Where do product managers spend their time?

Over 80% of product managers are monitoring development projects and writing market requirements. In addition, most product managers are involved with researching market needs and creating sales presentations and demos.

The good news from these charts is that over 50% of product managers are building business cases. The business case is the evidence of the product manager's role as a business leader in the company.

Sadly, fewer than 20% of product managers are doing win/loss analysis, which is such a critical input to product planning! Read more about the value of win/loss analysis in Barbara Nelson's "Why are we winning and why are we losing?"

Product Management Activity

Compared to product managers, product marketers should have an emphasis on "outbound" activities. It is interesting, however, that 50% of product marketers also spend time monitoring development activities, indicating that the product management and product marketing roles are not consistently defined by inbound vs. outbound activities.

As sales presentations and demos are the #1 activity for product marketers, with nearly half reporting a day or more per week on this activity, this task represents a significant opportunity to increase productivity. If product marketers gain a clear understanding of target audiences and the buyer personas involved in purchasing the company's products, they can align sales tools directly with the needs of the sales people and their prospects. See the article Don’t Confuse Sales Support with Marketing.

Product Marketing Activity

When placing the two roles side-by-side, it is possible to see where the roles are similar and where they diverge.

Product Management vs. Product Marketing Activity