Lightweight and Heavyweight Product Managers Assignment | Online Assignment
Option #1: Lightweight and Heavyweight Product Managers Paper Briefly describe heavyweight product managers and lightweight product managers. Address the following: Compare and contrast these two types of managers, including their roles and authority. What types of new product development lend themselves well to heavyweight product teams? List two products currently on the market that would benefit from heavyweight teams. Defend your choice for these products being developed by heavyweight product teams. What types of new product development lend themselves well to lightweight product teams? List two products currently on the market that would benefit from lightweight teams. Defend your choice for these products being developed by lightweight product teams. Requirements: Write a four- to six-page paper. Include a title and a reference page. At least four to six scholarly, peer-reviewed references that provide information and guidance for your assignment. The CSU-Global Library (Links to an external site.) is a good place to find these sources. Outside sources include academic and research other than the textbook, course materials, or other information provided as part of the course materials. Follow the formatting outlined in the CSU-Global Guide to Writing and APA (Links to an external site
Lightweight and Heavyweight Product Managers
Baylee Soper
MGT 571 – Strategic Product Innovation
Colorado State University – Global Campus
Dr. Chad McAllister
Lightweight and Heavyweight Product Managers
According to Gorchels (2012), there are two kinds of product managers. One type is known as heavyweight product managers (HPMs), and the other goes by the term known as lightweight product managers (LPMs). But what do these two kinds of product manager types represent? How does being one type differ over the other? In which situations does it benefit for a company to employ one type over another? Below we will tackle these topics in greater detail.
Narrow Versus Wide
According to Gorchels (2012), LPMs tend to stay focused on their own department or area. They do not have much presence or effect outside of their department, they are deficient when it comes to being in regular contact with working-level engineers or with marketing reps, and mostly act as coordinators. The vast majority of their time is spent attending meetings, looking over reports, and composing memos. HPMs however take on a much more comprehensive and integral role in their professional duties and obligations. They typically have extensive knowledge of the product or services at-hand, including even the technical aspects. They have regular communication with the production and sales teams, stay involved with the process of what their company sells or offers from start to finish, and even stay in continual contact with both existing and potential clients/customers.
According to Kuwashima (2013), LPMs fall under a different part of the spectrum. While HPMs are defined by those managers who rate highly when referring to both internal and external integration, LPMs are defined by those managers who rate highly in either internal or external integration. The same concept applies to HPM organizations vs. LPM organizations.
When “Less” is More
According to Charvat (2002), one product that benefits from lightweight product teams would be software. This is because the heavyweight methodology is quite predictable in practice, where the lightweight methodology is more flexible, which actually perfectly suits the more innovative and “freestyle” world of software and software solutions. The lightweight methodology accommodates change very well because the teams developing these products tend to be smaller and so feedback is received very quickly. Those that follow the lightweight methodology are more adept at working with people than processes.
Another product that I believe would benefit from lightweight product teams would be fast food. Like software, fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s, Burger King, and Taco Bell, are constantly testing out new meal offerings and combinations to keep their customers interested in their brand name. McDonald’s and Burger King both have spent the last 5-7 years renovating or in many cases rebuilding their restaurant locations from scratch into newer & more modern-looking establishments designed to entice customers and give the companies a fresh new look. And it works too! I can tell you that a worker at a Burger King near me told me that after undergoing a major renovation of that location, business had gone up a whopping 70% since reopening within the first three months!
When “More” is More
According to Rauniar, Doll, Rawski, & Hong (2008), “the key to product integrity is leadership from heavyweight managers who are generally the chief engineers and thus are technical experts. Such managers focus on devising processes to create powerful product concepts and making sure that the concepts are translated into design and manufacturing process details”. (Rauniar et al. 2008) Rauniar et al. (2008) mention that a product that benefits from heavyweight product teams would be the automobile, or the automobile manufacturing industry itself. This is due mainly to the fact that the heavyweight methodology has already been executed in this industry, and successfully so! But to be more specific, product managers in this industry are almost always very much involved in the concept of the product at hand by ensuring that the concept is kept robust and integrated into every aspect of their forward-thinking product design as well. Another industry that would benefit from this methodology would be the rubber fabrication industry, which produces products such as tires, belts, hoses, wiper blades, and seals, which all are purchased by the automobile manufacturing industry to use to build the cars they make and sell. This methodology works for them as well because they are so closely related to the automobile manufacturing industry and are known to follow suit.
It is up to the company itself to initially evaluate its intended mission and goals in order to determine whether it should structure itself using HPMs or LPMs. The benefits and consequences of each vary, but one will always fit better into the scope of a given company than the other will. It just takes a keen level of self-awareness to figure out which one that is.
References
Gorchels, L. (2012). The Product Manager’s Handbook (4th Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Kuwashima, K. (2013). Three footnotes to “heavyweight product manager”. Annals of Business Administrative Science, 12(5), 265-276. Retrieved from https://csuglobal.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest
-com.csuglobal.idm.oclc.org/docview/1650498017?accountid=38569
Charvat, J. (2002). Heavyweight vs. lightweight methodologies: Key strategies for development. Retrieved from https://www.techrepublic.com/article/heavyweight-vs-lightweight
-methodologies-key-strategies-for-development/
Rauniar, R., Doll, W., Rawski, G., & Hong, P. (2008). The role of heavyweight product manager in new product development. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 28(2), 130-154. http://dx.doi.org.csuglobal.idm.
oclc.org/10.1108/01443570810846874
