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Interestingly, author thinks these points may not be relevant today. What has changed?

Warning: This document was written 15 years ago and is probably not relevant for today’s product managers. I present it here merely as an example of a useful training document.

http://a16z.com/2012/06/15/good-product-managerbad-product-m...

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As an active PM, I can't really spot anything that would make any of these points irrelevant today. One thing I did note, though, is that PM concept is not so widespread as one may think. Dilution of power in large functional organizations often means that such a "small CEO" is not necessarily welcomed.

I would go so far as to say that outside of technology companies the concept of a product manager is almost completely foreign. Instead, the "small CEO" is usually the business project or portfolio manager, which is often a role completely separate org-wise from the IT folks doing the work. On the one hand, the justification for this is "better business alignment", but that's just a lazy way of justifying the nepotism and political wrangling that marginalize IT organizations as purely a cost center rather than a revenue enabler.

Source: spent 15 years in "big IT", in roles from programmer up to senior director, and this is why I left.

Last night I mentioned the idea of a dedicated product manager to our CEO, who responded that the CTO will ultimately be responsible for that area. It's interesting, but I'm not convinced the roles and skillsets are adequately aligned.

CTO cannot be the product manager. A product manager must align technology with market, and does so by providing the correct input to the technology group. CTO must focus on execution and innovation, while a product manager focus on what needs to be executed and how to align innovation with the market. It's different skillsets, indeed, and they are rarely aligned.

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