What is Product Management all about?
Why no two product managers do the same thing — and what you really need to know about the role.
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If you ask ten product managers what product management is, chances are you’ll get ten different answers. Sure, there’ll be a lot of overlap — but everyone has their own way of defining it.
To make things more confusing, there’s a whole bunch of roles that sound similar: product owner, product manager, CPO, head of product, and so on. And it’s just as important to understand where the product manager’s responsibilities end and those of project managers, marketing managers, and other roles begin.
So yeah, there are a lot of questions. Let’s try to answer the most important ones — in a way that even my mom could get it. :)
So what does a Product Manager actually do?
Here are some of the most popular answers:
One of the most well-known definitions comes from Marty Cagan in his book INSPIRED (which I highly recommend — here’s the link). He says the main goal of a product manager is to discover a product that is valuable, usable, and feasible. Of course, the final product is a result of the whole product team’s effort, but the PM is responsible for value and viability risks. Still, if you haven’t read the book, this definition might feel a bit abstract.
Another simple take: a product manager is someone who comes up with new ideas and makes sure they get built. Sounds clear, right? Take Juicero, for example. In 2013, they had a new idea for a juicer, launched it in 2016, and raised $120 million (even Google backed them!). But by 2017, they shut down and filed for bankruptcy. The idea was interesting. The execution was fine. The only problem? Nobody actually needed the product.
Some say the product manager is a strategist — someone who drives the planning, development, and launch of a product or service. Another solid definition. Remember MySpace? It was the world’s biggest social network from 2005 to 2009, and News Corporation bought it for $580 million. But by 2011, it had lost most of its users to Facebook and was sold for a fraction of the price. The CEO of MySpace, Chris DeWolfe, later admitted: “Fox Interactive Media tried to monetize the site without understanding the user experience.”
One more take: the PM is the bridge between development, marketing, and sales. They research the market, talk to users, study their needs, and define the product’s direction. Now we’re getting somewhere. Take Zappos, the online shoe retail giant. It launched in 1999 and was later acquired by Amazon for $1.2 billion. But in 2003, it was this close to going under. Sales and product-market fit matter, sure — but so does unit economics. If you want to learn more about how Zappos survived and became a billion-dollar company, check out Tony Hsieh’s book Delivering Happiness (link here).
As you can see, all of these definitions are both accurate and not quite — at the same time. Even if we boil it down to something simple, like:
"A product manager’s main job is to deliver the biggest business impact (measured in metrics and ultimately, money) with the least amount of resources" — we’d still leave room for debate.
Why? Because companies (and their products) go through different life stages. And the role of a PM changes depending on what stage the product is in, what the team looks like, and what strategic goals the company is aiming for.
Product Lifecycle and the Evolving Role of a PM
1. Product Introduction / Go-to-Market Stage (Startup mode)
Goal: Build the product and launch it.
PM’s Role: Gather context. Understand the market. Figure out what’s even going on and where the business should grow (what niche to target). This means a ton of customer research, digging into pain points, experimenting with MVPs, and quickly adapting to real-world feedback.
👉 This is where Design Thinking skills really shine (check out my article on that).
🔍 Focus: Opportunity Discovery
Main question: What are we building, and why?
2. Growth Stage
Goal: Scale fast and expand.
PM’s Role: Now we know the game we’re playing. We understand our market and our audience. There’s a vision, a strategy, and a list of initiatives that should take us to our desired future. Key focus areas now are acquiring new users, retaining existing ones, and staying ahead of the competition.
👉 You'll need Roadmapping and Prioritization skills (articles on those coming soon 😉).
🔍 Focus: Product Planning
Main question: How are we building it, for whom, and when?
3. Maturity Stage
Goal: Maintain market share.
PM’s Role: At this stage, the company may not just have one product, but an entire portfolio. Still, the core product has a stable audience and a clear business model. The job now is to maximize profit while defending market position and fighting off declining interest. It’s all about cutting through the noise, focusing on what matters most, and delivering efficiently.
👉 Expect to spend time on both roadmaps and backlogs. You'll also lean heavily on Product Delivery skills and tools (again, see my article for more).
Main question: How can we hit our business goals while spending as little as possible?
4. Decline Stage
Goal: Find the smartest path forward.
PM’s Role: There’s no universal playbook here. As Tolstoy put it, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
You might need to revisit any of the skills above — searching for untapped opportunities, testing wild new hypotheses, pivoting the product, or tweaking the business model to fix the unit economics. Anything goes.
