Coding and Engineering in Product Management
"A product manager needs to be technical."
"Product managers should be able to write code."
"Best product managers have an engineering background".
Let's deconstruct the main misconception in all these statements.
Blackblot has identified four distinct Schools of Thought in Product Management:
- GENERALIZATION approach (product manager does everything, aka CEO of the Product)
- TECHNOLOGY approach (product manager is part of product development and subservient to the development method)
- BUSINESS approach (product manager is focused on the business aspects of the product, primarily money)
- METHODOLOGY approach (product management is governed by foundation rules, as in PMTK)
The Technology approach to product management views the product manager as part of product development and subservient to the software development method.
This mindset fits in well with Scrum interpretations, and according to recent industry reports, over 91% of software development companies use some form of Agile (mostly Scrum).
It is, therefore, safe to assume that a high percentage of at least 70% or more of software development companies employ the Technology approach to product management.
Product managers at these companies are expected to be technically astute, and indeed many are former engineers who perform diverse activities that support product development and occasionally sales.
Their main job focus is to determine product functionality and features and communicate these to product development.
The question if product managers need software programming skills often comes up.
The Technology approach is unsupported and lacks a methodological foundation, and thus it can be invalidated.