The ABC of Product Management in My Ideal Organisation

The second article of many in "The ABC of Product Management" series. My take.

See, the trouble with me is that I have already worked in my ideal organization for product management. And I absolutely loved it. Up to a certain point. Because the thing in turn with ideal organizations is that you grow out of them. So one day, I became acutely aware of having outgrown it and began looking for the next step. That is when I realised that while there are amazing organizations out there, the product management side of things is mostly just not there. For a long time I think I was looking for (and failing to find) something that I was not able to fully define. But I knew I felt out of place with my Product Management mindset in a lot of companies. It is only now, through my work with many different organizations, that I feel like I know what I was looking for. It was a true customer-centric, data-, experimentation and value -driven organization. It was an organization where outcomes matter more than the tools and frameworks used. And where strong opinions are valued and communicated, but loosely held when evidence is irrefutable. So, I think it is only now that I know how to describe such an organization, because I like to think I help create such environments now.

So here we go. I’ll try to imagine what the ideal organization would be like for me when it comes to product management. I urge you to do the same - what would yours look like? And if you disagree with what I imagined, please share in the comments or let's have coffee!

What exactly is a "product"?

In the kind of organisation I’d want to work in, a product isn’t narrowly defined. It’s not just something you sell or ship. A product is anything that solves a problem for someone - anything that provides value. The most obvious definition being that it is a piece of software that you build for your customers that automates something and hence solves a problem. But it can also be the process which users use to buy something. Or an internal tool that is helping your employees do something more easily - say book their vacation days. It can also be a government portal that helps the citizens renew their ID cards. Obviously it doesn’t stop with the digital world - physical products have been solving our problems a lot longer.

Basically anything that provides value can be looked at as a product. If it’s something designed with a clear purpose that helps someone accomplish something - and someone has cared enough to shape it based on what people actually need - it’s a product.

That kind of thinking is what I would want everyone in the organisation to practice. Because it means we’re not building things for the sake of building them - we’re thinking about outcomes. We’re anchored in problems and value.

Why do we need product management at all?

In this ideal organisation, product management wouldn’t be an add-on. It would be the engine that guides and questions. The discipline that makes sure we’re building the right thing, not just building fast.

But also - and I really believe this - it doesn’t have to be called product management. In small companies, the founder might fill that role. In large ones, it might be a full team. What matters is that there’s someone with the capacity, curiosity, and mandate to look at the full picture and steer accordingly.

In my experience, product management is what keeps us from drifting. It's what stops us from creating beautiful, well-engineered things that end up not being used. It’s what turns technical investment into actual impact.

And I kid you not, I have seen countless pieces of software built simply because the HiPPO (highest paid person’s opinion) mattered more than actual evidence pointing to a lack of value. If there’s true Product Management in a company, this would not happen, or if it did, then it would be caught and fixed faster.

What fundamental problem does product management solve?

For me, the product manager is the one who filters noise into clarity. The one who helps the organisation make good decisions.

They’re the ones who ask the hard questions. Are we solving the right problem? Are we solving it in the right way? Does it matter to anyone? Will it move the needle for us?

They also prevent waste. In a perfect product organisation, we’d have someone who stops projects that are misaligned before they go too far. Someone who is always holding up the mirror between the customer and the business.

Who is a product manager?

A product manager is the person ultimately responsible for a product’s success. But beyond responsibilities, a product manager is a specific type of person. In the best setups I’ve been in, a product manager is a whole type of person - not just a role. It’s not just about skills, it is the combination with their personality traits, and they are very difficult to find on the market when hiring!

They’re the ones who can’t help but be curious. About how things work, how people think, how decisions are made. They want to understand everything - technology, psychology, and systems. Perhaps this is why many of them suffer from the imposter syndrome - because they never feel like they know enough.

But they’re also people who want to be useful. They want to turn what they’ve learned into something that creates value. And they don’t mind holding the responsibility for that. They want to be trusted, and they want to deserve that trust.

In my mind, the best Product Managers are:

• Deeply curious - about how things work, how people behave, how teams function, and how decisions are made.

• Empathetic - they genuinely want to understand others: customers, colleagues, and stakeholders.

• Responsible - they don’t shy away from accountability. They want the trust and the mandate to deliver.

• Creative realists - they don’t just dream up ideas, they define goals and convincingly illustrate the gap between a user problem and a business opportunity.

• Relentlessly goal-driven - not because they want to tick boxes but because they want their work to mean something and move the needle.

• Team glue - they’re not just doing tasks, they’re creating cohesion. They often adjust their role depending on what the team needs.

I'd also categorize PMs through the types of responsibilities they have and the outcomes they produce:

1. The 0-to-1 Explorer
   PMs who are excited by blank pages - not everyone is great at creating a product from scratch (even though it seems that most people think that this is exactly what Product Management is about - starting from scratch). It takes a very particular set of skills, risk awareness and courage - they’re great at identifying unmet needs, crafting early prototypes, and building something where there was nothing. They love ambiguity and have a strong discovery mindset.

2. The Scaler
   These PMs focus on turning something good into something great. They live in a world of iteration and growth. They know how to refine value, solve edge cases, and take something from MVP to must-have. They also have a sharp nose for finding new novel use cases or target customers to make your product even more valuable with the strengths that it already has and without having to build a whole new product.

3. The Growth Optimiser
   PMs who focus on traction. They run experiments, think in funnels and loops, and obsess over onboarding, retention, and conversion. They’re equal parts analytical and creative.

