Inbound Product Management vs Outbound Product Management :

Have been witnessing a lot of questions from the PM community on this differentiation in a few enterprises.

Product Management is an ever-evolving role that requires one to be adept at the changes in the larger business landscape.

Enterprise Product Management is these days divided into two buckets:

1. Outbound PM &
2. Inbound PM

Outbound Product Manager's main focus area is on
a. Go-To-Market Strategy (Roadmap against market competition)

b. Competitive Analysis

c. Research Analysis

d. Identifying Customers needs

e. Assist Sales, Marketing Teams

The main goal of an Outbound PM is to increase the top line of an enterprise by driving sales.

On the other hand, the Inbound Product manager's area of focus is on

a. Execution (Roadmap against Tech capabilities & Constraints)

b. Design

c. Customer loyalty

d. Customer feedback

e. Stay close to the Dev team and work with them

f. Reduce spillover costs (Tech Debt reduction etc)

This list should not restrict the Inbound PM into venturing into customer need analysis, defining problem statements or competitive analysis etc that an Outbound PM is expected to do.

For starters, Inbound PM is a good way to learn and closely work in tandem with Outbound PM’s to learn and grow.

Stages of Product Life Cycle and type of PMs involved:

Inbound PM vs OutBound PM

Product Initiation Phase — Outbound (Work with research teams)

1. Identify Customer Problems (Focused Group Discussions, Surveys, Observations etc)
2. Build Hypothesis
3. Market Research
4. Competitive Analysis
5. Define Problem, Define Success Criteria (North Star metrics)

Product Development Phase — Inbound (Work with Dev Team, Designers and Architects)

1. Create Roadmaps
2. Milestones
3. Epics → Features — -> User Stories
4. Work with Tech Architects, Engineers, and other stakeholders like legal, compliance, privacy etc
5. UAT and Deployment — Beta testing in real-time

Product Growth Phase — Outbound (Work with Sales and Marketing)

1. User behavior studies (through defined metrics)
2. Interviews or observations of the Product in real-time
3. Work on feedback loops (Surveys, customer support inputs etc)
4. Plan to scale the Product to the next level
5. Identify next-phase Product Enhancements
6. Validate the growth into different marketplaces, geographies

Product Maturity Phase — Inbound (Work on feedback & retention)

1. Make sure user retention and usage does not fall off track
2. ROI on the product is maintained

Product Decline Phase — Both

1. How to sunset the product
2. Make sure all info is sent across to stakeholders and road ahead

So which one to choose?

The differentiation one can draw from above:
1. Outbound is more leaning towards the business side of things and

2. Inbound is more towards the Tech side of things for better execution.

For becoming an effective PM in the due course of time — you have no option but to become an enterprise PM who has the skillset and knowledge of both.

It is not an Either/Or question but a balancing act of PMs to focus on a given area based on one’s product maturity and organizational goals.

#ProductManagement #ProductManagers #PM #OutboundPM #InboundPM #KPKR