Two Hats, One Product: The Case for Separating PM and PO Roles

Originally published on LinkedIn June 6, 2023

Product Manager and Product Owner celebrating. Image generated by Midjourney AI.

Navigating the intricate labyrinth of product development is challenging enough when wearing one hat. Imagine donning two: the strategic, visionary cap of a Product Manager (PM) and the tactical, detail-oriented hat of a Product Owner (PO). As a PM, you're chartered with deep-diving into market trends, customer behaviors, and competitive landscapes, driving your product's long-term vision and strategy. As a PO, you're rolling up your sleeves to collaborate with your agile teams, turning that high-level vision into a reality through actionable tasks and consistent feature delivery.

This dual role can feel like straddling two fast-moving trains, each going in its own direction. On one side, you're exploring the uncharted territories of customer understanding, where more nuanced insights and empathetic interpretations are required. Conversely, you're embedded in the trenches of execution, where the pressure to deliver features consistently and promptly is palpable. While I've seen product individuals embody both roles, especially at early-stage companies where a tight feedback loop from customer to execution works well, this dual role responsibility leads to serious compromises as the business scales.

In this blog, I will share why separate team members should lead PM and PO roles and what the responsibilities are. Separation of duties will release the tension between needing more time with customers to truly understand their needs and the simultaneous demand for focused attention on feature delivery. And most importantly, I'll discuss strategies to make the transition as smooth as possible to ensure product execution continues effectively to drive your business forward.

Why Separate Product Management and Product Owner Roles?

Separating the roles of Product Managers and Product Owners is vital due to the distinct talents and skills each role requires. PMs operate more at a strategic level, focusing on market trends, competitive analysis, business cases, and overall portfolio management. These responsibilities require a strategic mindset, excellent analytical skills, and a deep understanding of the market and customers. On the other hand, POs work more at a tactical level, translating the product strategy and roadmap into detailed requirements, managing the product backlog, and working closely with the engineering team. These tasks require excellent communication skills, detail-oriented thinking, and a deep understanding of the product and the development process.

The time conflicts that arise when one person tries to fulfill both roles further justify the need for separation. PMs and POs have different priorities and commitments that often conflict. For instance, a PM might need to attend a customer meeting to gather feedback or discuss potential partnerships, while at the same time, the PO is required to be present at daily stand-ups or sprint planning sessions with the engineering team. When one person tries to juggle both roles, they inevitably have to make tough decisions about where to invest their time, leading to compromises and missed opportunities.

Moreover, the breadth and depth of responsibilities that fall under both roles are simply too vast for one person to handle effectively. When the same person is responsible for long-term strategy and day-to-day execution, the sheer amount of work and context-switching often leads to some tasks being neglected. Typically, the more urgent tasks of daily execution get prioritized, while equally important strategic tasks, such as planning and market analysis, are put on the back burner. This imbalance can hinder the product's long-term success and the company's strategic objectives. Hence, having separate individuals dedicated to the PM and PO roles allows for a more balanced and effective approach to product development and management.

Most common issues that you should watch out for:

1. Overload and Burnout: The PM and PO roles are both demanding and require different skill sets. A person trying to fill both roles may become overwhelmed by the volume of work and the need to constantly switch between strategic and tactical tasks, leading to stress and potential burnout.

2. Quality of Work: Given the breadth and depth of responsibilities, the quality of work in both areas may suffer. Maintaining a strategic, market-focused view while managing the day-to-day details of product development is challenging.

3. Slow Decision-Making: Having one person in both roles can slow down decision-making, as all decisions must go through this one individual. Single-person decision-making can slow down the development process and make it difficult to respond quickly to changes or new information.

4. Limited Perspective: It can be challenging for one person to fully understand and represent all the various perspectives involved in product development, from the high-level strategic view to the detailed understanding of customer needs and the day-to-day realities of the engineering team.

5. Neglected Responsibilities: In times of high pressure, one set of responsibilities may take precedence over the other. This could lead to neglecting critical tasks, like long-term strategic planning or detailed backlog management, though it's usually the former because the daily engineering interactions are more urgent.

6. Lack of Focus: Being involved in strategic and tactical product development can dilute the focus. It could become challenging to keep track of market trends, competitor activities, and customer needs while also managing the day-to-day operations of the engineering team.

All these potential issues underline the importance of separating the PM and PO roles in larger organizations or contexts where there is significant work in both the strategic and tactical domains. However, it's important to note that in some contexts, especially smaller organizations or simpler products, having a single person in both roles can work well.

Who has which responsibilities?

