Product Portfolio Manager

« Back to Glossary Index

The Product Portfolio Manager is in charge of supervising the product managers who are responsible for each product. Product Portfolio Managers determine the strategic direction of the entire product portfolio and aim to contribute to the organization’s goals as a whole. Product portfolio management is the comprehensive management of all products owned by an organization. Responsibility for a product portfolio is typically within the scope of the Product Portfolio Manager’s administrative authority. PPM brings a broader solution story to the market by combining value propositions across the entire suite of products and those offered by each product.

To put it another way, a company’s product portfolio management is the activity of managing all of its products. As a product portfolio manager, he may be in charge of allocating resources for maximum ROI, finding areas that need improvement, and ensuring that the products are consistent with the firm’s overall strategy. A person who performs all these tasks is a product portfolio manager.

Skills of Product Portfolio Manager

Strategic Planning

A product portfolio manager is in charge of determining the product direction. He starts with the high-level product goal and works downwards, setting goals and identifying work areas to help him reach them. He schedules releases, decides which features will be produced, and visualizes how this effort fits into the overall strategy and implementation timeframe on the project plan. This role makes the orientation of a product portfolio. This necessitates a broader use of his strategic planning abilities.

A Business Thought

A product portfolio manager understands how a single product affects the overall health of the company. Moreover, he utilizes this knowledge to make wise product choices. That suggests he is not a victim of the “shiny object” mentality. As a result, he designs features customized to consumers’ demands and yields a return on investment (ROI).

Awareness of the Market

A product portfolio manager’s job is to know everything there is to know about one product in the marketplace. Market size, qualities, and competitors’ landscape are all things he is well in. he knows what his clients want and needs since he talks to them frequently. He utilizes this data to set the product’s direction, validate community ideas, and decide which features to build later.

The Ability to Communicate Effectively

A product portfolio manager specializes in assuming leadership roles without having any formal authority over them. He depends on the participation of many cross-functional teams in the product. It also includes sales and marketing teams. In other words, he has expertise in figuring out what information each department needs to do its job well and create a product that people want to use.

Analytical Expertise

A product manager monitors and analyses product-level KPIs (KPIs). This often includes information such as the amount of time spent on the product and the features that the user has accessed. 

The Advantages of Product Portfolio Management

Reducing Wasteful Expenditures

The most evident benefit of portfolio management is the effective use of resources. Portfolio managers have a greater understanding of how the company’s various products are doing. This helps them determine which projects are worthy of further funding and which ones should be eliminated. 

Faster and Better Action

Product portfolio management can make better and faster decisions because it provides a centralized, high-level view of all goods. It allows reacting more quickly to market changes.

Faster Releases

Portfolio management can help organizations get innovative products to market faster. A portfolio manager can utilize a product’s success to encourage new product development.

Final Remarks

The duties of a product portfolio manager are quite distinct from those of a product manager in many ways. Product managers are accountable for a single product, whereas product portfolio managers are answerable for a collection of products. As a product manager, he will focus on identifying new features that can better serve his customers. On the other hand, the product portfolio manager will focus on what further goods the organization can develop to meet the demands of these customers.

Product Portfolio Manager
Scroll to top