What does a Program Manager at Microsoft do?

One of the hardest questions that I face is “What does a Program Manager at Microsoft do?”

Well, Steve Sinofsky has a pretty good answer here:

Steven Sinofsky’s Microsoft TechTalk : PM at Microsoft

Program managers got started at Microsoft while developing Excel for the Macintosh.

[snip]

Where developers were focused on code, architecture, performance, and engineering, the PM would focus on the big picture of “what are we trying to do” and on the details of the user experience, the feature set, the way the product will get used. In fact the job has matured significantly and it is almost impossible to document a complete list of the responsibilities of program management. One way to do that is to list the sections of a specification for features in Office that a PM would complete before the code gets written which includes nailing the scenario you are solving for, the worldwide implications (will your work make sense to customers in China, India, Estonia), how will developer customers extend the product (object models, programmability), is the product secure and is privacy maintained, what are the other features your work interacts with, will the feature be responsive and performant, and more. These are critical parts of the design of any product, and when you will have 400 million potential customers thinking these through before you start the work is critical.

[snip]

But if you’re doing something new and innovative or more importantly if you want more than incremental feedback then you need to have much more sophisticated mechanisms than just beta feedback from power users. Most importantly, the role of PM is to represent all customers, not just the ones who do beta tests or the ones who take the time to send in feedback or use early products. A key skill of program management is to have empathy with a broad range of customers. Often when you are just getting started you will see how easy it is to over-emphasize early power user feedback or anecdotes over broad based feedback. Don’t get me wrong, power users are great but they are just one type of user. A great advocate for the “little guy” is Walt Mossberg and he really does point out when you’re missing the mark on a product and too focused on “techies” as he calls them. The bottom line is that most people are not techies, but most beta customers and most early adopters are so you as a PM have to do the leg work to validate your work with a broader audience.

Do read the full entry!

Edit: Updated the URL to point to one specific entry.