CIO Mind, The Gartner CIO Podcast

What Is Digital Product Management, and How Should CIOs Be Involved?

Episode Summary

In the March episode of the CIO Mind Podcast 2023 season, Mark Raskino interviews digital product management expert Erin Neus-Cheong about this rapidly advancing discipline, why it matters and how IT executives should engage with it.

Episode Notes

Over the last decade, digital features and value propositions have been inserted into many more products and services. But making sure that happens coherently at scale isn’t easy. A new kind of professional role has emerged to drive the change forward. DPMs have been appearing everywhere from banks to fast-food restaurant chains. We explore the contours of this critical capability and the CIO’s role in helping embed it into the organization.

This episode explores:

• What is a digital product, really? (1:33)
• What is digital product management? (2:53)
• What usually triggers companies to start employing digital product managers (DPMs)? (5:42)
• What should a CIO be doing to initiate or advance digital product management? (8:58)
• What do DPMs do practically day to day? (10:59)
• Where do DPMs live on the org chart? (13:49)
• Where do people hire DPMs from? What backgrounds do they come from? (15:54)

Erin Neus-Cheong is a senior director analyst in Gartner’s Executive Leadership of Digital Business group. Erin covers digital product strategy, product leadership and product-centric organizations. She is an experienced product leader with significant expertise in product-led transformation and the transition to a product-led organization.