【翻译】本文由陈菜菜学习并翻译自Marty Cagan的文章《Product Management vs. Product Marketing》，供产品爱好者交流使用。翻译如有所不妥，欢迎指教探讨。

产品管理 vs 产品营销

由Marty Cagan 2007年8月28日发布

标签：产品管理，产品营销，项目管理，产品开发

行业专业人士称，十个产品中的九个产品的发布是失败的，因为它们没有达到自己的目标。我不知道这是否是精确的统计，但我认为相差不远。我坚信大部分的产品发布是考虑不周的。

无数的产品发布循环被浪费，那些产品既不能用也不好用。产品之所以不好，还有很多原因，而我写的每篇文章力图阐述一些原因，但我一直坦言，这些无效发布的根源在于，产品经理的角色在你的公司如何被定义，和你为这个角色所选的人。

这一年多里，我一直酝酿这篇文章。这个话题我想了很久，但我认为最重要的一点是去明白产品经理工作的核心。这很难写，因为我知道去改变一个行业对角色的认识很艰难，甚至去改变行业在说到这些角色时所用的专业用词都很难。

因为充分认识到在很多公司都存在着不同的定义，所以在我们开始之前，为了解释这个话题我将定义一些词汇。首先，我先定义产品经理的角色，他们负责定义那些研发团队即将创造出来产品。我将产品营销人的角色定义为，负责向世界传达这个产品的人。

这两个角色如下，正如你所看到的，他们担任着完全不同的工作。

我认为每一个产品需要一个独立的、负责的产品经理，完成产品的定义（结合产品被描述出来的那些产品需求和用户体验）。

然而，不幸的是，我和一家企业合作时经常遇到三种不同情况中的一种：

1）产品营销或产品经理，其中一个人被指定去负责高水平的产品需求分析，然后产品直接转向研发，忽略了产品需求的细节和很多艰难的抉择，还经常性的忽略用户体验设计（这是早些系列的话题）。

2）定义产品的任务，被分解成由产品营销人员负责高水平商业/产品需求分析、产品经理负责低水平产品需求分析。

3）产品营销人员被要求同时兼顾两个角色，企业有时称这些人为产品经理，有时称为产品营销人员。

这三个情况我们来分开讨论：

·营销导向的产品

这个情况很容易识别。产品团队的其他人员把这个产品经理视为营销资源，认为他/她对创造数据文档、训练销售团队、命名和定价都起了很大作用。但说到定义产品，这个角色的重要性普遍被大打折扣、甚至忽略。多部Dilbert卡通都描述了这个角色，我们也熟知这类产品经理。当他们在营销领域做得很好时，他们尝试去定义一个可用和好用的产品细节，虽然可能已经超出自己能力之外了。这种情况下，但愿能够有团队中的其他人参与并扮演真正的产品经理，有时他/她可能是一个技术领头人，可能是一个设计师，可能是一个经理。如果这个人拥有技能，又有带宽（精力），那么产品依旧可以成功。然而不管怎么说，在这类情况中，产品还是一开始就已经陷入麻烦了。

我第一次在产品管理中败露阵脚就是这种情况中，所以我一开始就想要远离这种角色。但后来我遇到一个人，他向我展示了真正的产品管理是什么样子的。于是，我开始行动去赋予这个角色新的含义，但这是一场艰难的战役，我很快发现了其中的困难。取而代之，我已经致力于表彰成功的产品经理，和重新定义产品经理周围的人。

·两个人，一个角色

这种情况同样容易识别，正如没有独立的产品拥有者所形成的局面。一个产品营销人员（有时在这个领域里被称为创业者）为高水平的商业需求负责，而产品经理为低水平的产品需求负责。这种角色的安排带来的麻烦是，这两者中没有谁真正地拥有这个产品，更重要的是，没有谁认为自己自始至终是为这个产品负责的，何况去履行所有的职责。况且，这种角色设置，来源于对一种错误观点，认为你能够脱离具体的需求，特别是用户体验，去定义高层次的产品需求。当这种角色设置存在时，产品经理们提供的服务在本质上变得模式化，没有让人打起精神的工作容易导致创意的匮乏，很难创造出成功的产品。

