What’s the difference between a product manager and a business analyst?
“Hi Jock, What’s the difference between a product manager and a business analyst?”
Author: Jock Busuttil
Jock Busuttil is a product management and leadership coach, product leader and author. He has spent over two decades working with technology companies to improve their product management practices, from startups to multinationals.
In 2012 Jock founded Product People Limited, which provides product management consultancy, coaching and training. Its clients include BBC, University of Cambridge, Ometria, Prolific and the UK’s Ministry of Justice and Government Digital Service (GDS).
Jock holds a master’s degree in Classics from the University of Cambridge. He is the author of the popular book The Practitioner’s Guide To Product Management, which was published in January 2015 by Grand Central Publishing in the US and Piatkus in the UK.
He writes the blog I Manage Products and weekly product management newsletter PRODUCTHEAD. You can find him on Mastodon, X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn.
PRODUCTHEAD: Content design
» Use the language of your audience
» Easy-to-read content is accessible and inclusive
» Even experts prefer plain language
» Content design can be done on a tight budget when needed
PRODUCTHEAD: Rearranging the deckchairs
» Procrastinating on a TED talk about procrastination
» How to get stuff done if you’re a procrastinator
» Using procrastination to your advantage
75: The dirty little secrets of decision making
I’ve been thinking about decision making. What makes one decision better than another?
PRODUCTHEAD: Have you been having visions?
» The vision describes the future we are trying to create
» It is a first filter for new ideas and change requests
» Mission, vision and other concepts are often confused with each other
» Have one overarching product vision, not lots of smaller ones
PRODUCTHEAD: The plummeting price of power
» Scientists have solved a problem preventing the commercial production of more efficient solar panels
» Solar generated electricity is now cheaper than fossil fuels
» Tesla’s South Australia battery farm is saving tens of millions of dollars
» South Australia spent an hour powered solely by solar, 77% of which came from consumers’ home panels
» The cost of US battery farm projects has dropped 70% in 3 years
» Tesla’s battery innovations would result in cost dropping by half, capacity increasing by half
» The convergence of green technologies would lead to explosive growth
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla conducting at the BBC Proms 2020 (Credit: BBC)
Misunderstood metaphors: Product manager as conductor
Product managers are sometimes referred to as the conductor of the orchestra. Some people think that the conductor’s job is to direct the players, to lead them through the music. That would be to misunderstand the relationship. Instead, here’s a different take.
PRODUCTHEAD: Hardware’s harder to manage
» Changing a hardware product iteration has a 12-18 month lead time
» Having more parties involved in manufacturing means higher costs and squeezed profits
» “Building in hardware ‘security’ mechanisms is just always a double-edged sword”
PRODUCTHEAD: Hieranarchy
» Hierarchy in organisations appeals to our innate need for stability, but turns us into ego-driven and needy children
» Nature abhors a hierarchy. What if there was a viable alternative way to organise ourselves?
» Valve Corporation shows new employees how an organisation can operate without hierarchy
Growing together: developing and retaining your product team
34.2% of product managers said they left their previous role because there were no opportunities to grow.
In this panel discussion, Lucie McLean (Zalando) discusses growth and career progression for product managers with Jock Busuttil (Product People Limited) and Daniil Pavliuchkov (Tier).
