News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

Ask HN: What is the role of Product Manager?

A while ago, I was surfing twitter and noticed a video from 23 year old product manager @Meta. The video doesn't seem to reflect the true role of one such product manager. However, it has a lot of "highlight reel" material. If I were to judge by the video, I would get an idea that product managers do not much.

So what is actual role of product manager?

I am genuinely curious because I come from CS background and even getting an interview for a software engineering internship at such huge company is a pretty big deal for me. So the video felt quite out of place.

Disclaimer: Please google for the link. I do not think it is a good idea to share the link.

( 4 comments | on HN )
Re:Ask HN: What is the role of Product Manager? by PaulHoule on Tuesday October 25, 2022 @02:17PM (#33334242)
To be cynical I think that "Product Manager" is like "Data Scientist" in that it's a title desired by people who want high status but don't want to work, particularly who want the right to cross out any work they don't feel like doing and delegate it to somebody else or maybe it just doesn't get done at all.
Re:Ask HN: What is the role of Product Manager? by diceduckmonk on Tuesday October 25, 2022 @05:08PM (#33336206)
Ensure that engineering works on features that are what customers want. This includes negotiating on refactoring work, and de-risking over-engineering on low priority aspects of the features.
Re:Ask HN: What is the role of Product Manager? by PaulHoule on Tuesday October 25, 2022 @06:12PM (#33336844)
How's that different from a "project manager?"

Also that answer freaks me out a little. It reminds me the time I joined a project that had been circling the drain for 2 years before I arrived and after working on it for six months we had the talk about how each and every ticket had to be justified in terms of how it affected the end user.

I put a ticket in to speed up the build process from 40 minutes to 15 minutes and insultingly I was asked "how does this benefit the user?" and I said "The user would have had the product six months ago if the build was shorter".

People with that kind of attitude are going to be incredulous that the system has it's own needs, that the server needs to be plugged into the wall to have electricity, etc.

Re:Ask HN: What is the role of Product Manager? by maxrf on Tuesday October 25, 2022 @08:50PM (#33338304)
[loosely] a project manager is responsible for process, a product manager is responsible for the end result.