No Success in Product Management without Clearly Defined Roles!

We tend to think that things become clearer as product teams grow; however, the opposite is true in most organizations. Roles become blurred, everyone touches on everything a little, but nothing is fully owned. The result? Strategy and daily operations become intertwined, it becomes unclear whose area of responsibility technical decisions fall under, the story told to the market becomes detached from the product's reality, and team energy is wasted in an unproductive cycle. In fact, most companies don't make "bad products"; they can't make good products because the question of "who decides what?" is unclear. A product organization with sharply defined roles, on the other hand, both increases the speed of decision-making and enhances the product's market value. This article was written to dispel the fog of these roles, which are most often confused in a modern product team, and to clearly demonstrate how each contributes differently—and vitally—to the product.

Introduction: Why Are Role Definitions So Critical?

We hear this sentence in many companies:

"We also have product management, but... it's not very clear who is actually doing what."

At first, everything seems fine; everyone is working very hard.

But over time, the following symptoms appear:

• The product roadmap changes every month.

• The development team rushes around under the pressure of "everything urgently".

• A gap emerges between the story told to the customer and the reality of the product.

• Technical debt accumulates, and no one takes responsibility for it.

Actually, the problem is usually simple:

Roles, responsibilities, and decision-making areas are not clearly defined.

Below, let's clarify the most intertwined roles in a modern product organization.

1. Product Manager (PM) – “We do what we do and why we do it?”

Brief description:

The Product Manager is the strategic owner of a product, overseeing both the business and customer aspects.

Key questions:

• Why are we investing in this product?

• Which problem are we solving in which segment?

• What is the business objective of this product: revenue, profitability, market share, NPS, adoption?

• Which features should be included, and in what order?

Areas of responsibility:

• Understanding the market and customer needs (research, customer interviews, data analysis)

• Competitive analysis and clarifying differentiating points.

• Creating a product vision and product strategy.

• Preparing the roadmap and aligning it with business objectives.

• Being able to say "yes/no" to features (and explain why)

Examples of the PM's daily work:

• Morning: Looks at customer/data related metrics (login, usage, churn, NPS…)

• Throughout the day: Gathers expectations by meeting with sales, marketing, technical team and management.

• Weekly: Roadmap review, prioritization, discovery sessions

Metaphor: The PM is like the captain of the ship carrying the product . He charts the course, decides where to go; but he doesn't actually start the engine.

2. Product Owner (PO) – “What are we doing today, and in what order?”

Brief description:

The Product Owner is the person who translates the defined vision and strategy into the daily work of the development team.

Key questions:

• What tasks will the team have to complete today/during the sprint?

• What are the acceptance criteria for this user story?

• What needs to happen for us to consider this feature "complete"?

Areas of responsibility:

• Backlog management and prioritization

• User story writing and clarification.

• Leading sprint planning, refinement, review, and demo processes.

• Working closely with development and testing teams.

PM vs PO distinction:

• PM: "Should we enter this market or not?"

• PO: “The decision has been made, so let's implement it in 3 sprints in this order.”

In some companies, the roles of PM and PO are combined in the same person; this is common, especially in smaller organizations.

But mentally separating the roles is still important:

One mind focuses on strategy, the other on daily delivery.

3. Product Technical Manager (PTM / Technical Product Manager) –

"Technically, how do we do this, with what kind of infrastructure?"

This role is one of the least talked-about roles in Türkiye, yet it's one of the roles that most often saves projects.

Brief description:

Product Technical Managers are responsible for the technical architecture, integrations, and unseen quality criteria of a product .

Key questions:

• Which architecture will ensure the long-term sustainability of this product?

• What are the risks in terms of performance, security, and scalability?

• How can we design this integration to be both flexible and sustainable?

• How will we manage technical debt?

