Program Manager vs Product Manager

Question

What is the difference between a Program Manager and Product Manager? Is there actually a difference in the roles/responsibilities or our the terms mostly used interchangeably.

Answer 1

The difference is usually that the program manager handles the whole series of related products, their schedules, budgets, etc, and the product manager handles just the internals of a particular product such as scheduling of individual components and dividing team tasks, as well as leading the particular product team.

Usually, product managers report to the program manager, and the program manager has the final say on budgeting for each product team and the scheduling. The product manager then takes the resources he or she has and divides them amongst the team, coordinating the team's efforts.

Answer 2

They're different. But definitions will vary between companies.

Generally a product manager has ownership for a specific product. He or she is responsible for working with the customers, sales people, engineers and sr management to figure out what is the best product to be created, determining the time schedule, features, etc.

The program manager is often more of a support person, keeping all the wheels turning, especially working with specialized groups such as manufacturing.

In other firms, the program manager is senior to the product managers, with responsibility across a series of products.

Answer 3

Depends entirely on the company. Microsoft, for instance, has its own rather unusual definitions:

• Program Manager = one of the members of the core technical staff (alongside developers and testers). Typically responsible for designing & specifying features, planning release cycles, triaging bugs, presenting at technical conferences, managing compliance with technical regulations (internal & governmental), connecting with online communities, and more.

• Product Manager = basically a synonym for "marketing suit." They design the product's ad campaigns, sales website, and related swag. More generally, they define the "message" that they hope people (mainstream media, word-of-mouth, and everything in between) will associate with each release.

Both positions gather a lot of data about where the market is heading -- Program Managers from their relationship with the technical community, Product Managers from their industry & media contacts -- but the ultimate decisions about what to build are made by someone higher in the chain. (not the nitty gritty, of course; Program Managers & UX designers are the experts at specifying the details. thinking more of "vision" / "value props" that individual product subunits then go "align" themselves toward)

Answer 4

At a former employee of mine that did both defense contracting and product development, program managers and product managers had a peer relationship on the organizational chart and were both subclasses of "project manager".

• Program managers were project managers that managed the projects associated with on-going government programs with which we either had direct contracts or were working as subcontractors under another organization. A large enough program could have multiple project managers working under the direction of a program manager.
• Product managers were project managers that managed work associated with product development -- this included the "product owner" role associated with Scrum.

Answer 5

Product managers are the voice of the customer and are accountable to two things: profit & loss of a product or product line and positioning. Product managers are a horizontal role and work as mini-CEO for their product.

Since a product is "what people think you sell," product managers generally have influence over anything that impacts that idea from customer experience to technical definition.

Program managers are project managers that are responsible for several projects related to a specific initiative.

Answer 6

My trick is to change "manager" to expert and see how the titles work. So a product manager becomes a product expert; a project manager is a project expert. See "managers as experts" at http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/publications/topics/06/0603sj

A product manager ensure product profitability by finding and quantifying market problems. He or she defines the business, technical, and marketing artifacts to move an idea to the market and to profitably revenue.

Answer 7

AIPMM and PMI have both defined unique knowledge areas (KA) associated with their professions that can answer this question. Both product and program managers must master their unique KAs and manage the activities and deliverables associated with them in order to successfully complete their products or programs.

PMI has defined 9 unique project management KAs required to manage projects and programs. They are: Integration, Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, Resources, Communication, Risk and Procurement. Programs are collections of related projects but still require mastery of the 9 unique project management KAs.

AIPMM has defined 6 unique product management KAs as part of a universal, cross-industry Product Management Framework (PMF) required to manage products. They are: Customer, Strategy, Product, Market, Business, and Program. The Program KA involves the management those cross-functional projects required to bring products to market. (and very often the Program Manager is a member of the cross functional product management core team).

Hopefully this explanation has introduced some clarity and consistency into the discussion. For more information on the AIPMM unique KAs and the PMF, go to the www.AIPMM.com web site and download the APMF whitepaper.