Whatisproductmanagement?
and what will it look like in the future?
Butfirst,
WhyAreweaskingthisquestion?
we’re witnessingsomepowerful
technologytrends…
“Softwareiseatingtheworld”
-Marcandreessen
“thebusinessplansofthenext10,000startups
areeasytoforecast:TakeXandaddAI.Thisis
abigdeal,andnowit’shere.” 
— KevinKelly
Mobile,IOT,ai…
PRODUCTKEEPSEVOLVING
AND,
thecraftofProductmanagement
Doeslikewise
TheProductNetworkintechTODAY:
Courtesy: Daniel Schmidt, productlogic.org
=MANYDifferentflavours
ofproductmanager.
• TheGeneralistProductManager
• TheBusinessProductmanager
• ThedesignerProductmanager
• THETECHNICALProductmanager
Wikipediasays:
Let’sasksomerealproductpeople
instead
GETTHEBESTPRODUCT,DESIGNANDIOTUPDATES
HEREEACHWEEK
“I think Product Management is the art of
helping your team and company ship the right
product to your users.”
Josh Elman 

Partner at Greylock
Hunter Walk

Partner at Homebrew VC
“Product Management is: Building.
Communicating. Helping. Simplifying.
Collaborating. (Sometimes) Crying. Leading.”
“Product Management fills the white space and
manages the tensions that exist between
business, technology, and design.”
Daniel SchmidtVP
Product, MDSave
“Product Management is investigating what
users really need and then working within a
team to figure out how to best meet that need
within cost and time constraints.”
Tristan Kromer 

Lean Startup Coach and
Adviser, TriKro
"A good Product Manager is a scientist,
armchair psychologist, and janitor in cross
functional teams. Ever curious, open to new
ideas, perceptive, listens, and evolves through
time. Someone who helps their team
understands what it is they should build and
how to build it as efficiently as possible while
keeping everyone as happy as possible."
Bo Ren

Product Manager, Facebook
"Product management drives the vision,
strategy, design, and execution of the product.
While one can often quickly comprehend the
basic responsibilities of the role, mastering
each of these dimensions is truly an art form
that one is constantly honing.”
Sachin Rekhi 

Former Director of Product,
LinkedIn
“In my experience, what defines successful
product management is not how much
understanding of UX or business or tech
exists, but how much care about the
customer exists. If the work delivers real value
to the customer then elements like aesthetics
and performance will be have been
addressed.”
Richard Banfield
CEO, Fresh Tilled Soil
TosumTHINGSup..
Productmanagementismulti-faceted.
ITincorporatesuserexperience,businessand
technicalelements.
Customer Technology
Business
Product
Management
Martin Eriksson
But,ITHASaUNIVERSALobjective:
TomakesureaproductofvalueisSHIPPEDtoit’s
CUSTOMERS.
Let’salsobustafewmythsaboutproductmanagement
Productmanagementis:
Not “Product Marketing” or “Program Management”
Not a “new thing” in Tech
Not “kinda like UX Design”
So,Whataboutthefutureofproductmanagement?
Willproductkeepaseatattheexecutivetable?
WilltheproductManagerrolebecomemoreclearlydefined?
Willproductmanagersbephasedoutcompletely?
WilltheChiefiotofficerarrive?
Let’saskourproductfriendswhat
theythink...
“Product is about figuring out what to build,
and in the indefinite future I don’t see that role
going away, however, the techniques will
continue to evolve and improve.”
Marty Cagan 

Partner, Silicon Valley
Product Group
“There will be more discussion of how to
structure & align Product Management teams
effectively, particularly around tech, UX,
business "flavors" of PM. There will also be more
discussion on the differences between software,
hardware, IoT, medical etc Product Managers.”
Ellen Chisa 

VP Product, Lola
“In the future, product management will look just like
it did in the past. People will be excited about new
technologies, and we'll just keep asking 'why should
we build this?' and 'how will this benefit our users?'"
Nick Fassler 

Product Management,
Asana
“Eventually, PM and UX will merge. PMs will
define the user journey and goals of a
product, while algorithms sorting through A/B
testing results, eye tracking, and sentiment
analysis will determine how to best produce
that user journey.”
Tristan Kromer 

Lean Startup Coach and
Adviser, TriKro
“Great product managers in the future will have to
spend more time understanding the human
problems they are solving than the technology
they are solving those problems with”
Josh Elman 

Partner at Greylock
“In the future, product managers will (a)
embrace bots as team members and (b) let go
of the delusion that the future of their product
can be predicted or mapped.”
Daniel SchmidtVP
Product, MDSave
"Product management will go beyond just
engineering solutions and launching products.
Product management will be about creating a
human layer on top of technology. PMs need to
understand user psychology, walk a 1000 miles in
their user’s shoes, and build deep emotional
connections to their products.”Bo Ren

Product Manager, Facebook
"Product management is still in it's infancy, still
grappling with what the basic responsibilities of
the role in technology companies are. Over time
though we'll stop looking inward for understanding
and spend more of our time looking outward (of
the industry) for inspiration in building truly great
products by synthesizing ideas from art,
humanities, hard science, psychology, and more.”
Sachin Rekhi 

Former Director of Product,
LinkedIn
Someinterestingandvariedinsights:)
Andalthoughwecan’tpredictthefuture...
Wecansurmise,
Thatproductmanagementwillembracenewtechnologies
whilstconnectingmoredeeplytohumanproblems.
Get the best product, design and IoT updates
here each week
Thanksforstoppingby!

What Is Product Management?