Product Management is “messenger of the market,” delivering market and product information to the departments that need facts to make decisions. That is why it is not surprising that 21% of product managers report directly to the CEO, acting as his or her representative at the product level. Yet many organizations subordinate the job under one of the other VPs:

• 12% are in Development or Engineering
• 15% are in the marketing department
• 5% are in a sales department

In effect, subordinating Product Management relegates it to a support role for the primary goal of the department. Vice presidents and department heads have a natural inclination to support their primary department. The VP of Development has a primary responsibility of delivering products, so he tends to use product managers as project managers and Development gofers. Product Management soon evolves into a group of Gantt chart experts—project managers. The VP of Marketing owns collateral, sales tools, lead generation, and awareness programs. So this VP uses product managers as content providers to Marketing Communications. And the VP of Sales, focused on new sales revenue, uses product managers to achieve that goal: product managers become “demo boys and demo girls” who support sales people one deal at a time.

As our companies grow larger and become more mature, the company president needs someone thinking about the product we ought to be offering, new markets we could serve. The company president needs someone thinking about the future of the product. We already have people focused on product, promotion and place. Who—if anyone—is identifying market problems for the next round of products? Who is the VP of market problems? And what result does the president want from Product Management?

Increasingly we see companies creating a VP of Product Management, a department at the same level in the company as the other major departments. This VP focuses the product management group on the business of the product. The product management group interviews existing and potential customers, articulates and quantifies market problems in the business case and market requirements documents, defines standard procedures for product delivery and launch, supports the creation of collateral and sales tools by Marketing Communications, and trains the sales teams on the market and product. Product managers should never be involved with one customer or one salesperson.

Product Management looks at the needs of the entire business and the entire market.

Recognizing that existing and future products need different levels of attention, some companies split the product management job into smaller bits: one group is responsible for next year’s products while another group provides sales and marketing support for existing products. These companies often add a product marketing component to the marketing communications effort, supporting them with market information and product content. As we grow ever larger, the product marketing role expands further: we still need a group defining our go-to-market strategy and providing content to Marketing Communications, but now we also need more marketing assistance in the field. So field marketing is born: product marketing people in the sales regions create specific programs for all of the sales people in a given geographic area.

As companies grow, the product management role entails three or four functions: product strategy, technical product management, product marketing and field marketing. It is a big job. In a small company, all of these functions are performed by one person. In large companies, they are performed by four departments. But they are all part of product management.

Yet when we hire a new product manager, one of two things happen quickly: the product manager imposes some well-needed discipline, helps the company run like a business and becomes a respected member of the product team. Or the product manager becomes the source of the best demo and is rarely effective in any other role.

Product Management’s reporting structure corresponds to the results the company can expect from Product Management. In Development, product managers shepherd the development projects; in Marketing, they provide technical content; in Sales, they become demo boys and girls.

If you want better products in the future, if you want a messenger for the market, Product Management should have a seat at the senior executive table; you need a VP of Product Management.

Why we need to evolve from ST:TOS to ST:TNG

I have found that the key to success in technology companies is an understanding of Star Trek. Most engineers, developers, and technical people are familiar with these characters. Perhaps the Star Trek characters are most familiar because we work with them every day. The characters of Star Trek give us the typical personas in a technology company.

If you were not a fan of Star Trek and need to get acquainted quickly, go rent the movies numbered II, IV, and VI. If you never watched ST:TNG, you'll also need to get Star Trek: First Contact or Star Trek: Insurrection. Now you're reasonably up-to-speed on both series. With Star Trek fresh in your head, consider your company.

Is your company The Original Series or The Next Generation?

Of course, everyone can equate Spock with the typical developer: quite logical without emotion, using facts and reason to draw conclusions. Spock is willing to spend hours on a problem despite pressure to make a quick decision. As we saw in Star Trek IV (the one with the whales), Bones implored Spock to make a guess. Spock: “Guessing is not in my nature.” Yet in many cases, a development “guess” is adequate to make decisions.

Unfortunately, sales people are often like Captain Kirk: action without thought, asking for the impossible and frequently violating the prime directive. Meanwhile, Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy is like many marketing people: emotion without logic, frequently complaining about what they aren’t: “Damn it, Jim. I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer.” Thankfully, we have Scotty as a stand-in for our product managers. Scotty initially tells Kirk that whatever he wants is impossible and fifteen minutes later, says, “Okay, you’ve got warp drive.”

Where is the president in all of this? Back at Starfleet, without a clue of what is really happening in the field. Alas, in many companies, the sales people are running the show; the VP of Sales is really the COO.

As our company grows, we need to evolve to be more like Star Trek: The Next Generation. Here we have Captain Picard, acting as our president; Commander Riker is our sales people. Data, in the development role, continues to use logic, as Spock did, but attempts to understand the human elements of man, as Spock rarely did. Beverly Crusher, in the marketing role, is a good doctor, as was McCoy, but she also understands the business of the starship, can and does serve as an executive officer with understanding of all roles, and uses scientific metrics to evaluate the health of the crew.

In “Relics” (Episode #130, Season 6) Scotty has survived for three quarters of a century by keeping himself suspended in molecular limbo in the ship’s transporter system. When he and Geordi La Forge attempt to work together, Scotty listens in horror as Geordi delivers an accurate assessment of the situation to Captain Picard and Commander Riker.

SCOTT: (Shocked) “Ye didna tell him how long it was really going to take you?”

GEORDI: (irritated) “Of course I did.”

SCOTT: “Oh... Laddie. You’ve got a lot to learn if you want them to think of you as a miracle worker.”*

*source: http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/nextgeneration/season6/tng-604.txt

Here is the difference: Picard can be trusted with accurate information while Kirk cannot. Picard never makes promises that his crew cannot keep while Kirk frequently does. And the crew knows it… in both cases. The “old school” acts more on instinct and hope while the next generation acts on procedure and knowledge.

Is your company like the Next Generation or stuck in the Original Series?

Steve Johnson is an expert in technology product management. He works for Pragmatic Marketing as an instructor for the top-rated courses Practical Product Management and Requirements That Work.  Steve is also a frequent presenter for various technology marketing forums throughout the United States and Europe, author of many articles on technology product management, and the writer at the productmarketing.com blog.