很多拥有多重商业单元的大企业引入这种角色安排，还在纳闷为什么他们不能做出顾客喜欢的创新产品。

·一个人，两种角色

合并产品经理和产品营销角色的麻烦是，很难去找到一个能够同时把两种工作完成好的人。每个角色都很重要，需要特殊的技能和天赋。创造一个产品和向世界传达一个产品，是很不一样的。我知道一些特别杰出的人能够胜任两个角色，但这种人特别少，在组织结构中少之又少。进一步说，即使是最简单的产品，产品经理的工作也将是全程营销、全职工作，需要一个特别细心的人。如果你让营销人员负责产品管理的工作，即使拥有两者必须的技能和天赋，也很难有充足的带宽（精力）。

这是软件企业最常见的困难，软件企业本身在为销售团队提供支持就是一项大工程。产品经理们越来越习惯性地以为，那些来自大客户的需求能够简单地传递向销售人员，然后传递到产品经理，最终传递到开发人员。这样认为的结果是几乎不会产生可用和好用的产品。

认识到上述组织安排的缘由固然重要，但我认为很多企业遭受的损失已经比他们预料到更多。他们荒废了整条产品线，顾客不喜欢他们的产品，或是迫不得已而用。

解决这个问题的思路是，在企业中清楚定义产品经理和产品营销两种角色的边界。产品经理有责任细致定义产品，确认产品真正的顾客和用户。产品营销人负责向世界传达产品，管理产品的发布，提供营销渠道和销售产品，领导关键项目（如线上市场）、管理市场项目。

请注明，本文没有丝毫字句能被拿来解释为产品营销不重要。我很清楚，杰出的产品营销能够带来极重要的价值。而这和我在此阐述的产品经理角色不是同个话题。

一般来说，产品经理和产品营销人员需要经常沟通合作，随时在特定的话题交流。在此有两个主要的互动：第一，产品营销人员是向产品经理传达产品需求的来源之一，即使产品需求原本为产品经理所拥有；第二，产品经理是向产品营销人员传达市场信息的来源之一，即使市场信息原本为营销人员所拥有。

不管怎样的任命和组织结构，在伟大的产品背后，我保证你会发现那些负责定义产品的人。记住，不管你研发团队多优秀，没有人（产品经理）告诉他们做什么可用和好用，也将无济于事。

【原文】

Product Management vs. Product Marketing

Posted by Marty Cagan on August 28, 2007

Tags:product management,product marketing,program management,product discovery

Industry pundits claim that 9 out of 10 product releases are failures in that they don’t meet their goals. I don’t know if that’s the exact stat or not,but I bet it’s not far off. I do believe strongly that most releases are ill-conceived. Countless release cycles are wasted on products that are either not useful or not usable. There are many reasons for these bad products, and each article I write is intended to address some aspect, but I have long argued that the root cause of these wasted releases can most often be traced to how the role of product manager is defined at your company, and the capabilities of the people you choose for this role.

I have been meaning to write this article for over a year now. It’s a topic I’ve been thinking about for a long time, but one that I consider critically important as it gets to the core of what the job of the product manager truly needs to be. It is hard to write because I know how tough it is to try to get an industry to change the way it thinks of roles, and even to change the nomenclature it uses in talking about these roles.

Before we get started, to explain this issue I will have to define some terms, fully aware that these definitions will contradict their use in many companies. I define the role of the product manager first and foremost as the person responsible for defining – in detail – the product that the engineering team will build. I define the role of product marketing as responsible for telling the world about this product.

More about each role below, but as you can see, these are extremely different jobs.

To be clear right from the start, I argue that every product needs a single, accountable product manager, responsible for the product definition(the combination of product requirements and user experience that describe the product to be built).

