The Evolution of the Product Manager

Verification notes (2026-10-28): 1. Camay was introduced in 1926. Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/fashion/02SKINDEEP.html 2. McElroy’s brand management memo dates to 1931. Sources: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neil_Mcelroy%27s_1931_Brand_Man_Memo.pdf https://cacm.acm.org/practice/evolution-of-the-product-manager/ 3. Based on comparisons with these sources, statements for which no reliable source could be found have been removed, and some wording has been revised to a traceable version (three changes in total). ---- In the internet era, one profession has attracted particular attention: the “product manager.” Steve Jobs described himself as one; he was probably the first prominent champion of the role. In China, many internet industry leaders also call themselves product managers, including Pony Ma, Zhou Hongyi, Wang Xing, Lei Jun, and Zhang Yiming. Product management has become one of the era’s most closely watched professions. (Robin: Meanwhile, project managers are gradually being replaced by product managers, although both seem to share the English abbreviation PM.) What Is a Product Manager? Who was the first person in the world to hold the title of product manager? His name was Neil McElroy, an employee of the US consumer goods giant P&G. In 1926, P&G introduced a soap called Camay, but its sales remained weak. Why? P&G already had an extremely successful soap, Ivory, with a large market share. Marketing and sales staff responsible for the soap business naturally devoted most of their attention to Ivory. Camay received very limited internal resources and therefore struggled to gain traction. McElroy argued that someone had to be specifically responsible for Camay to ensure that the brand received priority. P&G agreed. In 1931, he wrote a memo proposing a “brand manager” system in which a dedicated person would take responsibility for a single brand. This is regarded as the origin of the product manager role. The earliest product managers were therefore really brand managers, responsible primarily for market positioning, marketing and promotion, and distribution channels. The products themselves were highly similar; whether a product reached the hundred-million or billion scale depended on the product manager’s brand marketing ability. In the 1990s, the computer software industry flourished and numerous software companies serving business customers emerged. Business users’ requirements were relatively clear. The product manager’s main task was to communicate with customers, establish their requirements, translate those requirements into specific software features, advance development, and finally implement and deploy the software. Product managers in the software era thus focused on project management: coordinating resources, managing schedules, and delivering on time. Demands on product design and iteration were not particularly high—a passing grade of 60 out of 100 was enough, since customers had already paid. That is one significant difference between product managers of that era and those of the internet era. By 2012, the mobile internet was booming, and countless apps were springing up. The people developing and managing those apps are what we now call product managers. What new circumstances do product managers face in the internet era? Start with the good news. Most obviously, there are more opportunities. Because of the internet’s inherent Matthew effect, some products can reach more than 100 million users within just a year or two—unimaginable in the traditional economy or the computer software era. Yu Jun estimates that several hundred product managers across China have now managed products with tens of millions of users. The second piece of good news is a lower barrier to entry. Internet products can iterate so quickly that an entire iteration cycle takes only a few days. A/B testing and personalized recommendation algorithms also allow rapid validation and iteration. “A/B testing” means randomly comparing two versions, A and B; personalization means using algorithms to give each user a different recommendation page. Even newcomers can use these standardized testing tools to deepen their understanding of users and build products that exceed the passing grade. In other words, standardized tools lower the barrier for newcomers. What is the bad news? More opportunities to create hit products, combined with a lower barrier to entry, inevitably mean increasingly intense competition among product managers. In fact, most product managers with more than five years of experience have similar foundational experience, knowledge, and abilities. To advance further, they must compete on talent, perspective, and depth of knowledge. They need to push beyond the limits of their understanding and become adept at drawing from different disciplines, especially economics and psychology, to stand out as outstanding product managers. Otherwise, Yu Jun says, if you cannot break through your intellectual ceiling and take another step forward, your product management career will go no further. Why must product managers in the internet era become skilled at crossing disciplinary boundaries? As discussed earlier, their core capability in the traditional economy was “brand marketing”; in the computer software era, it was “project management”; in the internet era, it has become “insight into user needs.” You must deeply understand users’ real needs at both the broader level and in specific situations, precisely identifying their pain points, sources of delight, and latent desires to build a truly good product. Make no mistake: highly accomplished product managers are masters at understanding human nature. Beyond insight into user needs, internet-era product managers must be highly sensitive to user experience. In Yu Jun’s words, a good product brings “needs and experience together to deliver a double impact.” Why does user experience matter so much? Again, because of the internet’s economies of scale. With only tens of thousands of users, pursuing the ultimate user experience is unrealistic: costs are too high and returns limited. But when a product has tens or hundreds of millions of users, even a tiny improvement can deliver enormous returns. That requires product managers to understand users at a much finer level of detail. This is why Yu Jun strongly recommends that product managers learn some economics and psychology. These social sciences contain extensive knowledge of human psychology and behavior that can help product managers rapidly improve their insight into users. That is Yu Jun’s answer to “What is a product manager?” Dedao’s Li Nannan adds an interesting perspective. Product managers and product thinking have been popular concepts for a long time. What is new about discussing them today? In fact, over the past year or two, product managers’ role has changed again: they have become indispensable “connectors” in society. Over the past year or two, China’s consumer market has seen an explosion of product categories. Internet-popular products keep appearing, and new brands and categories keep emerging. Behind this phenomenon is the full connection of China’s enormous production and supply chain capabilities with its enormous consumption capacity. How were they connected? Not by traditional merchants arranging everything themselves, but by the countless influencers, large and small, active on platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu. They rematched production with consumption, setting off a new wave of consumer spending. In other words, a new form of connection has emerged, with individuals as its nodes. The internet products they use, and the product managers behind those products, are efficient “connectors” that help match resources. Product managers have effectively become designers of society’s new infrastructure. That is their great significance in this era. #得到聽書 #俞軍產品方法論