Product Manager
Reference: http://www.answers.com/topic/product-manager
What does a Product Manager do?
A combination of internal and external activities to the organization.
Product Planner - This is an internal activity. Identify a road map for the products. Chalk up deliverables on a quarterly or annual basis. Get consensus from various figureheads on these items. The plan must be based on the team's strengths as much as the market requirements. The plan must align with management objectives. Although daunti
ng at first, persistence and focus will help paint a solid road map.
Product Marketer - This is an external activity and directly tied with revenue. Requires a steady communication channel with the client base. Needs help from the sales account holder. Requires customer relationship as a prerequisite and hence experience with the customer at some level. Need to understand the customer's road map as much as possible and identify how much of it aligns with the company's own.
Apart from this, the product manager needs to take on additional responsibilities of a sales engineer and a MarCom manager. In bigger organizations, these could be focussed specialist jobs. In smaller organizations, these usually fall under the Product Manager's domain.
Sales Engineer - Most often referred to as Field Application Engineer, the sales engineer helps the sales manager with the requisite technical knowhow while dealing with a customer. Often called during potential project discussion and also to address field issues. In other words, a marketing person with technical thrust who helps the sales manager maintain customer relationships.
MarCom Manager - The flamboyant side to the product marketing portfolio, MarCom, is the networking arm of Product Management. All activities including but not limited to trade show activities, advertisement, presentation, branding, forum representation, white paper management etc. are handled by MarCom managers.
"Even within the high-tech industry where product management is better defined, the product manager's job description varies widely among companies. This is due to tradition and intuitive interpretations by different individuals."
