History of Product Management

As the world increasingly becomes digital, a product manager (PM) has become a key link between representing customer interests and product development process. Both new and experienced product managers often wonder where this role came from and why it has quickly become intertwined with other roles such as UX and marketing. Contrary to what many people think, product management isn’t as a result of the digital era but rather, traces its origins back to 1931.

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Where it All Began

The journey began in 1931 when Neil H. McElroy, the marketing manager of Procter & Gamble, a U.S. personal hygiene and healthcare firm wrote a memo expressing the need to bring onboard more staff to specialize in brand management. In his memo, McElroy christened the new role “Brand Men” whose responsibility was to oversee managing of products, promotions, advertising, sales tracking and, continuously find ways of improving products. It is the basis of this 800-word document that the role of a product manager evolved. 

Based on McElroy’s memo, it was clear he wanted someone who could focus on a single product or brand as opposed to dealing with the business as a whole. The memo transformed how Proctor & Gamble conducted their operations into a more brand-centric kind of approach. It was this story that led to the introduction of the role of a product manager as we know today. 

HP Adopts Product Management

However, the story didn’t stop there as in the late 1930s, McElroy who had great influence over young entrepreneurs met Bill Hewlett and David Packard, the brains behind the global computer brand HP (Hewlett Packard). HP adopted McElroy’s ideas and went ahead to formulate an organizational structure where each product group managed its activities as an independent organization. HP took product management to a whole new level after Bill and David used their knowledge in branding and customer interaction and directly applied it to how the organization made decisions regarding products and their development. As a matter of fact, HP’s strategy was based on dedicated and focused groups that specialized on the product development, manufacturing and sales of individual products. Product focus shifted to extensive interaction with customers in order to find out what they would expect from a reliable product. “Brand Man” become the early PM, a messenger and, representative of the consumer on an internal scale. 

Toyota Launches Just-in-Time Manufacturing

In 1953, global car brand Toyota began experimenting on how to streamline their production processes. The goal of the initiative was to find a way to get products faster to the customers. The result of the experiment was Just-In-Time (JIT) manufacturing commonly known as Toyota Production System, which meant raw material orders were based on production schedules to increase production times and minimize waste. 

In the 60s, more companies began adopting consistent efforts to improve their products, services and brands in relation to meeting consumer needs and knowing which products would sell best. At this time, brand managers were not only focused on quality assurance, but also marketing and advertising efforts which are commonly associated with today’s product managers. As years went by, more companies introduced PM roles and directed their energies to developing products that best suited the needs of their consumers. 

Product Management and Technology

In the 90s, the way businesses conduct their operations radically changed and with the tech industry rising, the role of product management in tech companies became more profound. With the tech boom, many companies started to pay attention to the technical specs behind their products and services. Beyond the focus on a product’s technical perspective was the need to learn how to make a product manager a liaison between the end user and the tech requirements for engineers. It is during the 90s that Microsoft employed program managers whereby some later evolved into product managers in order to fill a gap that was left between tech and development. In the 2000’s, the role of a PM became more defined in both technology and other industries. 

Product Management in the Present Day

Even though not all companies have a PM role, many are finding product management a key necessity for the success of a company. Until recently, product management was a department in either engineering or marketing. However, product managers nowadays get a seat at the management table as product teams are directly aligned with business vision and goals. As a stand-alone function, most product managers who are both internal and external evangelists of a product’s vision nowadays report directly to the CEO and top management of companies.