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Back in the antediluvian times of the industry (that is, before the flood of the Internet and the ubiquity of Windows), I used to be a product manager. In my opinion, it’s probably the best job you can ever have in a software company, but its downside is represented by the PM’s motto of “accountable for everything, responsible for nothing”.

So I enjoyed this article by David Pogue, who relates some tales of his dealings with PMs.

The product manager (P.M.) is an interesting beast, sort of a crossbreed: somebody who knows a lot about the product and its target audience, as the engineers and programmers do, but who’s also there to promote the product, as the P.R. people do. (Just as the P.R. person is a gatekeeper for the P.M., the P.M. is a gatekeeper for the engineers if the questions get too tough.)

Link here.

Memories…. I recently came across this old article from 1994 when I was a product manager in the old PC DOS days. No, I’m not old. Just a bit creaky around the edges.

Alex Eckelberry
(Thanks, Phil)