The Importance of Having a Diverse Product Team: Why You Shouldn't Take These Roles for Granted

As a Product Manager, you are likely used to wearing multiple hats and juggling a range of responsibilities. However, if you are fortunate enough to work with a diverse and specialized Product team, you should never take these roles for granted. From the Scrummaster to the User Research specialist, each member brings unique skills and perspectives that are critical for the success of your product.

Whether you work in a pre-revenue startup or a Fortune 500 enterprise, understanding the value of each role and how they contribute to the overall success of your product can help you build a stronger and more efficient team.

Roles of a Diverse Product Team

The Scrummaster

One of the most valuable roles on any Product team is the Scrummaster! This person is responsible for keeping the team on track, removing obstacles, and implementing processes that help accelerate delivery. While it's true that some Product Managers may take on these responsibilities themselves, having a dedicated Scrummaster can free up time and allow the PM to focus on higher-level strategic planning and decision making.

Furthermore, the Scrummaster has a unique perspective on the development process and can help identify areas where improvements can be made. By constantly evaluating and optimizing the team's processes, they can help ensure that projects are delivered on time, within budget, and to the highest possible quality.

The QA Specialist

Another critical role on any Product team is the QA specialist. While Product and development teams should always be testing and validating their work, having a dedicated QA specialist can help alleviate pressure and improve the overall quality of the product. This person is responsible for testing the product thoroughly, identifying bugs and issues, and ensuring that everything is working as expected.

In addition, a QA specialist can also be dedicated to automation, edge case testing, and other types of testing that may be outside of the PM or dev team's expertise. By having someone who is solely focused on quality assurance, you can rest assured that your product is as stable and bug-free as possible.

The Product Designer

Design is often a critical component of any successful product, and having a dedicated Product Designer on your team can be invaluable. This person has the expertise and skills to create visuals, interaction scenarios, and user interfaces that are both functional and visually appealing. They can also work closely with the PM and development team to ensure that the product is meeting user needs and aligning with the overall product vision.

In addition, a Product Designer can bring fresh ideas and perspectives to the table that may not have been considered otherwise. They can help identify areas where the product can be improved, and provide solutions that are both practical and innovative. They are fabulous at taking those back of the napkin sketches you made and turning them into a gorgeous view your users will love!

The User Research Specialist

User research is a critical component of any successful product, and having a dedicated User Research specialist on your team can help ensure that you are truly meeting user needs. This person is responsible for designing and executing qualitative interviews, conducting market research, and providing deep insights into user behavior and preferences.

While it's true that Product Managers should also be conducting user research, having a dedicated specialist can take this process to the next level. They can bring expertise in areas such as survey design, user testing, and data analysis, providing valuable insights that can inform product decisions and help improve the overall user experience.

The Data Scientist

Data analysis is becoming increasingly important in the world of Product Management, and having a dedicated Data Scientist on your team can be incredibly valuable. This person has expertise in mathematics, analysis, and coding, and can help uncover valuable insights from large data sets. 

You must learn to love data analysis as a PM to make evidence based decisions for your product. But this person has expertise in mathematics, analysis, querying and writes code - which is well out of my wheelhouse!

The Product Marketer

Product marketing can help take your product from good to great by ensuring it's effectively communicated to the right audience. Whether it's through messaging, branding, or go-to-market strategy, they bring a unique set of skills that can drive the success of your product.

You may have a general sense of what your product can do and who it's for, but this person can take that information and turn it into a compelling story that resonates with customers. They understand how to use data to inform messaging, develop effective sales enablement materials, and drive demand for your product.

Conclusion

Inevitably as a Product Manager, you will likely have worn a version of each of these hats along your career journey. In fact, getting to bounce between them is one of our favorite things about coming from the scrappy, startup scene. But there is so much respect for the specialty in each of these roles. We love when we see a stacked team that has hit a new level of professionalism just by bringing in these deep levels of expertise. 

Note: We get asked often about the difference between a Product Owner and a Product Manager. This certainly feels confusing with the well known Scrum certification being titled as a Certified Scrum Product Owner. We are happy to connect and share thoughts of a structure recommendation for your team ([email protected]) because there isn't a one-size fits all recommendation. However, our true recommendation to individuals who are in the career search process or hiring managers looking to post a job description is to focus more on the tasks of the role and the culture you are trying to build over the title. As things continue to shake up in our industry, these titles are often being expressed interchangeably. 

Do you have any roles on your product team that we didn't capture? Send them our way! Things are changing so fast still in the product world, and we want to make sure we are keeping this list up to date.