Product Manager vs. Project Manager in the IT sector: which skills are in demand for these professions

The job site lists approximately 200 open "Product Manager" positions and 600 "Project Manager" positions. According to 2021 data, mid-level product managers earn an average of 500,000 tenge (men) and 400,000 tenge (women). Meanwhile, according to 2022 data, project managers with up to three years of experience earn 520,000 tenge for men and 400,000 tenge for women. However, not everyone can immediately distinguish between these two popular professions with relatively low entry barriers into the IT sector.

The Head Product Manager at Ainews and the Senior Project Manager at Aitube share their observations on the differences between the work of product managers and project managers.

Alena Koptelova, Head Product Manager at Ainews

Darya Tyapugina, Senior Project Manager at Aitube

Who is a product manager

Alena. Globally, this is a person who determines how a product or direction will develop, and is also responsible for the success of implementation and commercial success, if implied by the product. The role and responsibilities of the position depend on the company where the specialist works. In some places, they may own an entire product, while in others, only a part of the functionality of a large product. A product manager is someone who can answer the question of whether the team is truly building the right product for users. In short: a product manager is an intrapreneur.

Who is a project manager

Darya. This is the link between the customer and the team. On one hand, you manage expectations and control deadlines. On the other, you plan, build, and maintain processes, removing barriers to the team's fast work. You do everything so that a new feature is released on time and without bugs.

So, a product manager is about strategy, development, priorities, in general, about the product, while a project manager is about the team, processes, and deadlines.

Skills sets

Alena. Hard skills can be acquired, and the list is publicly available, so there is no need to dwell on them in detail. If we talk about soft skills, I would highlight the ability to listen and hear both users and the team, as well as the ability to negotiate, analyze information, make decisions, and take responsibility.

Darya. Responsibility, stress resistance, critical thinking, the ability to solve problems in conditions of uncertainty. There is a good question to ask yourself or others: "For what?". This helps. Also, a project manager is always a bit of a psychologist to find an approach to everyone. Sometimes you need to praise, sometimes to "wag your finger".

Features of the work of product managers and project managers

Alena. There is no single scenario for organizing work. Most often, this involves working with hypotheses, clients, research, setting and accepting tasks for design and requirements, presenting and agreeing on requirements with the team, working with analysts, sales managers, and stakeholders. And all of this can change every day.

For example, making changes to the product goes through several stages: this is studying metrics and competitors' experience, communicating with users, preparing prototypes, researching and confirming or refuting the changes made. And only after successfully passing the previous steps is the task sent to be described by analysts.

But this is an ideal scenario. In reality, one change may go through a repeat cycle, for example, when users see it in the prototype or when the hypothesis is not confirmed.

Only those changes that have successfully survived the research and confirmation cycle and will bring the greatest contribution to the development of the product reach the analysts and the development team.

Darya. In a nutshell, the essence of the work is conducting standard meetings: dailies, planning, grooming, retrospectives, various syncs.

Dailies are short daily calls to monitor task statuses, grooming is a meeting to discuss and estimate new features, retrospective is a meeting with the team about the problems of the previous sprint, planning is a meeting to plan the team's tasks for the next couple of weeks.

Also, the project manager needs to manage tasks, reporting, solve arising problems, and work on improving team performance.

A simple example: if the team always closed 50 story points per sprint, and this sprint closed 30, then something went wrong. You start analyzing, break down the main tasks on a diagram, look for "bottlenecks," and discuss them with the team. The reasons can be different: someone from the team caught a cold and was out for a few days, or more urgent tasks came in, and so on. Risks are taken into account in advance, but it is impossible to predict everything.

In addition, we have "online tea parties" for half an hour a week, where we communicate informally with the team. This helps to build trusting relationships and work more comfortably on tasks.

How to choose what fits best

Alena. Most often, people come to product management from other fields, having experience working with projects. For example, from marketing, QA, and project management.

Mostly, these are people who want to try something new, having reached the maximum in their field that they planned. So if you have the thought that you have achieved everything in your area and would like to dive into the world of IT, then you can certainly consider the role of a product manager.

Darya. The role of a project manager suits a person with a technical mindset or education who likes interacting with people. There is no specific portrait. It is always better to try and understand: is it yours or not? As in any other profession.

The work is not monotonous. Every day brings new interesting tasks for which you need to find the optimal solution. This is, after all, work with people, and there are no instructions for this.

Where to learn more about the professions

Alena. If you type "product manager" into a search engine, you can get a lot of information. The question is, what information should you trust? At some point, the profession became hype, and many reviews, publications, and courses appeared that contradict each other. Therefore, if you don't want to get confused, it is better not to do this.

There are several options that I would recommend for the first "evaluative" acquaintance with the profession, in order to understand what kind of profession it is and whether you need it. The number of options you will want to try depends on your curiosity and motivation.

If you have a product manager in your company, make friends with him/her. Watch how he/she works, what he/she does, ask about tasks and the product. This will give you a first understanding of the profession.

Specialized chats, communities, and groups. There are several product manager communities on Telegram – both just channels with information and live chats for communication. There, colleagues in the "product manager" profession ask for advice, communicate, share experience, help each other, and so on. This can be a valuable source of information for you. Feel free to join.

Offline events. When coronavirus came, many such events were canceled and reduced, but they still exist. If you have the opportunity to participate in such events, it is valuable. Thus, you will be able to communicate in person with practitioners and learn more about the profession, tasks, and the company. And then decide whether it suits you or not.

Having tried one or several of the options listed above, you will get an impression of the direction that was of interest, and you will be able to decide for yourself whether it is worth continuing. Otherwise, it will be unpleasant to invest in any courses, and then lose interest, become disappointed in the profession if the expectation and reality do not match.

Darya. First of all, I recommend free introductory courses on Coursera on project management. These courses will well introduce you to the profession and give you the opportunity to form a general understanding of the specialization.

After the courses, you can move on to reading books on project management. For example, Tinkov: "Business without an MBA" and Nikolai Tovarevsky: "Project Management, People, and Yourself". For those who prefer audio content, podcasts and video lessons are available on the Internet.

Project managers should use various tools to perform such tasks as planning, organizing, budgeting, monitoring, and analysis. It is important to use tools most commonly used by project managers in your chosen industry. Popular project management tools include Asana, Trello, and others.

Conclusion

The positions of product manager and project manager have a lot in common. Project managers can become product managers.

University graduates with skills and experience can become product managers immediately after graduation. Product managers must have a good understanding of business and customer needs. Therefore, people often come into the profession with experience in business operations or marketing. Product managers can grow into senior managers or directors of products.

Project managers often start their work in the industry. For example, a software development project manager may have been a software developer in the past. They may also first work as a junior project manager or project coordinator. Project managers can become product managers, senior project managers, and directors of project management.

These are two very flexible and new disciplines. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account that there is no single correct way to become a project or product manager.