Project vs Product management

Welcome to edition #1 of the Minimum Viable Project!

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Project vs Product management in SMBs

Reading time: 2 sips of coffee.

Last summer, I got a call from a client we'll call Robert.

He's a multi-brand ecom company CEO, with total revenue of $42M. It was 4 months until the most important week in the industry: Black Friday & Cyber Monday, but he had a problem.

They were implementing a new email marketing platform, and the project was a mess. In the past week alone, 3 team members said they'd never deliver on time. As we dug in, we found something I see often in fast-growing SMBs, and it's killing projects. Let's dive in:

Don't set the project scope as you go

It was clear in every project team meeting I attended: no one knew exactly what they were building.

Team members disagreed over benefits, features, and priorities while a project manager was trying to make an impossible deadline. This caused confusion and arguments, and the team was close to throwing in the towel.

A clear split between product & project

A clear scope is the foundation of a successful project, but the reality is rarely that straightforward. When introducing a new product or service, you need exploration and iteration, which is hard to plan. 

To find the balance between endless iteration towards perfection and execution in a vacuum, larger organizations separate product management and project management:

Product management

Product managers define the why & what of a product or service, driven by input from the user, over its entire life cycle. They are responsible for the vision, strategy, positioning, and building of a product roadmap that optimizes value for users & company.

Project management

In large organizations, product managers have a dedicated product team for continuous development.

For large releases and new introductions, they have separate project teams. The smaller the organization, the thinner the line between these roles becomes.

Mixing project & product was the source of confusion

In this case, implementing a new email marketing platform included project and product management elements. The company was replacing a legacy system while also introducing new functionalities.

The ideal approach would have been to split the two. First, run a project to replace the old system, and then develop the product further in iterations.

The solution

While SMBs like Robert's can't afford dedicated product teams, he appointed someone as the product owner.

The product owner defined the product's position, vision & strategy together with relevant stakeholders and external help. She then defined a roadmap, set priorities, and started gathering user feedback.

The result

With someone defining the outcome, the project manager could translate the roadmap into a plan, and turn requirements into a scope. Together, they explained their approach and realistic expectations for deliveries.

The platform went live just in time, and the repurchase rate went up by 6% within 3 months!

Takeaways

The first release did not have all the bells and whistles that Robert had envisioned, but he realized he only had himself to blame. For us, there are a few valuable lessons we can draw from this story:

• Separate product development from implementation projects

• Ensure every product, process & system has an owner

• Start every project with clear benefits & outcomes

Defining clear benefits and outcomes at the start of a project is hard. How to do that, and not fall into the trap of executive scoping, is the topic for next week!

Thanks for reading!

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That's it for this week - until next Tuesday!

Cheers,Jasper