This reading path introduces the role of the Product Manager in Lean-Agile.

The Product Manager is the “face” of Business value to the development value stream as a whole. Product Owners go to the Product Manager for anything that requires beyond their level of customer/stakeholder understanding.

The Product Manager is also the “face” of the value stream (or program, in program-centered organizations) to the senior Business leadership such as Business Sponsors and Business Owners.

The main activities of the Product Manager are:

• Write Capabilities (with support from Business Owner/Sponsor and stakeholders)
• Decompose Capabilities into MBIs (with support from Product Owner)
• Decompose an MBI into Features (with support from Product Owner)
• Manage the value stream (or program) backlog, with inputs from across the value stream (program)
• Be the “voice of the customer” (and other stakeholders) to the Product Owner
• Pass strategically-important development feedback to higher levels (e.g., Business Owner, Business Sponsor), in case they can adjust their capabilities plans to reduce costs/impacts, without hurting organizational goals