Product Manager Title Dilemma
Question: "Is 'Product Manager' a job title or a role?"
A job title is only a label to which one or more roles are assigned. Product Manager is the job title given to a job container which holds two or more roles. An alternative wording is that Product Manager is essentially a collective term that is used to describe a combination of roles.
Product management in the technology industry has always experienced varied interpretation as to its character and internal structure. Accordingly, there is just too much inherent ambiguity or variance associated with the title of Product Manager. Therefore, the solution is to abolish the title Product Manager from the corporate lexicon and use the clearer, more understandable and uniform titles of Product Planner and Product Marketer.
Please see the Blackblot Product Management Team Model. This issue is also explained in length in the "Product Management Team Model" chapter in the PMTK Book.
