The Wikibook Marketing has a page on the topic of Product_Development

Product management is an organizational lifecycle function within a company dealing with the planning or forecasting or marketing of a product or products at all stages of the product lifecycle.

Product management (inbound focused) and product marketing (outbound focused) are different yet complementary efforts with the objective of maximizing sales revenues, market share, and profit margins. The role of product management spans many activities from strategic to tactical and varies based on the organizational structure of the company. Product management can be a function separate on its own and a member of marketing or engineering.

While involved with the entire product lifecycle, product management's main focus is on driving new product development. According to the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA), superior and differentiated new products ' ones that deliver unique benefits and superior value to the customer ' is the number one driver of success and product profitability.^[1]

[edit] Aspects of product management

Depending on the company size and history, product management has a variety of functions and roles. Sometimes there is a product manager, and sometimes the role of product manager is held by others. Frequently there is Profit and Loss (P&L) responsibility as a key metric for evaluating product manager performance. In some companies, the product management function is the hub of many other activities around the product. In others, it is one of many things that need to happen to bring a product to market.

Product management often serves an inter-disciplinary role, bridging gaps within the company between teams of different expertise, most notably between engineering-oriented teams and business-oriented teams. For example product managers often translate business objectives set for a product by Marketing or Sales into engineering requirements. Conversely they may work to explain the capabilities and limitations of the finished product back to Marketing and Sales. Product Managers may also have one or more direct reports such as a Product Executive who can manage operational tasks or a Change Manager who can oversee new initiatives.

[edit] Product planning

• Identifying new product candidates
• Gathering market requirements
• Determine business-case and feasibility
• Scoping and defining new products at high level
• Evangelizing new products within the company
• Building product roadmaps, particularly Technology roadmaps
• Working to a critical path and ensuring all products are produced on schedule
• Ensuring products are within price margins and up to spec
• Product Life Cycle considerations
• Product differentiation
• Detailed Product planning
• 7 functions of marketing

[edit] Product marketing

• Product positioning and outbound messaging
• Promoting the product externally with press, customers, and partners
• Conduct customer feedback and enabling (pre-production, beta software)
• Bringing new products to market
• Monitoring the competition
• more detail on Product marketing

[edit] See also

• Technology roadmap
• Brand management
• Crossing the Chasm
• Marketing management
• Product (business)
• Product catalogue management
• Product documentation
• Product lifecycle management
• Product manager
• Product marketing
• Product planning
• Requirements management
• Software product management
• Service product management
• Product teardown
• Enterprise^{[disambiguation needed]}

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• PDMA: Product Development and Management Association
• AIPMM: Association of International Product Marketing and Product Management