What is the role of a Product Manager?

In Ben Horowitz’s seminal essay ‘Good Product Manager/Bad Product Manager’ he writes “Good product managers know the market, the product, the product line and the competition extremely well and operate from a strong basis of knowledge and confidence”.

A product manager’s role is ultimately to lead, plan and execute successful, impactful product development. The product manager’s responsibility is to analyse, strategise and de-risk the company’s investment into the development of new products/features, through the strong market and customer research, diligent design process and prioritisation of initiatives based on the significance of the opportunity/problem and impact on business performance.

Product Managers are expected to work with a cross-functional team to develop a roadmap of initiatives based on informed hypotheses of which product developments will have the greatest impact on product and therefore business success. The roadmap should reflect and be directly aligned to business strategy.

Top Resources
John Cutler (Amplitude)
https://medium.com/the-creative-founder/the-evolving-product-manager-role-6f288bbc3cda#.t6480u62z