From the Ask Tom mailbag –
Thumbnail from Tuesday’s post Which Manager is Accountable?
There are three roles in play.
- Product Manager
- Marketing Manager
and
- Marketing Services
The question is, which, of the two managers listed, should be the manager of the Marketing Services role? There are four questions that must be answered before making this decision. So far, we’ve looked at two questions.
- What is the level of work in each role described?
- Which manager is in the best position to bring value to the decisions made and problems solved by the Marketing Services role?
Today, the next question.
- Which manager is accountable for the output (quantity, quality, within timeframe, using allocated resources) of the Marketing Services role?
Make no mistake, in the relationship between the Product Manager and the Marketing Services role, the Product Manager will, appropriately, be making task assignments to the Marketing Services role. But the question is, which manager is accountable for the output?
When the Product Manager appropriately makes task assignments to the Marketing Services role, we have to examine the four pieces of the task assignment – QQTR
- What is the quantity of the output?
- What is the quality standard of the output?
- What is the time span (deadline, evaluation period) of the output?
- What are the allocated resources related to the output?
The specific answers to these questions will help us determine whether the relationship between the Product Manager and the Marketing Services role will be a managerial relationship or a cross-functional relationship.
Here is the critical question? If there is underperformance on the part of the Marketing Services role, does the Product Manager correct and coach, or does the Product Manager ask the Marketing Manager for a different Marketing Services person?
If the Product Manager is expected to coach, then the relationship is more like a managerial relationship. If the Product Manager asks the Marketing Manager to send someone different, then the relationship is more like a cross-functional (service getting) relationship.
Monday, we will look at the last question.
- Is the work assigned to the Marketing Services role by the Product Manager full time or part time, and is the duration of that work forever, or in defined projects that start and stop?