Three Footnotes to “Heavyweight Product Manager”

Abstract

This paper suggests three footnotes regarding heavyweight product manager (HWPM). HWPM, a term coined by Fujimoto (1989), refers to powerful managers that act as both internal and external integrators. Footnote 1: Fujimoto (1989) used the term “product manager” for project managers responsible for product development to emphasize their long-term and wide range of responsibilities and authority, which continue even after the completion of a product development project. Footnote 2: The list of internal integration index and external integration index used to measure HWPM and the organizational variables that comprise the two are given in the Appendix of Clark and Fujimoto (1991). However, the organizational variables noted as composition factors for these indices are misprints. In fact, it is necessary to reverse the organizational variables that refer to the indices. Footnote 3: Based on their empirical study, Clark and Fujimoto (1991) classify the following two cases as “lightweight product manager structures.” First is one in which “the degree of internal integration is high while that of external integration is low,” and second is when “the degree of internal integration is low while that of external integration is high.” However, the two product development organizations significantly differ. By classifying them, it is possible to glean deep insights into the relationship between the product development organization and product development performance.