Why news organisations need to understand the difference between product and project management

Recently, I was asked by a friend who works in a senior editorial position whether product managers should also be project managers. it’s not a simple question, but it’s an important one.

In reality, it is a fuzzy boundary that varies from news organisation to news organisation. In my master’s research, one product manager at a large digital news organisation said: “(I) had to learn quite quickly and on the job what some of these titles even mean and what is the difference between a product manager and the project manager .… And also, what does that mean in every organization, because that can just mean very diffrent things.” This fuzziness - known as role ambiguity in academic circles - has been an issue with product management long before news organisations embraced the role. This is what the fuzziness means to working product managers. Another senior product manager at a large broadcaster told me, “What I find challenging is that inherently I don't think people understand what a product manager does … On any given day I am often referred to as a product manager, product owner (or) project manager.” More than that, on any given day, this product manager also said she might have product management, project management and operational responsibilities.

Some overlap between project management and product development will always exist because it takes some project management skills to deliver the product. After all, a good product roadmap is essentially a project plan. In reality, smaller organisations will need to blend the functions or have a senior manager act as a de facto product manager with project management done by a managing editor.

But clarifying the roles is important. Media managers need to understand the distinction between product and project management and be able to manage the separate functions or activities. Product managers define the product through audience and market data and are responsible for the ROI of the product. Project managers keep the delivery of the product on track. That is an ideal description of the boundary between the roles, and as I said, in reality, it’s a lot messsier. However, it’s one of the seasons, I believe it makes sense to keep these roles separate.

The lack of clarity about the role and managing it leads to several issues. The cross-functional work of product managers relies on their relationships, and I have seen those relationships damaged due to delivery issues. Media managers’ ability to manage product and project functions will mean better products delivered on time. Easier said than done, but understanding product management in media organisations still has a way to go.

More than that, this lack of understanding is also causing issues in retaining product managers. In my research, one of the issues that led to frustration amongst product management is role autonomy - the ability to manage how they get the job done. Not only does this help employees have more satisfaction, but it also helps organisations manage “volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous” (VUCA) environments. If product managers simply as project managers, they do not feel that they have autonomy over defining products. One product manager left a job at a major international media organisation because she felt as if she was working in a “feature factory”. She left and went to work for a succession of tech companies. (Click that link, written by John Cutler. I think a lot of news product managers will appreciate this: “Little appreciation for the health of the whole product as opposed to shiny new objects.” Also worth reading is his update three years later.)

Reading that, I’ll be honest. It makes me realise how much more I have to learn about product management. But in John’s last statement, there is a lot of value in “learning by doing”.

Now, onto the links.

Substack wants to do more than just newsletters, says Max Tani of Semafor. The company still isn’t profitable. Its next move?

But while Substack is attempting another pivot, as Max points out, there are some high profile defections as the economics don’t work out for them.

How to balance audience growth with public trust? That was the challenge that Sweden’s public broadcaster faced, and The Fix talked to Olle Zachrison, Head of Artificial Intelligence & News Strategy at Sveriges Radio, on how they managed these goals in applying AI to a problem.

As data has become more important to publishers, they are working to make sure they get more of it by closing the door on people who don’t accept to get data for advertising.

Want to know what it’s like to interact with AI bots? Here’s your chance to interact with lots of them.