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EmailLast night I got an email from a company with the subject “Saas and the death of software product management“.
And… with the subtitle of “Or, While You Weren’t Looking, Your Product Manager’s Job Became a Zombie”.
The email said the following:
The growth of the SaaS business model spells the end of product management as it’s been defined in the software industry for the last thirty years… Current product management functions such as tick list herding, MRDs, PRDs, “Agile” product management and the concept of no responsibility, no accountability, and no authority will soon be as relevant to SaaS companies as DOS 3.0 and floppy disks…
Do you think what this email says is correct? Here are my thoughts on it…
Death of Product Management… Rumors Wildly Exaggerated?
It seems the newest meme in B2B marketing (kinda like the Kanye Interrupts meme in consumer space!) is to claim “__________ is Dead“. You can fill in the blanks with whatever topic you’re trying to grab attention for.
I happen to manage “Product Management” as well as “Marketing” operations at Accompa, Inc. (we make a popular SaaS tool for product management teams to manage requirements). As a part of my job, I often get calls from consultants in the sales lead generation space.
In that space, over the past 6-12 months – a popular meme has been “Cold Calling is Dead”. As many of you know, cold calls are often among the first steps in the sales process at most software companies. Despite the claims of its death, cold calling is doing just fine. I find it funny how some of these folks cold call me to tell me that cold calling is dead! 🙂
It seems like the company that sent me the aforementioned email is trying to borrow a page from that play book, and is claiming “Product Management is Dead” to try and grab our attention.
P.S. If you’d like to read the whole email, here’s a link to screenshot.
I call BS on this notion that Product Management is dead due to SaaS. It’s a totally and utterly ridiculous claim – if anything, product management is more important than ever before (especially at SaaS companies). I think I’m somewhat qualified to say this – as I’ve spent a decade doing product management in the SaaS space (at very successful companies), and now at a growing SaaS startup.
Editor’s Note:
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