The First-Ever Product Management Manifesto

How You Can be Part of It

Say the word “manifesto” in a product context and the first thing that comes to mind is the Agile Manifesto for software development. Twenty years ago this document broke with the past to rethink the core principles and values to guide the profession. And it continues as a guiding light to this day. 

Yet in the two decades since the Agile Manifesto’s creation, the world has changed. Product Management is now a role of expanded influence. Product leaders are charged with leading distributed, interconnected teams forward amidst pandemics, climate change, and calls for increased diversity and inclusivity. This is reshaping how we build products of all types.

And although we’re actively living and working in this new context, many of us are hazy on the answer to one fundamental question: what are the essential principles of Product Management today? There’s a subtle but significant gap between past principles and frameworks and the imperatives of our craft here and now.

It’s time to close that gap, together.

Launch of the Manifesto Working Group

On June 1, 2021 we announced the formation of a working group to draft the first-ever Manifesto for Product Management. Our mission is not to prescribe, but to uncover the universal truths that apply equally to all Product Managers--no matter the seniority of the role, or size of the organization. Based on these core principles, our goal is to create an actionable foundation that will serve our field for decades to come.

Under the guidance of Mayank Yadav, who has built products at Facebook, eBay, and Uber, we are gathering together a team of Product professionals who will help discover and define the principles for a new era. The working group will lead the charge to source ideas from the greater product community, consider the overarching mandates, and distill the final principles. 

This is just the first step, and now is the time to get involved.

Why We Need a Manifesto & Principles Now

Product Management today is an ascendant, highly influential role. 

It’s no longer a narrow swimlane focused on just building and developing products. Product leaders are front and center in company strategy, the C-Suite, and critical growth drivers at their companies. Our value proposition and sphere of influence has expanded to new heights. 

Today’s executives increasingly hail from product backgrounds. 

Elon Musk at Tesla and SpaceX. Satya Nadella at Microsoft. Sundar Pichai at Alphabet. Susan Wojcicki at YouTube. The list goes on. More CEOs are rising from the product function, and the Chief Product Officer role is becoming established in the C Suite. Product leaders are today’s leaders--period.

Product-Led Growth is emerging as a dominant long-term growth strategy.

Companies are recognizing that products are their #1 growth engine and orienting strategies around Product-Led Growth (PLG). Research on PLG businesses show they outperform both sales-led or marketing-led cultures, and 73% of product managers described their companies as increasingly “product-led” in 2021. If products are the key to growth, then product leaders are the architects of that future.

The call for DE&I is a critical imperative to our field. 

The diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) imperative of today calls upon product leaders to cast aside long-standing assumptions in how we build both products and teams. Products must be built with diversity from the inside out--starting with diverse teams, resolutely focused on inclusivity, and continuously challenging old mindsets that exclude and overlook. Diverse perspectives must be seen, heard, and enabled by what we do in an equitable playing field.

All of this means that it’s a fundamentally different era for Product Managers. The problem is: we’ve entered a clearly defined age of the PM--without clearly defined principles to guide the way. 

It’s time to look inward and align on the guiding principles of our craft.

What We Want to Build

So what exactly will we create with the manifesto and principles?

We intend to build:

An actionable toolset by and for Product people.

A set of foundational principles to ground us in a shared baseline.

A decision-making framework to inspire and inform, clarify and connect the dots.

A blueprint of the essential tenets to guide our work, help us be better at what we do. 

A playbook for every stage of a product career to groom new, established, and rising leaders. 

A reflection of past principles that still remain true, evolved and adapted for today’s context.

A break with the past with inclusivity built in from the start by diverse creators and audiences.

In summary: a blueprint inspired by the past, built for now, and intended to live on for where Product Management is heading next. 

We don’t intend to build: 

A framework removed from reality.

A document that over-prescribes but under-describes how to act on its contents.

Another monologue tone-deaf to the realities of the job, aspirational without actual advice.

At this moment the manifesto is still a blank page waiting to be written. The words and details will be shaped by the working group and the greater product community. And the first question facing them will be to take the dictionary definition of principle (“A fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior...”) and answer: What are ours as PMs?

Join Us! Be Part of the Product Manifesto

Product professionals and companies worldwide can help shape the manifesto by submitting their perspectives on what the principles should be. Here’s how you can get involved:

Take the Survey

Help us define the manifesto based on the real challenges faced by Product Managers today, sharing your thoughts in the survey here on values you believe our profession should live by.

Stay Updated

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter to stay in the loop on upcoming discussions as the manifesto takes shape, where you can comment and provide feedback as we move forward.

Partner with Us 

Join as a corporate partner and sign on to support the initiative with your company’s name associated with the defining principles of product management. Contact us here. 

Share with Your Network

Here’s a handy Tweet you can share with your network to bring your fellow Product Leaders along for the ride. 

Next Steps

The working group will get underway this summer and debut the Product Management Manifesto in early September 2021. Follow our roadmap to see all upcoming steps in the process ahead. Together, let’s define a new era of Product Management.

Made with ❤️ by Product People