What Is The Product Management Team and Roles?

How to structure your product team

A product management team defines strategy, creates a product roadmap, and tracks product progress. It is made up of a curated mix of cross-functional staff who decide what gets built and how.

By having defined roles with clear ownership, product teams will be able to get clear results. It is vital to structure the team correctly to achieve product goals. The product team can be broken down into four different areas:

Product management

Product management professionals are in charge of the overall product life cycle. They are the go-to people for the product and are aware of stakeholder requirements and customer needs. 

Product management roles can include product management director, group product manager, product owner, product manager, and associate product manager. They have responsibilities such as:

• Establishing the product development strategy and vision
• Planning and delivering product releases
• Brainstorming and curating new ideas
• Defining upcoming product features

User experience (UX)

People in UX design roles are responsible for improving customer experiences and interactions with the product. Their role encompasses software and design sensibilities including visual design, information architecture, user research, and usability. 

UX or user experience roles include UX Director, senior UX manager, UX manager, senior UX designer, product designer, and UX designer. Their key responsibilities are:

• Performing user research
• Designing user story maps
• Conceptualizing and creating wireframes, prototypes, and mockups
• Conducting usability testing

Product analytics

Product analytics focuses on understanding how customers engage with products. Optimize your customer journey by using product analytics to monitor, visualize, and evaluate behavioral and user engagement data.

Product analytics roles comprise product analytics director, senior product analyst, analytics manager, business analyst, and product analyst. A few of their duties are:

• Integrating all data sources
• Conducting market trend research
•  Analyzing and understanding user journeys
• Identifying user pain points and specific behaviors

Product marketing

Product marketing takes a product to market. It drives product demand by clarifying product positioning, deciding on messaging, and devising product launch strategies to help end-users understand the product.

Product marketing is a combination of diverse roles that include product marketing director, senior product marketing manager, portfolio marketing manager, and solutions marketing manager. They have multiple responsibilities, such as:

• In-depth research of competitors
• Defining ideal buyer personas
•  Making launch plans and coordinating with other departments
• Crafting compelling messaging and positioning strategy

How to create the most effective product management roles

Forget a one-size-fits-all product management role. Instead, organize your product team around different products or product lines.

For example, there can be separate technical and functional areas that every team supports – whether a customer segment or a product feature.

Before zeroing in on the product team structure, answer the following questions:

• Who are your ideal target clients, and how do their requirements differ?
• Which business goals must be achieved by your team?
• Do you need to manage multiple product lines and products?
• What are the key functions of your product team?
• What resources will be allocated to every team?

Connect your team structure to product strategy

Every product team needs well-defined roles and a solid organizational structure to perform well. It all starts with a well-laid-out plan defining what you want to achieve. A clear product strategy and vision aid close and dynamic collaboration between teams, irrespective of their structure.

Use Wrike’s robust platform to define your product strategy, make visual roadmaps, and analyze outcomes in a centralized place. Align your product management team and their roles with your organizational strategy to improve product management outcomes.