Product Manager Responsibilities:

1. Business case rationalization: The Product Manager needs to justify the business case for each product or feature. This involves evaluating the product's potential profitability, strategic fit, and feasibility. Tracking success can be done by reviewing how well the actual product or feature performance aligns with the initial business case projections.

2. Portfolio management: This involves overseeing all the products and add-ons within the scope of the PM's responsibilities for a company's portfolio, ensuring they align with the company's overall strategy and objectives. The performance of the product portfolio can measure success in terms of meeting revenue, adoption, and market share goals.

3. Market segmentation: The Product Manager is responsible for identifying and understanding key market segments for the product. This involves detailed market research and customer profiling, including selecting a beachhead market to drive the initial success of a product or feature.. Success can be tracked through market share growth in identified segments.

4. Competitive analysis: The Product Manager must keep a close eye on competitors, understanding their strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. Success can be tracked through maintaining or increasing market position relative to competitors.

5. Pricing strategy: The Product Manager sets the pricing strategy to balance profitability with competitive positioning and customer value perception. Success can be measured by the product's profitability and its price positioning within the market.

6. Whole product strategy: This involves defining the complete product offering, including core features, support, services, and other components necessary to deliver customer value. Success can be measured by customer satisfaction and product usage metrics.

7. Forecasting: The Product Manager must predict future sales and market trends to guide product strategy. Success can be tracked by comparing forecasted figures with actual results.

8. End-of-life strategy: This involves deciding when and how to retire a product, considering factors like declining sales, high support costs, or strategic fit. Success can be tracked by the smoothness of the transition for customers and the impact on the company's reputation.

9. Defining and communicating the product vision and roadmap: The Product Manager sets the long-term vision for the product and maps out the path to achieve it. Success can be measured by how well the product development aligns with the roadmap and how much the vision resonates with customers and stakeholders.

10. Persona development: The Product Manager creates detailed personas to represent key customer groups, guiding product development. Success can be tracked by how well the product meets the needs of these user personas and satisfies the extended team, such as buyer and procurement, if they are separate people.

11. Identifying customer needs and defining requirements: The Product Manager identifies the user pains and jobs-to-be-done (JTBD), translating these needs into product requirements. Success can be measured by customer satisfaction and product usage metrics.

12. Positioning the product in the market: The Product Manager defines how the product is positioned relative to competitors, typically working with Product Marketing hand in hand to create a differentiated story. Success can be tracked through market share and how customers perceive the product.

Product Owner Responsibilities:

1. Translating product vision and roadmap into detailed user stories: The Product Owner takes the product vision, roadmap, and requirements from the Product Manager and translates them into detailed user stories for the engineering team. Success can be measured by the clarity of user stories and the development team's ability to implement them without extensive clarifications and resulting delays.

2. Ensuring user stories are ready for development and correctly implemented (Definition of Ready and Done): The Product Owner ensures that user stories are fully fleshed out, understood, and ready to be worked on by the engineering team and fully implemented as intended. Success can be measured by the number of user stories returned or requiring clarification during a sprint.

3. Backlog grooming and elaboration: The Product Owner prioritizes and maintains the product backlog, ensuring it reflects the current priorities and themes. Success can be tracked by the engineering team's ability to consistently work on high-priority items and the absence of critical last-minute additions to the backlog.

4. Sprint and Release Planning: The Product Owner works with the engineering team to plan what work will be done in each sprint and to coordinate product releases with extended stakeholders such as marketing, sales, support, and customer success. The number of completed user stories per sprint and successful on-time releases can measure success.

5. Participating in daily stand-ups, retrospectives, and showcases: The Product Owner actively participates in these meetings to ensure alignment between the engineering team and the product roadmap. Success can be tracked by the team's alignment with the product roadmap and ability to deliver on sprint goals.

6. 24/7 availability to support the sprint team: The Product Owner needs to be available to answer questions, make decisions, and remove obstacles for the engineering team. Success can be measured by the team's perception of the Product Owner's availability and helpfulness, as well as the velocity at which the team can work.

7. Managing defects and ensuring they are addressed: The Product Owner tracks and prioritizes defects, ensuring they are addressed in a timely manner. Success can be tracked by the number of outstanding defects and the time it takes to resolve them.

8. Acting as a customer advocate within the engineering team: The Product Owner must ensure that the customer's voice is heard within the engineering team, guiding the product development and tackling tactical feature improvements. Customer satisfaction scores and product usage metrics can measure success.

Consider personality and talents before splitting the PM/PO roles.

The personality characteristics and talents that make for a good Product Manager or Product Owner largely overlap, as both roles require individuals who can work well with others, make decisions, and lead without formal authority. However, some characteristics should stand out as strengths for each role.

