Do you work in product at a software company? Great. Now, tell me—do you consider yourself a Product Manager, Product Owner, or Product Marketer? And do you have clear understanding of what one role does vis-à-vis another?
What’s with all the "product" titles? Why did we make this so complicated?
The Product Title Puzzle
After decades in Silicon Valley, I’ve seen Product Leadership structured differently at every company:
Some separate all three roles into different organizations with different leaders.
Some split it even further, adding Inbound PMs and Outbound PMs into the mix.
And only one combined all responsibilities into a single role.
So, what’s the right answer?
Owning the Whole Product, Not Just a Piece of It
Having worked in all three roles at all three types of companies, the best outcomes—for the company, the customer, and the career—have always come when one person owns all functions.
Why? Because:
🔥 You can’t build a great product without direct customer insights. If you don’t hear the pain points firsthand, you’ll build the wrong thing.
🔥 You can’t validate your product without working with Engineering. Sitting in feature testing and building demos is essential.
🔥 You can’t craft the right messaging without pitching deals with Sales. The best positioning is forged in the field, not in a slide deck.
🔥 You can’t build a roadmap without being in the trenches with customers. Seeing deployments in real-world use is where the best insights come from.
Every time you introduce another layer or role, you dilute the feedback loop. And the more filtered feedback becomes, the less likely you are to build something that customers truly love.
When Product Managers Were CEOs
If there was one company that truly understood Product Leadership, it was Siebel Systems.
At Siebel, we were called Product Marketers, but we weren’t just go-betweens for Sales and Engineering—we were the CEOs of our product lines. We didn’t just suggest what should be built; we were accountable for the entire business.
That meant:
✅ Understanding how customers actually used the product
✅ Researching competitors and market trends
✅ Defining features and functionality
✅ Filing bugs on new versions and builds (yes, we tested our own product)
✅ Creating sales pitch decks and enablement materials
✅ Training sales consultants and building product demos they would use
✅ Guiding what analysts said about our product
✅ Managing the roadmap and backlog with Engineering
And most importantly—we owned all of it.
Was It Exhausting? Absolutely. But Did It Work? YES.
The result? We built some of the most beloved and industry-defining products—many of which are still in production 30 years later.
That level of ownership, accountability, and execution is what separates good product teams from great ones.
So the next time someone asks whether you’re a Product Manager, Product Owner, or Product Marketer, remember: The best PMs don’t just fit into one title—they do it all.