What is Product Management?

Imagine you're building a giant LEGO city. The whole process of planning what you need, deciding how to put it all together, managing all the different LEGO blocks, and then making sure everything is working well when you're done is similar to project management.

Product management is a bit different from project management. Let's think about it this way:

Imagine LEGO saw your city and wanted to make it into a set sold in stores. As the product manager, it's your job to ensure that the final LEGO city set is the best it can be. You'll need to understand what kids want in a LEGO city to do this. Do they want more buildings? More parks? More Minifigs? A beach?

It would help if you also considered how kids will use your LEGO city. Is it easy to play with? Is it safe? And how can we make it even better over time? Maybe we'll sell add-on sets like a rocket ship launch pad, a race car track, or a soccer stadium.

That's what product management is like. It's all about making sure that a product (like your LEGO city) is as good as it can be, that people will love it, and it'll be successful when we try to sell it.