understand what is technically possible and to be able to think several moves in advance (to borrow a chess mantra). Effective product managers are able to create a vision of a future product that addresses the needs of customers. The strategic view of a product can be over a relatively short time horizon, such as a quarter or two away, or it can exist as a “North Star” that represents a much longer-term vision. In either case, being able to develop a meaningful and logical product strategy is a core competency of a product manager.

Being tactical is the exact opposite of being strategic, but it is no less important for the product manager to master this skill. I think of this as the “doing” part of the job. Whereas the strategy answers questions about the product such as ‘what’ and ‘why’, tactics are all about the ‘how’ of product development. With a strategy in place, a product manager can drive on the vision by identifying the elements of a product that are required to meet the customers’ needs. In many organizations, product managers are judged by what they deliver or how well they execute on the strategic vision. This all comes down to tactical expertise.

Melissa Perri has written a terrific piece that distinguishes between true product strategy and a product plan (the strategic and tactical). But how do you balance between the strategy and tactics as a product manager?

Finding the right mix of strategy and tactics is the ultimate goal of a product manager. Unless you come from an organization with a dedicated role for task management, nothing will get done if you focus solely on product strategy and ignore the tactics. On the flip side — and there is nothing wrong with the doers of the world — but if you’re only tactical without having a vision, you will become more of a project manager. More critically, a lack of strategy may lead to building a product that doesn’t answer a customer’s need.

Personally, I find the most effective way to balance the two existential traits of product management to be by going big-to-small in my thinking. Starting with the problem you’re trying to solve (in terms of your customer), identify the vision for the product. Spend time researching and planning your product strategy, then work backwards to break the problem into smaller pieces of incremental work. Once you have broken the product vision into actionable pieces of work, you will be in position to execute. Keeping the strategy and tactics tied together will enable you to have equal doses of both in your product development.

Whenever I find myself spending a lot of time doing only the strategic or the tactical parts of my job, I know that it’s a good time to evaluate my own balance. Making sure that you don’t neglect either aspect of product management will keep you on track for success.

Let’s continue the conversation on Twitter or in the comments. For more on product management, follow Trust the Product on Medium.