Gartner Research

Project to Product Is an Essential Transformation for Product Managers

Published: 26 July 2023

Summary

Traditional approaches used by product managers focus on independent projects that come together to create a product that is delivered to the market. Such approaches are insufficient to meet increased customer expectations, and a broader, whole-product-focused approach must take their place.

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Overview

Key Findings
  • Product managers in organizations used to delivering project-based outcomes are being forced by market and customer pressuresto move to customer-first efforts for which they are wholly unprepared.

  • Traditionally project-oriented organizations challenge product managers to make progress on standardization and productization efforts due to a high volume of custom requests from strategically important customers.

  • The expectations placed on product managers by organizations that view the shift from project to product as an “all or nothing” proposition are often unreasonable and unachievable.

Recommendations

Product managers charged with improving the leadership of their teams within their organizations must:

  • Prioritize delivering positive business outcomes addressing customer

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Analysts:

Clifton Gilley

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