In-Office v/s Remote Product Manager

A product manager is a designation that includes many responsibilities. A product manager plays the role of developing products in an organization and practices product management. In an organization or a company, product managers are as significant as bones in the body. They offer structure and support in product development which helps in revenue generation thereby increasing the company’s name and wealth. 

“A great product manager has the brain of an engineer, the heart of a designer, and the speech of a diplomat.”– Deep Nishar, Vice President of Product at LinkedIn

Role of Product Manager

• Creating Product Structure & Roadmap Process

Product managers are the ultimate guide in product development. Product managers should know what the stakeholders of a company need as well as the needs of the customers. They are responsible for creating a roadmap that will help the product development team in understanding the needs and demands of the users and creating a product based on that.

• Prioritization of Tasks

Among the multitude of tasks that needs to be done while developing a product, product managers need to identify and categorize the tasks based on their importance. Therefore, significant tasks will get done primarily based on the needs of the stakeholders and the customers. 

• Proper Communication & Decision-Making

Product managers should be able to communicate effectively with the stakeholders and the customers to have a better understanding of their perspectives and provide a product based on them. This will increase user onboarding. Having good decision-making skill is also significant as better decision leads to the best products!

Types of Product Managers

The different types of product managers are

• Data Product Manager: is responsible for the collection and storage of products and for sharing the curated product management data with the organization.

• Designer Product Manager: designs and build a product that will be according to the needs of the users and build better user experiences. 

• Tech Product Manager: has a strong technical background and they are responsible for focusing more on the technical aspects of product development.         

Apart from this, there is a category into which the product managers can be differentiated. It is the workplace.

Depending upon the type of workspace, a product manager works on, they can be classified as an in-office PM or remote PM. Hybrid work culture is another option which is a mix that allows product managers to work both in offices and also remotely.

In-Office v/s Remote Product Manager

In-office product managers are the managers who work in the office as compared to remote product managers who work in remote areas i.e., in the confines of their homes or other spaces. Both types have their advantages and disadvantages. 

Sometimes it varies from team to team. When working with international teams, it’s common to do bursts of on-site work (to build relationships, understand context, meet customers, promote user onboarding, build the team, etc.), followed by PM working remotely and parts of the team remaining on-site. The latter is hybrid work culture. It is way harder to work remotely, regardless of the stage of career in this type of team. Building trust is harder. Collaboration is harder. Communication is harder. Learning is harder. There’s less engagement, and fewer opportunities to do things in a spontaneous and off-the-cuff way. In this type of situation, in-office PM benefits more. 

But in some other cases, remote product managers are more productive, more engaged, and focused on the tasks and learn faster. 

Let’s compare in-office and remote product managers.

Pros and Cons of In-office PMs

Pros and Cons of Remote PMs

Which is better?

Being an in-office PM reaps more benefits as compared to being a remote PM. The role of a product manager is demanding. It requires a person to be the hands-on-demand at every stage. Working in the office will allow a product manager to 

• Be in constant touch with the stakeholders and give them updates about product development at every step. 
• Give instructions to the development team about any new updates or changes that need to be made to a product immediately or soon in the future.
• Get feedback from the users at a faster rate and solve their queries at a faster pace. This will further lead to an increase in user onboarding.

On the other hand, being a remote PM can pose multiple problems. It gets tedious for a product manager to hold online meetings regularly and make calls to many people when they can communicate easily in the office. Additionally, company-to-user interaction also decreases as it is seen that working remotely makes a person less social and interactive with others.

Conclusion

Hybrid work culture is another option that product managers can look into. It is a mix of in-office and remote workplaces that offers flexibility as well as better productivity. In the end, you definitely want some time in the office to network and knowledge share. A good company will give you the autonomy to come in when you need to. It is up to you, as a product manager to determine where the benefit is greater. 

Summary

The article discusses in-office product managers and remote product managers. It talks about which type of workplace provides better productivity to product managers. The product manager’s role includes creating product structure & roadmap process, prioritization of tasks, and proper communication & decision-making. The different types of product managers are designer PM, tech PM, and data PM but on the basis of the workplace used by them, the PMs are classified into in-office PM and remote PM. In-office PM has better interaction with the development team and the stakeholders as compared to remote PM. Whereas remote PM get more work done due to flexibility in time. Hybrid work culture also has its advantages and disadvantages. In hindsight, in-office product managers gain more in a project as compared to remote product managers.