《Behind Every Great Product---每一个伟大产品的背后》（33000字）

Introduction

Every member of the product team is important. To succeed, a company must design, build, test and market the product effectively. That said, there is one role that is absolutely crucial to producing a good product, yet it is often the most misunderstood and underutilized of all the roles. This is the role of the product manager.

In this paper we discuss the role and responsibilities of the good product manager, and then we look at the characteristics of good product managers, where to find them, and how to develop them.

产品团队的每个成员都是重要的。为了成功，一个公司必须有效地设计，构造，测试和销售产品。也就是说，有一个角色对生产出好的产品是绝对至关重要的，然而，它往往是所有角色中最被人误解和未起到足够作用的。这个角色就是产品经理。

在本文里，我们将探讨一个好的产品经理的角色和职责，以及去发现好产品经理的特征，和到哪里发现他们，如何开发他们。

The first confusion that we often encounter when looking at the product manager role is that it is often referred to by another name or it is lumped in with another role: program manager, product marketing, project management, engineering management, or sometimes in small companies, a founder or executive.

At Microsoft, and at a few other companies, the role of product manager as we use it here is known as a program manager². To confuse things further, Microsoft also has a role known as the product manager, but that is what most refers to as product marketing. 

We also find some companies using the old-school definition of product manager, which is essentially the brand manager concept from the consumer packaged goods industry. This is primarily the product marketing function under the title of product manager.

Yet by whatever title or organizational alignment, behind every great product you will find a good product manager, in the sense we describe here. We have yet to see an exception to this rule.

The problem with combining the product manager role with another role, such as product marketing or project management, 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. We have known some truly exceptional people that can excel in both roles, but these people are very rare.

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 or project manager to cover the product management role, even if the person has the skills and talents required for both, it is unlikely she will have the bandwidth to do both jobs well. Further, for large product efforts, it is not uncommon to find a team of product managers.

The most common problem we have seen is that a product marketing person is asked to fulfill the role of product manager, and while this person might be outstanding in terms of product marketing skills and talents, creating a product is much different than telling the world about that product. The rest of the product team comes to view this person as simply “the marketing resource” that is useful for gathering market requirements from customers or from the sales force, and serving as the interface between the product development organization and the customers. While this model may yield useful market requirements, these are not the same as useful product requirements.

Hopefully someone else on the product team steps in and performs the true product management function, sometimes a lead engineer, 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.

Let us look now at exactly what the product manager is responsible for:

我们经常遇到的第一个困惑是当我们看到一个产品经理角色的时候，经常会联系到其它的名称，或者和其它的角色混为一谈：程序经理，产品营销，项目管理，工程管理，或者有时在小公司，就是创始人或者执行官。

在微软，以及在其它公司，我们所使用的产品经理角色被称为是程序经理。这进一步混淆了这个角色，微软也有一个角色被称为是产品经理，但是那更多指的是产品营销。

我们也发现一些公司使用传统的产品经理定义，这本质上是来自于消费包装类行业的品牌经理。这主要是因为产品经理的头衔下有产品营销的职能。

然而，无论何种头衔或者组织定义，你都会在每一个伟大产品的背后发现一个好的产品经理，在这儿，我们就以这种意义来描述。当然，我们也能看到这个规则的例外。

把产品经理角色和其它角色（例如产品营销或者项目管理）合二为一的问题在于找到能够胜任这两类工作的人是非常困难的。这些角色中的任何一个都有着苛刻的要求，都需要特殊的技能和才能。我们也知道一些能够胜任这两个角色出类拔萃的人，但是这类人是非常稀少的。

进一步讲，所有产品，除了最简单的产品，产品经理都被定义为是全身心投入，全职，需要专注的一个人。如果你要求产品营销人员或者项目经理涵盖产品管理的角色，即使这个人两者所需的技能和才能，他也未必有足够的时间做好所有的工作。进一步说，在大型产品中，发现一个产品经理团队也是屡见不鲜的。

我们看到的最常见的问题是产品营销人员被要求充当产品经理的角色，即使这个人有卓越的产品营销技能和才能，但是，创造一个和把产品告诉世界是有着很大不同的。产品团队的其他人会把这个人做为简单的“营销资源”用来从客户或者销售团队那里收集市场需求，在产品开发组织和客户之间充当接口。这种模式或许能产生有用的“市场需求”，但这和有用的“产品需求”是不一样的。

我们也希望产品团队中的某人介入并扮演真正产品管理的职能，有时是一个工程领导，有时是一个经理。如果这人具备这些技能，并且有足够的时间，这个产品或许会成功。但更多的情况是这个产品从开始就陷入了麻烦中。

现在，让我们看看产品经理真正应该对什么负责：