Product Managers end up doing a lot of different things

Recently, I commented on a post about all the jobs Product Managers end up doing, because the post was effectively saying "If a PM doesn't have an active github account GTFO." It kind of pissed me off.

I love Product Management, I love the process of Product Management, but after all the searching for a job (which I gave up on) and reading all the job posts... it seems that so many companies don't know what a Product Manager does. Some companies are only looking for one, because they were told they need to - without understanding the value or impact that this person can and should have.

This often results in tying their hands behind their backs and complaining when they are trying to a good job at Product Management and aren't doing the myriad things that aren't Product Management.

Here are some of the things I have done as a "Product Manager":

• Customer research
• Teaching the difference between symptoms and problems
• Identifying valuable customer problems
• Product Market Fit
• Market Analysis
• Competitive Research
• Project Management
• Program management
• C-suite meetings - often defending projects that were approved, but now could surprise be on the chopping block
• Customer calls
• Liaising with sales, support, and customer success
• Prioritization of projects, features
• Making EMs aware of performance and team issues
• Writing content including blog posts, documentation, and internal docs
• Enablement with Sales and Support
• Build POCs - everything from line drawings to working prototypes
• Conferences: work the booth and/or give talks with example code that you wrote
• Teach new sales folks what the product does, how it works, and how to talk to customers about it in their own words
• Make sure to test everything that we built before it goes to customers
• Find and manage alpha/beta/design partner groups

Arguably, most of these DO fall under Product Management. There are a few items in there I could make a good case for being responsible for overwhelm and the cause for other people in the company to feel frustrated.

It's no surprise that "Product Management is overstepping" is a common thing to hear, because PMs are in between everyone else in the business so they are asked to faciliate that in-between-team stuff, or have to pick up tasks lest their project "fail" and be blamed for the failure.

It’s a LOT.

PMs are often expected to be the glue that holds everything together. But glue doesn’t work if it’s spread too thin or used for the wrong projects.

The reality is, Product Management thrives on focus. When priorities are clear and teams collaborate effectively, great products happen. But when PMs are overloaded, the cracks start to show—burnout, missed opportunities, and diminished impact.

So, I have to ask: Where should we draw the line?