Delineating the Roles: Product Manager, Product Marketing Manager, and Growth Product Manager

Understanding Product Manager’s Role

The Product Manager’s role can be complex, given its multifaceted nature. The responsibility primarily encompasses product creation and readiness for market launch. Think of it this way: The Product Manager ensures the cereal is on the shelf, managing elements such as ingredients, nutrition, and product positioning. In smaller organizations, like startups, a Product Manager might assume additional duties typically performed by a Product Marketing Manager.

Key Responsibilities of a Product Manager

• Product Vision/Strategy/Roadmap
• Product discovery & development
• Product lifecycle management

The Role of a Product Marketing Manager

Product Marketing Managers concentrate on ensuring that the product reaches the customer, focusing on market penetration. Returning to our analogy, they persuade customers to remove the cereal box from the shelf, handling aspects like packaging and pricing.

Key Responsibilities of a Product Marketing Manager

• GTM strategy and execution
• Sales enablement (B2B) and lead generation
• Communicating the product to the market
• Marketing campaigns

It’s important to note that the responsibilities of Product Managers and Product Marketing Managers are often interlinked and don’t exist in isolation. The creation and marketing of products significantly influence each other, so these roles work more in partnership than as distinct entities.

Navigating the Waters: Shared Responsibilities

Both Product Managers and Product Marketing Managers share some responsibilities, which include:

• Market segmentation
• Identifying TAM, OAM, SAM
• Formulating Value Proposition
• Defining Personas
• Pricing
• Positioning
• Go-to-market planning

The Growth Product Manager: An Emerging Role

Organizations implementing a product-led growth strategy often house the role of a Growth Product Manager. This role focuses on improving a specific business metric or commercial goal through a process known as ‘growth hacking.’ Growth Product Managers may work either with a dedicated growth team or alongside the Product Manager.

Key Responsibilities of a Growth Product Manager

• Rapid experimentation for growth
• Focus on specific business metrics
• Short-term, incremental improvements

The Interplay between Product Marketing Manager and Growth Product Manager

While Product Marketing Managers focus on product launch and promotional activities, Growth Product Managers concentrate on product growth optimization through continual experimentation. The business outcomes Growth Product Managers aim for could be at any stage of the product’s conversion funnel, as opposed to the Product Marketing Managers, who generally engage with the market at the beginning of the funnel.

Unique Aspects of the Roles

Growth Product Managers may work with a development team to enact product changes. Conversely, Product Marketing Managers are usually associated with design-centric teams for creating marketing and sales assets.

Conclusion: The Blurring Boundaries

There’s no clear dividing line between these roles, and their responsibilities can overlap depending on the team structure and individual role definitions. Whether you’re a Product Manager, Product Marketing Manager, or Growth PM, viewing your counterparts as collaborators can enhance your effectiveness. Role and responsibility workshops can help delineate roles and avoid task overlap, facilitating smooth operation in the dynamic landscape of product management.