Do you need a product manager, a product owner, or even a project manager?! A thread 🧵 👇

So, you are building your SaaS business and you realise that you need help. Which role should you look for? While I can't completely answer that for you, I can help you understand what the differences are.

Project Manager (PM, PJM)

Project Managers are responsible for delivering a project. This means they are responsible to deliver a defined scope of work within time and budget. And they are responsible for everything to make that happen.

Projects always have an end date and before the project starts it is exactly defined what the result should look like.

Imagine you are planning a wedding. You and your spouse talk to the wedding planner and tell them exactly what you want. You also tell them when the wedding takes place and how much money they can spend on the whole thing. This is a project.

Product Owner (PO)

Is a SCRUM role and actually only exists in the context of building software using SCRUM. Like a SCRUM Master. They are responsible for prioritising the work of the product team.

Concretely, this means they make sure that the highest value user stories are at the top of the backlog and that the user stories are written clear enough, so that the team can take them up and implement them.

Product Manager (PM, PDM)

Responsible for finding the sweet spot for digital product and balancing what users want, what the business needs, and what technology can deliver. They are responsible for finding relevant insights and prioritising the most valuable features.

However, they are not responsible for delivering the software. Product Managers work in agile environments and in these the team is responsible for delivery. This is one of the major differences to a Project Manager.

Next to the facts that products have no end date, no defined scope, no fixed budget. But instead a fixed team and focus continuous improvement.

Hope this clear it up a bit! Let me know if you have questions!