Product Manager Personality Characteristics and Talents:

1. Visionary: PMs need to be able to envision the future of their product and create a strategic roadmap to reach that future state. They need to be innovative and forward-thinking.

2. Decisive: PMs often have to make difficult decisions about the direction of their product. They need to be comfortable making these decisions, even when there is uncertainty or incomplete information.

3. Empathetic: PMs need to deeply understand their customers' needs and perspectives. This requires empathy and strong listening skills.

4. Analytical: PMs often need to make decisions based on data. They need to be comfortable working with data and interpreting it to make informed decisions.

5. Influential: PMs often have to lead through influence rather than authority. They need to be able to persuade others and build consensus.

Product Owner Personality Characteristics and Talents:

1. Detail-oriented: POs need to be able to break down large goals into actionable tasks and ensure that these tasks are completed correctly. This requires strong attention to detail.

2. Collaborative: POs work closely with their engineering team and extended stakeholders. They need to be team players who can work well with others.

3. Communicative: POs need to be able to clearly communicate the needs and goals of the product to their team. They also need to be able to facilitate communication between different stakeholders.

4. Adaptable: POs often work in Agile environments, which require flexibility and adaptability. They need to be able to respond to change and adjust their plans as needed.

5. Problem solver: POs often need to help resolve issues that arise during development. This requires strong problem-solving skills and the ability to think on their feet.

This is not an exhaustive list, and each characteristic's importance can vary depending on the specific context of the role. It's also important to note that while these traits can be beneficial, they are not absolute requirements. Many successful PMs and POs may exhibit only some of these characteristics but instead might leverage their unique strengths.

Avoiding the risks and challenges when transitioning to dual PM and PO roles.

Transitioning from a dual PM and PO role to separate teams has its share of risks and challenges. However, by acknowledging and planning for these potential obstacles, organizations can navigate the change more effectively and set the stage for successful PM and PO collaboration. Here are the primary areas of concern that need attention:

Resistance to Change

Change is often met with resistance, especially when it involves altering established roles and responsibilities. Team members may be anxious about the shift in their duties, and there could be concerns about the dilution of authority or the uncertainty of new expectations. It's essential to address these concerns proactively, emphasizing the benefits of the change and providing ample support during the transition.

Role Preference

Only some people want to be a PM or a PO. Consider the team members' preferences, not just skills, when making decisions. Otherwise, you risk alienating some team members and having them potentially leave the company if they end up in the wrong role. Some love strategy, and others love being hands-on with the engineering team, which is ok.

Role Clarity and Overlap

The overlapping responsibilities between PMs and POs can lead to confusion about who does what. Clear definitions of each role and specific responsibilities and decision-making authorities can help prevent misunderstandings. It's also crucial to foster a culture of collaboration where PMs and POs work together seamlessly, balancing strategic vision with tactical execution.

Communication Breakdown

With the introduction of new roles and processes, there's a risk that communication could suffer. PMs and POs must establish efficient and open communication channels between each other and other stakeholders to ensure everyone stays aligned with the product vision and roadmap.

Duplication of Effort

During the initial phase of the transition, there might be a temporary duplication of effort as both the PMs and POs get accustomed to their new roles. This period requires patience and continuous refinement of processes to avoid duplication and ensure a smooth division of labor.

Adjusting to New Tools

If new tools are introduced to support the transition, a learning curve could be associated with their adoption. Training sessions, tutorials, and ongoing support can ease this transition and ensure the tools are used effectively to support the newly separated roles.

While these challenges may seem daunting, they are surmountable with careful planning, transparent communication, and a steadfast commitment to improving the product's function. By addressing these risks head-on, organizations can unlock the full potential of separate PM and PO roles, leading to more efficient product development processes, improved feature delivery, and, ultimately, more satisfied customers.

Conclusion: Embracing the Journey Towards Enhanced Product Management

In fast-paced business environments, the need for nimble, effective product management is more critical than ever. While having a single individual wear both the Product Manager and Product Owner hats may work in some contexts, especially at young startups, the division of these roles becomes increasingly beneficial as an organization grows and the complexities of managing product strategy and execution expand.

Transitioning to separate PM and PO roles is not merely about redistributing tasks; it's a strategic shift that can profoundly impact the product's success and the organization's overall performance. The journey involves careful planning, a clear understanding of each role's distinct responsibilities, and a thoughtful approach to managing the inevitable challenges of change. It requires acknowledging that different individuals may have different strengths and that the synergistic collaboration of strategic and tactical minds can drive more robust product development.

Ultimately, separating PM and PO roles is a transformative process that can lead to a more focused strategic vision, improved feature delivery, and products that resonate deeply with customers.