Product Management is a nascent profession – one that arguably didn’t formally exist as recently as 20 years ago. But, the advent of software has thrust this role to the forefront.
Product organizations are lean (in comparison to other functions – e.g., sales, or engineering) but serve the most important function in a technology company. These teams are tasked with the most important decisions – what to build, and therefore how a company will allocate its resources (notably engineering, and eventually sales), and whether the company is successful.
Good decisions lead to market changing products, and bad decisions lead to products that no one buys.

There are two schools of thought with respect to how product teams should make decisions.
School of thought #1 – High speed experimentation.
The prevailing sentiment here is that product managers are responsible for outcomes, not products. How those outcomes are achieved is less relevant. Individual PMs are given full agency to do everything possible to reach a metric, or a key performance indicator.
School of thought #2 – Business Case led analysis.
Companies that take this approach value getting to outcomes as well. But, the outcome in question isn’t the sole variable that determines if the action in question (whether it’s a feature, a marketing tactic, or a strategic choice) is the right one. These companies deploy a more sophisticated set of criteria to analyze the merits of said action.
In this presentation we’ll share perspectives on:
Types of companies where one school of thought prevails over another, and why
Pros and cons of both systems
How to choose the right approach for your team