Everyone is on the same page when it comes to understanding who exactly the target customer is, what her key goals and pains are, and what solution alternatives are available to her. Nothing can stop them from building a product that will be a runaway success.
Well, not so fast.
It turns out that there is often a striking divide and lack of alignment in terms of understanding users, their goals and pains, and available solution alternatives (alternatives in the sense of competitive products or non-consumption).
Product Management seems to be the least defined and standardized discipline out of the corporate functions — sales, support, HR, finance, engineering, even demand generation tends to have much more standardized structure and best practices.
