One of the key roles on a product team is the product manager. It’s a role I know well, as I’ve been one here at Humana’s Digital Experience Center (DEC) for more than three years.

During this time, I’ve delivered a number of software products, done a lot of reading about product management, paired closely with some great product managers, and attended several conferences, webinars, and presentations. And though I have learned a great deal about product management, I've come to realize that most product managers aren’t very good at describing their roles. It’s true. Check the blogs. Go to a conference. Ask a product manager what their role is all about. You’ll hear a lot about the specific tasks that product managers do (“grooming the backlog,” “guiding the product vision”, etc.) but not much to clarify the role itself. You likely won’t come away with a solid idea of why they’re truly needed on the team.

Not too long ago, though, it hit me: A product manager is an investment manager.

Every software product – whether a startup’s killer app or an internal-facing tool at a big enterprise – is paid for by someone who thinks it will be a good use of their money. Additionally, a wise stakeholder understands that there’s a big gap between a great product vision and actual working software. Countless decisions need to be made when building the product, and each of these decisions, if made poorly, has the potential to sabotage the entire effort. What features will be built, and when? What type of people will constitute the primary users? How and when should the product launch? What types of communications and marketing efforts are needed to help ensure success? Et cetera, et cetera.

Each of these decisions affects how a stakeholder’s money is used, from how the team is spending its time to considerations about hardware and the tech stack. The Product Manager is expected – and empowered – to make these day-to-day decisions regarding the stakeholder’s investment. A product manager who makes intelligent, well-informed decisions will greatly reduce risk, minimize waste, and maximize ROI.

These product decisions are not, of course, made in a vacuum. To the contrary, product managers spend a lot of time interacting with users, communicating with stakeholders, pairing with UX designers and engineers, and researching industry trends. Hypotheses are tested in numerous and iterative experiments. They then synthesize and balance the various learnings, opinions, goals, needs, and preferences to determine what would be the most valuable update to the software at any given time.

Given the rate of change in our industry and in technology in general, there’s a good chance that these decisions will need to be revised on a regular basis. By continuing to monitor the product, interact with users, and make course corrections as needed, a Product Manager will assure a stakeholder that money is always invested wisely.

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