Difference between a Project Manager and a Product Manager

Interested to know who is the real decision maker in product development projects. The scope of responsibilities of a project manager and product manager are completely distinct. Have a quick glance over the description of the responsibilities residing with both.

Project Manager

• Manages the project
• Creates the project plan, including deadlines
• Follow up with product managers, development team, QA team to get things done
• If needed, also does efficient resource planning among various projects
• May influence product development depending upon resource availability
• Prioritizes the task list for the resources or department heads.
• Makes sure that team has the required infrastructure available to get the job done
• Participates in group discussions on a regular basis to facilitate cross-team interaction. (E.g. Development team, Product team and UI team)
• Does not give any (or less) input on how to code a program
• Does not give any (or less) input on product management

Product Manager

• Does market research
• Does customer research
• Is also called anthropologists of a product because of their better awareness of the product and interaction of the product with the end user.
• Develops a list of feature set for product
• Creates the product flow
• Develops use cases
• Understands business as well as user experience of the product
• Co-ordinates with the UI team, development team, QA team to ship the product.
• Is actually a product owner
• Can influence a product shipping date depending on Market / Business needs
• Manages the product road map
• Manages the bugs list and may decide which one should be fixed first.