Once I worked in a company that was pretty dedicated to Scrum. It was not uncommon to hear people there complain about Product Management as a backwards, rigid, inhumane approach to product development. In their eyes Product Ownership was clearly the more enlightend approach, and we embraced it fully!

A couple years later I joined another company where they adopted the Product Management mindset. I heard Product Managers there talking about how backwards, rigid, and inhumane Product Ownership was. In their eyes, Product Managementw as clearly the more enlightend approach, and we embraced it fully!

This contrast opened my eyes to something that is now easy for me to see any time the topic of product ownership vs product management pops up:

No matter which school someone belongs to, they seem to have exactly the same complaints about the other.

I tested this theory with a recent LinkedIn poll:

(While those who participated had an apparent preference for the PO school, I expect this is due to a sampling bias, since I have many Scrum practitioners in my network.)

My take away from all of this:

PO vs PM is the wrong debate. Both approaches can be done in backwards, rigid, and inhumane ways. Both can also be done well, with humility, teamwork, and agility.