Why is everyone called PM?

• Product Manager focuses on market, customers and product vision, deciding “what to do, for whom”; hailed as “Product CEO”
• Program Manager stands above multiple projects, ensuring projects weave into a chain consistent with strategy, focusing on “Integration and Enablement”
• Project Manager focuses on time, cost, scope triangle, managing “making things happen” through processes and nodes The three have intersections due to organizational scale and industry differences, but thinking levels descend from “Strategy -> Tactics -> Execution”

Core Responsibilities

Project Manager

• Mission: Deliver clear outputs (building built, App launched) and achieve established metrics (Time / Cost / Scope)
• Key Activities: Scheduling, risk control, milestone tracking, stakeholder communication
• Success Indicators: Project on-time rate, budget control rate, scope change frequency

Program Manager

• Mission: Connect multiple projects and processes, deliver measurable “business results” or “strategic transformation outcomes”
• Key Activities: Formulate Roadmap, allocate cross-project resources, governance standardization, measure benefits
• Success Indicators: Added value, strategic goal achievement, organizational capability improvement

Product Manager

• Mission: Find market pain points, define product positioning, continuously drive PMF (Product‑Market Fit)
• Key Activities: Market/User research, product strategy, requirement prioritization, MVP validation
• Success Indicators: ARR / MAU growth, retention rate, customer satisfaction, commercial gross profit