Product manager
The Product Manager is responsible for the lifecycle of one or more digital workplace products (both commercial platforms or custom-built tools) from requirements and roadmap through to deployment, adoption, and eventual decommissioning. The role works across stakeholder groups to maximise user and organisational value while managing risk, and develops roadmaps that evolve the product to better fit how people work. In the digital workplace context this is most commonly applied to configurable or extensible platforms such as SharePoint, Teams, or an intranet product. Typically the role sits within IT or the Digital Workplace Team.
Also known as
- Product owner
- Digital product manager
- Intranet product manager
- Platform product manager
- Employee experience product manager
- Digital workplace product manager
- Product lead
- Platform owner
Primary responsibilties
- Owns the lifecycle of one or more digital workplace products from requirements through to decommissioning
- Develops and maintains the product roadmap balancing user needs, organisational priorities, and risk
- Works with stakeholder groups to gather requirements, validate solutions, and drive product decisions
- Manages vendor relationships and evaluates new features, releases, and configuration options
- Coordinates delivery of platform changes with IT, communications, and change management teams
- Monitors product performance, usage analytics, and user feedback to inform continuous improvement
Related teams
Skills profile
Apprentice
Practitioner
Master
Intranet and digital workplace
Social and collaboration management
User experience design
Content and communication
Technology and IT management
Outline job description
The Product Manager is responsible for the lifecycle of one or more digital workplace products from requirements and roadmap through to deployment, adoption, and eventual decommissioning. The role focuses on maximising the value employees and the organisation get from configurable platforms like SharePoint, Teams, or an intranet product, while managing risk and keeping pace with how those platforms evolve.
About the role
You'll own the product roadmap, gather and validate requirements, manage vendor relationships, and coordinate delivery across IT, communications, and change management teams. The role requires both analytical rigour and commercial judgement; you need to understand what data and users are telling you, and know what to prioritise and why.
The Product Manager typically sits within the Digital Workplace Team or IT, reporting to the Digital Workplace Manager or a Head of Product. In larger organisations there may be multiple Product Managers each owning a different platform; in smaller ones the responsibilities may be combined with broader digital workplace management.
What you'll actually be doing
You'll be the person who holds the product together: maintaining the roadmap, managing the backlog, working with stakeholders to understand what they need and translating it into requirements that IT and vendors can act on. That involves a lot of facilitation: bringing the right people into the room, mediating between competing priorities, and making clear decisions when things need to move forward.
You'll also be keeping a close eye on how the product is performing through usage analytics, user feedback, and support tickets, and then using that intelligence to inform what comes next. And when something goes wrong or a new platform release arrives, you'll be the person who figures out what it means and what to do about it.
What we're looking for
Proven product management experience with enterprise software, SaaS platforms, or configurable workplace tools. The ability to develop and defend a roadmap, write clear requirements, and make prioritisation decisions transparently. Strong analytical skills and comfort with usage analytics and success metrics.
Stakeholder management is central: you'll regularly need to mediate between competing demands from IT, business units, and end users. Experience in regulated or risk-conscious environments is an advantage.
Typical background
Most people in this role come from business analysis, IT project management, or digital product backgrounds. Formal product management certification is common. Experience with Microsoft 365, SharePoint, or enterprise intranet platforms is typically expected.
In addition, there can be a heavy slice of change management and stakeholder management involved in this role. Product managers may have to advocate for and promote the product they are responsible for, argue a business case for investment and more.
Errors? Disagreements? Omissions?
We have hopefully created these exemplars with thought and care. It is not the only way of looking at these roles and teams in the world, and relates specifically to the intranet and digital workplance profession. It therefore concentrates on some things and ignores others.
If you find an error, disagree wholeheartly or feel there is a glaring ommission we'd love to know.
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.