Pros/Cons of Product Management Reporting Structures

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The Cranky Product Manager received a boatload of intelligent comments on last week's post Why It Doesn't Matter Where Product Management Lives in the Organization.

Check out the comments if you got the time. Shockingly, a lot of them disagree with the Cranky Product Manager. (Shocking! Don't they realize that it is THE Cranky Product Manager, diva of the known universe, they are arguing with! The nerve!) These abberants say it DOES matter where PM reports and, indeed, it is utterly essential that Product Management report directly to the CEO.

In fact, one commenter even claimed he would get violent about it!

Appalling!

Anyway, to summarize, here's the reasons these commenters gave as to why it is better for PM to report directly to the CEO:

  • Better mentorship & training of newby PMs.
  • PMs are happier if they report into the CEO.
  • Better job security, because otherwise headcuts will disproportionately affect PM.
  • When you visit customers, they feel more important when they know you report directly to the CEO.
  • It's better to have the PM function report to the CEO if your boss is a weak leader or a schmuck.
  • Other organizations will respect you more if you report to the CEO.
  • Less budget constraints preventing travel to visit customers.
  • Less losing arguments to developers because they escalate to the VP of Engineering (who is also your boss).
  • "If you report to a VP of engineering or marketing,...then your boss will never really be happy anyway, since they won't really care about what you do for the other organizations of the company."