There’s been a lot of talk about getting rid of the product management role. Some argue it should be merged with marketing. Others think it will be overtaken by engineering or dissolved into design. As product managers, we believe product management will thrive. But something is broken and we must fix it.
I don't think it’s the product management role we should get rid of, it’s the “management” part of it. Truth is we don’t manage anyone and should not act like we do. By removing the “manager” word from our job title, it will be clear we are focused on enabling other teams as opposed to being their boss.
It's not a new idea. Back then, the PayPal team opted to call the product role “producers” instead of “product managers.” To call them “product managers” would have implied that their job was just to “manage things” as opposed to “make things happen.”
They dropped the “management”. And it’s about time we drop it too. There are as many ways to ship products as there are product teams, but some principles are timeless.
With that, our team came up with "The product manifesto": 15 principles for aspiring product folks.
We want to make it a living document — feel free to add your perspectives here.
