Recently while discussing product management with the senior managers of division of Thompson Education, I learned they had organized their technology product development teams according to the Product Marketing Triad that was developed by Steve Johnson at Pragmatic Marketing. I hadn’t been aware of this framework before and was impressed by how clearly the the tasks are defined and divided between strategic, technical and marketing roles.

Ah, life should be so simple! Realistically every company, team and project are different, so I would argue for more flexibility in assigning tasks to roles than is suggested by Pragmatic Marketing. Nonetheless, their framework is the best starting point I’ve come across and a welcome addition to the product management tool kit.