Areas of responsibility:

1. Technical architecture & infrastructure:

   • Monolith vs microservice, event-driven architecture vs classical architectures

   • Versioning, API design, data model

2. Non-functional requirements (NFR):

   • Performance, latency, uptime, security, logging, monitoring

   • All the criteria that "the user doesn't notice, but it saves production"

3. Technical debt management:

   • Refactoring need

   • Integration with Legacy systems

   • Infrastructure upgrades, version updates

4. Integration & platform overview:

   • The product communicates with CRM, ERP, payment systems, and partner APIs.

   • API-first approach and ecosystem thinking

Where is it particularly critical?

• B2B SaaS products

• Fintech, banking, payment systems

• Telecommunications, high-volume transaction platforms.

• IoT / device + cloud integration products

Metaphor: If the PM (Police Officer) is the captain of the ship, the Product Technical Manager is like the ship's engineer and chief engineer . Even if you chart the best course, if you don't design the engine correctly, you'll be stranded halfway.

4. Product Marketing Manager (PMM) – “How do we want to be perceived in the market?”

Brief description:

PMM owns the product's market positioning, message, and story .

Key questions:

• To whom are we offering this product, and with what promise?

• How is our message different from the competition?

• How will we launch it, and which channels will we use?

• How should sales teams describe this product to customers?

Areas of responsibility:

• Segmentation and target audience definition.

• Value proposition and positioning

• Go-to-market (GTM) and launch plan.

• Sales enablement (pitch deck, battlecard, objection handling)

• Monitoring the product's perception and performance in the market.

PMM works very closely with PM:

• PM: Designs the product.

• PMM: Designs the product's story and stage performance.

5. UX / UI & Research – “Is the user truly comfortable?”

Brief description:

UX/UI teams design the usability, experience, and flow of the product.

Key questions:

• Why is the user stuck on this screen?

• How can we simplify this process?

• How do different people use this product?

Areas of responsibility:

• User research (interview, observation, survey, usability test)

• Creating personas, journey maps, and experience maps.

• Wireframe, prototyping and interface design.

• Experience tests and improvement suggestions

Metaphor: UX is not about the "internal components" of a product, but about the "feeling of experience" that the user has .

The same function, when poorly designed, becomes a nuisance; when well-designed, it becomes a pleasure.

6. Growth / Product Growth – “How can this product grow faster and smarter?”

Brief description:

Growth is the team/role that optimizes the product's growth engine .

Key questions:

• Where are we losing users?

• At what step can a small touch make a big difference?

• Which tests help us learn the most?

Areas of responsibility:

• Funnel analysis (acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, referral)

• A/B testing and experimental design

• Tests on pricing, packaging, and onboarding experience.

• Conducting joint growth experiments with PM, PMM, data, and sales teams.

7. PM – PO – Product Technical Manager Triangle

When these three roles work together, the product becomes healthy commercially , technically , and operationally .

• Product Manager:

  • What are we doing, and why are we doing it?

  • Market, customer, business objective

• Product Owner:

  • What are we doing today, and in what order?

  • Backlog, sprint, stories

• Product Technical Manager:

  • How do we do this technically, with what backbone?

  • Architecture, NFR, integration, technical debt

If this triangle is unclear:

• PM turns into a task tracker.

• PO remains simply a "project manager assigned to a task".

• Product Technical Managers either don't exist at all, or they're "the firefighter called in when things go wrong."

Questions to Consider for Your Own Organization

After reading this article, you can ask your own organization these questions:

1. Are our PM, PO and Product Technical Manager roles clear?

   • Who makes which decision?

   • When conflict erupts, who has the final say?

2. Are Product Managers actually dealing with strategy and customers, or are they just following tasks?

3. Is there a Product Technical Manager role, or are critical technical decisions left "undetected"?

4. Is there a Product Marketing structure that takes ownership of the product's story?

5. Are UX research and experience design a natural part of the roadmap, or something we'll look into if we have time?

6. On the Growth side, is there someone/a team that sets up systematic experiments and continuously improves the funnel?

Dr. Hakan TETIK