Business Case Studies & Business Publications

Project Management Versus Product Manage...

Cowan, Alex, Grush...

Technical Note

Project Management Versus Product Management

Cowan, Alex; Grushka-Cockayne, Yael

OM-1845 | Published November 12, 2025 | 15 Pages Technical Note

Collection: Darden School of Business

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Whether formally or informally, we’re all managing projects and refining products. Neither project management nor program management is going anywhere, and every general manager should be familiar with the fundamentals of both, important distinctions between them, and how they interact with and complement each other. In this technical note, readers will learn which approach works best under conditions of certainty or uncertainty, how to charter a project and a product, how to strategically minimize waste, and, importantly, how to manage for outcomes. At the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, this note is taught in the second-year “Digital Product Management” course; it would also be suitable in a module introducing product or project management.

(1) Analyze a given endeavor in terms of its certainties versus uncertainties, particularly those related to outcomes and deliverables; (2) minimize waste by simplifying and minimizing the footprint of critical constraints; and (3) facilitate and steward team charters with domain-appropriate methods across project and product management.