However, unfortunately, all too often when I begin working with a company I encounter one of three different situations:

1) there is a product marketing or product manager titled person responsible for the high-level product requirements, and then the product goes straight to engineering – bypassing detailed product requirements and the many tough decisions that go along with that (and also very often bypassing user experience design, but that’s the topic of an earlier set of articles)

2) the product definition role is split between a product marketing person responsible for the high-level business/product requirements, and a product manager person responsible for the low-level product requirements

3) a product marketing person is asked to cover both roles (and the company sometimes calls these people product managers and sometimes product marketing)

Let’s discuss each of these three problem situations:

- Marketing-driven Product

This situation is pretty easy to spot. The rest of the product team views this person as “the marketing resource” that might be useful for creating datasheets, training the sales force, and coming up with the naming and pricing,but in terms of defining the product, this person is largely discounted and ignored. There are plenty of Dilbert cartoons portraying this person, and we’ve all known this type of product manager. While these people might be great at marketing, they are in way over their heads in trying to define in detail a useful and usable product. In this situation, hopefully someone else on the product team steps in and performs the true product management function,sometimes a lead engineer, sometimes a designer, and sometimes a manager. If that person has the skills, and also the bandwidth, the product may still succeed. More often, however, the product is in trouble right from the start.

My first exposure to product management was with this situation, and it initially kept me from wanting to have any association at all with this role,but then I met a guy that showed me what product management was really all about. So then my reaction was to rename the role to something different, but that’s a battle I soon realized had its own problems, so instead I’ve worked to highlight the successful product managers and work to redefine the role around these people.

- Two People, One Role

This situation is also easy to spot, as there is no single product owner.A product marketing person (sometimes in this model called the “business owner”) is responsible for the high-level business requirements, and a product manager is responsible for the low-level product requirements. The problem is that neither person truly owns the product, and more importantly, neither person feels and behaves like they are the one ultimately responsible for the product. Further, this model is based on a flawed view of software that believes that you can define high-level product requirements independent of detailed requirements and especially the user experience. When you have this model, the product managers become essentially a spec-generation service. It is a frustrating job that tends to stifle innovation, and rarely produces winning products.

Many larger companies with multiple business units evolve into this situation and then wonder why they can no longer come up with innovative products that their customers love.

- One Person, Two Roles

The problem with combining the product manager role with product marketing is that it is very hard to find someone who can do both types of jobs well.Each of these roles is critical, and each requires special skills and talents.Creating a product is much different than telling the world about that product.I have known some truly exceptional people that can excel in both roles, but these people are very rare and as an organizational model it doesn’t scale.Further, for all but the simplest of products, the role of product manager as defined here is an all-consuming, full-time job, requiring a dedicated person.If you ask the product marketing person to cover the product management role,even if the person has the skills and talents required for both, it is unlikely he will have the bandwidth to do both jobs well.

This is most frequently a problem at enterprise software companies where supporting the sales force is a big job in itself, and there is a strong tendency for the product managers simply to pass along (perceived) requirements from the big customers, to the sales reps, to the product managers, and then to the engineers. Almost never results in useful and usable products.

It is important to recognize that there are reasons for each of the organizational models described above, but I argue that the companies are sacrificing far more than they realize. They are wasting entire product release cycles. They are creating products that customers don’t want, or must struggle with to use.

The way out is to clearly define the distinct roles of product manager and product marketing in your company. The product manager is responsible for defining – in detail – the product to be built, and validate that product with real customers and users. The product marketing person is responsible for telling the world about that product, managing the product launch, providing tools for the sales channel to market and sell the product, and for leading key programs such as online marketing and influencer marketing programs.

Please note that nothing in this article should be construed as claiming that the product marketing role is unimportant. I have learned that it is, and great product marketing is extremely valuable. But it has little to do with the product manager role that I have described here.

In general the product manager and product marketing person will communicate often and collaborate occasionally on specific topics, but there are two main interactions. First, the product marketing person will be one of the several sources of input to product requirements owned by the product manager. Second, the product manager will be one of the several sources of input to marketing messages owned by product marketing.

By whatever title or organizational model, behind every great product, I promise you that you will find someone responsible for the definition of that product. Remember that it doesn’t matter how great your engineering organization is if you don’t give them something useful and usable to build.