What does product management involve in relation to a product or service?

Product management primarily involves managing a product as a business entity. This encompasses a wide range of responsibilities aimed at ensuring a product's success in the market, which includes strategic planning, market research, understanding customer needs, defining product vision, and aligning it with overall business goals. Effective product management requires knowledge of both the market context and the competitive landscape, and it often entails coordinating cross-functional teams to deliver a product that meets user expectations while also generating revenue.

While developing new features, providing customer support, and training users are important aspects of product management, they are more specific tasks that fall under the broader umbrella of managing the product as a business. For instance, developing new features is part of ensuring the product remains relevant and competitive but does not capture the overall responsibility of driving the product's financial and market performance. Similarly, customer support and user training are critical for user satisfaction and product adoption, but they are operational functions rather than strategic management practices. Thus, managing a product as a business entity covers the holistic approach necessary for product success.