All of this, of course, is a simplification — every company is unique, and context matters a lot. My goal here isn’t to give you a rigid framework, but to show how dramatically different the PM role can be depending on the product's lifecycle stage.
And if you’re wondering what exactly I mean by terms like Opportunity Discovery, Product Planning, or Product Delivery, check out my article
👉 Double vs. Triple Diamond: Why two Product Diamonds aren’t always enough — it breaks them down in detail.
Core Competencies of a Product Manager
While the tasks and responsibilities of a product manager may shift depending on a company’s stage of growth, there are some core competencies that are essential no matter where you work:
Prioritization – The ability to identify what matters most and focus your team’s energy on the highest-impact tasks.
Customer Research/Development – Understanding customer needs, behaviors, and pain points through interviews, surveys, and observation.
Strategy & Vision – Defining long-term product goals and connecting them to a clear roadmap.
Product Discovery – Spotting opportunities, testing hypotheses, and validating new ideas.
Analytical Thinking – Making sense of data and using it to drive smart decisions.
Communication Skills – Collaborating with cross-functional teams, aligning stakeholders, and clearly articulating the “why” behind every decision.
I go into more detail on each of these in my blog — feel free to check it out!
But here’s the thing: while these competencies are critical, how you apply them depends a lot on the company’s size, hierarchy, market, and product portfolio. That’s why product roles can look so different from one company to another — just like I mentioned at the beginning of this article.
If you're curious about all the nuances — and especially about how to break into product management and build a successful career — don’t miss my deep dive on this topic (link coming soon).
And finally, if you’ve ever wondered about the differences between Product Manager vs Project Manager vs Marketing, you’ll want to read my article about the “horizontal hierarchy” in tech companies — it breaks it all down in a way that actually makes sense (link coming soon too 😉).
What are the key skills every product manager needs?
Traditionally, this skillset is split into two big buckets: Hard Skills and Soft Skills.
🧠 Hard Skills (What you do)
Data Analysis – Knowing how to work with data and interpret insights using different analytics tools.
UX/UI Design Basics – Understanding the fundamentals of user experience and interface design.
Technical Literacy – Grasping the basics of how software is built, including architecture and development flow.
Financial Modeling – Understanding unit economics and being able to forecast outcomes.
Product Management Tools – Confident use of tools like Jira, Trello, Asana, and more.
Customer Research – Knowing how to run and apply different types of user research in real scenarios.
🧑🤝🧑 Soft Skills (How you work)
Communication – Clearly conveying your ideas to the team and stakeholders.
Leadership – Inspiring and aligning the team around a common goal.
Problem Solving – Navigating ambiguity and solving complex challenges.
Adaptability – Embracing change and quickly learning new tools or approaches.
Empathy – Understanding the needs and emotions of both users and teammates.
Creativity – Staying open to new ideas and exploring unconventional solutions.
A product manager’s toolkit is diverse. Here’s a quick snapshot of popular tools I’ve personally used throughout my career:
Each team and company uses a different mix — the key is to stay flexible and learn the ones that matter most in your context.
Wrapping up
Product management is a dynamic and multi-faceted profession that requires a mix of skills and competencies.
The role of a product manager evolves with the product’s life cycle and the company’s context, but the core mission always stays the same:
build a product that solves real user problems and drives business success.
In the early startup stage, a PM is more like a researcher — exploring markets, testing hypotheses, and quickly adapting.
In the growth phase, the PM becomes a strategist — shaping direction, setting priorities, and building scalable plans.
During maturity, the focus shifts to retaining market share, optimizing processes, and maximizing profit.
And when the product hits decline, the PM often takes on a crisis-manager role — searching for pivots, improvements, or new opportunities.
To do all this well, you need a blend of technical know-how, analytical thinking, leadership, and emotional intelligence. That’s what makes product management one of the most challenging and rewarding careers in modern business.
If you want to succeed as a product manager, you have to stay curious, keep learning, and be ready to evolve. But most importantly — you have to love your product and truly believe in its potential.
In the end, product management is both an art and a science. It’s a profession for people who thrive at the intersection of data and human behavior, who take ownership, and who are always pushing for better.
Thanks for reading — and for being part of Atomic Product.
Keep building, stay kind, and catch you soon 🫶
— Dmytro