I’m particularly interested in the product manager function both from an improve-my-everyday-work perspective as well as this-could-be-the-next-step-in-my-career point of view.  And what found today is this:

• Product Managers are the customer/are not the customer.
• Product Managers occupy a very interesting intersection between senior management, marketing, and development (mind you, this is biased towards my background in software development, YMMV when it comes to physical goods).
• Product Managers communicate a lot/do not communicate enough.

What do I do with this as a project manager in a Engineering organization (not a rhetorical question)?  More on this topic later!