4. The Enabler
   These are infrastructure, platform, or tooling PMs - often working behind the scenes. They’re focused on making sure other teams (or external devs) can build faster and more reliably. They see internal users as their customers. They can also be PMs for internal tools - their main goal being enabling other teams with tooling and internal process optimization.

How does a product manager create value?

The work, at its core, is problem obsession (as opposed to focusing on solutions). You need to really care about what’s broken - and who it’s broken for. You have to love thinking about that future version of the world where the problem is gone.

And you can’t get stuck. You can’t let yourself start believing you know what the perfect solution is because you don’t. You might have a hunch, but hunches always need validation. You have to be willing to try, learn, listen, change your mind, and push again. It’s learning all the time. And it’s deciding all the time - what’s most important, what can wait, what needs to be said no to. Ship often, talk to customers, learn, question, iterate, ship again, learn again.

In a nutshell Product Manager creates value by ensuring the team builds the right thing, for the right people, at the right time. They define the why and what so the team can confidently deliver the how. That means value isn’t in doing the work themselves, but in making sure everyone’s work adds up to something that actually matters — for customers and for the business.

They also create value by prioritising ruthlessly. Saying no to fluff and yes to the things that move the needle. And they act as a bridge — translating business goals into meaningful customer outcomes and vice versa. If they do their job well, the product becomes something people love and want to use, and that’s what drives business success in the long run.

It’s also fighting for resources when you believe something is worth building. It’s keeping the lights on when the exciting part is over. And it’s being okay with being the one who decides when it’s time to turn the lights off.

What makes product management different from other business functions?

Product is the one function that sees – and holds – the whole picture. Unlike other roles that focus on one part of the business or the customer journey, product management exists in the middle of everything. Even though they are not able to do everything themselves, they are still responsible for the end-to-end success of their product. For example, it is not enough when a brilliant product gets developed if no one sells or markets it enough for it to get enough customers. Even though the Product Manager will not be the one executing the sales strategy, it is absolutely in their interest that there is one in place. For this reason, Product needs to speak the language of engineering, design, marketing, sales, operations, and leadership, and bring them into alignment.

It’s also the only role that truly empathizes with both the user and the business - and works to serve both. That dual empathy, combined with strategic responsibility and no formal authority, makes product leadership unique.

And while other functions might focus on delivery or execution, Product focuses on direction, value, and impact. It holds the future in mind and makes sure the team is headed somewhere meaningful - not just busy.

Why can't organisations succeed without product management?

I don’t think you can survive long-term without someone thinking in this way.

You can go fast with a sharp engineering team. You can sell with a sharp commercial team. But if there’s no shared understanding of where you’re going - no one holding the bigger picture - you’ll eventually end up chasing your own tail. And again, it does not need to be a role called “Product Manager” - it can be someone else. But someone needs to determine the problems worth solving for the customer that make sense for the company business (or whatever your goal is if you’re not a for-profit organisation) wise.

I’ve seen it happen. The output is high, but the outcome is missing. You’re building, but you’re not landing. And then someone else - someone who is solving the problem better - takes your place in the market.

So whether or not the title exists, this way of thinking needs to exist. Otherwise, your growth is luck - and it runs out.

What does success look like in product management?

I think it’s important to separate theory and my own personal experience here. I personally don't think that I've ever felt successful in managing or developing a product when I was doing it. I have felt and do feel successful in hindsight. However, for me as a product manager, it's like a never-ending road. You fix one thing, and you already know what’s next. You launch something, and you’re already thinking about how to make it better. So it keeps going. A product is mostly never finished. And even when you stop actively developing it, it's still never done. It's just that something else has proven more valuable, and it doesn't make sense to improve upon that.

I mean don’t get me wrong - of course it feels good when you hit or exceed your KPIs or OKRs. You did the leg work, you dealt with the risk of failure, you optimized for success and you iterated long enough and smartly enough, and it all panned out. A lot of your customers are happy (but not all - you’re already fixing stuff for the rest), your organization wins. That is the widely agreed upon definition of success, I suppose. And I have factually reached it. But I think I just don’t know how to stop and smell the roses because I was always already chasing the next goal when the numbers came in.

When I look back, I feel successful when the product still exists and is thriving - that is what success looks like to me. When the strategy is still being followed (although I do hope it gets tweaked). When users are still being served and delighted by something I helped shape - even if I’m no longer there. When I know I changed the world just a little bit by having created that product.

That’s when it lands. That’s when I feel proud.

How does product management bring customers and business together?

My own personal opinion, which may be controversial, is that in too many companies product is the single place where management hears the voice of the customer.

Yes, there’s occasional feedback via a friend of a founder or a relative of a board member that makes it to decision makers - and believe me, those situations have led to fixing actual bugs - but structurally, most organisations don’t have a direct line from customer to strategy. Product is that line - bringing insights, feedback, analytics, quotes. Putting the customer and the value front and centre

That’s what product is. It’s the place where customer stories, pains, and insights get turned into decisions. It’s where you balance empathy for the user with responsibility for the business.

In my ideal organisation, product is not just one bridge. It’s the bridge.

Final thoughts

This article is part of a series started by

Toomas Koost

, where all members of TPG answer the same set of questions.

Why? Because we’ve come to realise that product management is different for all of us - and different from organisation to organisation. While we share many of the same values, it’s the tiny parts we see differently - that’s where the magic happens.

Image from workchronicles.substack.com