SAFe is one of the largest frameworks for scaling agile across the enterprise. It is home to hundreds of the world’s largest organizations. The framework is a body of knowledge that provides you guidance on roles and responsibilities, how to plan and manage the work, and how to uphold the values. 

It is designed to help businesses at every stage and deliver the desired value. It provides knowledge of tried and tested practices to support enterprise dexterity. It is an Agile framework for development teams built on three pillars: 
 

• Team
• Program
• Portfolio
   

TEAM – The success of any project depends upon its team. A team can both make and break the project. It should be able to develop a cadence and release on demand. Agile methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban are used by the team to deliver the software conveniently.
 

PROGRAM – The program level involves the making of strategy from the production to sales and organization of agile teams into an ART to coordinate the delivery of value in program increments (PI).
 

PORTFOLIO – Portfolio is set by the business organizations, to define the portfolio vision, business strategy, budget allocation, marketing, and sales.
 

SAFe is designed in a way that it provides team flexibility at various levels and manages some of the challenges faced by large organizations while practicing Agile. SAFe is not a single methodology, but a set of methods and proven practices that real teams have followed to bring out the best results and deliver the software products successfully.
 

Product Management comes under the PROGRAM level. From the making of the product to its launch, all the work is handled by Product Management, headed by the Project Manager. 
 

Product Managers have several responsibilities from looking after the manufacturing of the product (physical or software) to its successful launching. 
 

A Product Manager is a person who identifies the needs of the customer, demands of the market according to the current scenario, and the larger business objectives that the product would fulfill. He/She would predict the desired success and would work to achieve it in any way possible. He needs to have a far vision and plans ready to execute, when in need.
 

A Product Manager should possess the following characteristics:
 

• Understanding of market and latest trends and develop competitive analyses.
   
• Understanding and prioritizing customer needs and making changes accordingly.
   
• He should have a far vision.
   
• Should be capable enough to align stakeholders around the vision of the product.
   
• Should be able to gain the interest of the people in the product and would come up with great ideas for Marketing of the same.
   

Product Management plays a crucial role in SAFe. This team is responsible for developing a strategy to make a product, understanding the needs of the customer, demands of the market, and prioritizing features according to them. It is their responsibility to make sure that the product delights the customers and turns out to be profitable for the business or enterprise.

Every organization has its definition of the role of Product Manager, so as Scaled Agile framework. 
 

Role of a Product Manager in Scaled Agile Framework ( SAFe)
 

The Product Manager plays a key role in SAFe and is the entity with several responsibilities. Owners of SAFe have their definition of the role of Product Management and Product Manager. The definition is concordant with the core responsibilities of the Product Manager. But SAFe comes with its guidelines which are to be followed by whoever is serving as a Product Manager.
 

Product Managers in SAFe generally perform all the roles that a Product Manager does that is to have a far vision of the product, creating and explaining interactive ways to carry out the work at different levels, understanding the needs of the customer, and making it a priority for the product, making program backlogs and sizing features to fit in a PI(program increment).
 

Product Managers need to be updated with the new market trends and keep a check on the changing needs of the customers to continue making improvements in the product. Ultimately, a Product Manager is responsible for the success of the product. To build the features from the idea; the Kanban system is used to manage the flow from building to initial release. The Agile teams implement these features after they are broken down and since the teams work on different levels, the work is then integrated by the Product Manager.
 

What are the key roles of a Product Manager in SAFe?
 

Product Managers have numerous responsibilities and play a very important role in the success of any product. Their responsibilities include vision and roadmap, understanding customer needs, understanding demands of the market according to the current scenario, Program Backlog, Program PI, and Certifying features. 
 

Given below is a brief explanation of the number of responsibilities of a Product Manager in SAFe:
 

Vision
 

The vision defined by the Product Manager should align with the goals of the organization for both the long and short term keeping in mind the needs of the customers. The whole roadmap is defined by the Product Managers based on various delivery mileposts
 

Understanding customer needs
 

One of the main functions of the Product Manager is to understand the needs of the customer and prioritize them in the product and for this, he needs to have enough knowledge of the market and the ongoing trends. A Product Manager continuously needs to explore the market to develop a better understanding of the requirements of the customers. He needs to be familiar with the current needs of the customer and make variations accordingly. 

This is a really important role, played by a Product Manager to delight the customers with the product which satisfies their needs.
 

Understanding the business needs
 

It is the responsibility of the Product Manager to develop a product in a way that it meets the demands of the customer as well as the market and turns out to be profitable for the business. 

The product should be updated enough to attract the customers and the stakeholders who would further market it. A Product Manager looks after all these things and plays a vital role in the product’s success.
 

Program Backlog
 

The Product Manager is tasked to create the Program Backlog so that the features approved by the management can be implemented in the next update. Usually, the WSJF( Weighted Shortest Job First) is used for analysis before the features are pushed into the program Kanban.
 

Program Increment Planning
 

PI planning involves creating the roadmap and the features as defined by the Product Management in the Program Backlog. The features are then reviewed by the Agile teams and the overall target is set after going through the PI.

The Last step involves analyzing the results obtained and making the variations according to them, which in turn bring changes to the roadmap and rate of the upcoming PI’s
 

Certifying features
 

A demo of the product is made before it comes to market to ensure that it is up to the mark and overcomes the shortcomings if any. Product Managers and Product Owners are collectively responsible for the demo. This is an important step to gather feedback regarding the product from primary stakeholders and review progress. Necessary changes are then made. Product Management then verifies features and the product is all set to release.

Product Managers in SAFe work with different roles including Product Owners, Business Owners, customers, solution managers,large-starchitects, or engineers.

Product Managers work with business owners to ensure the delivery of desired business outcomes by PIs.

Customers are the internal and external buyers of the solution. It is the responsibility of Product Managers to win the attraction of the customers and receive feedback to continuously make improvements in the product and gain profit.

Each Agile team has a separate Product owner who is answerable to the team during development. He needs to have a thorough knowledge of the product. The product owner works along with the Product Management to manage program increments.

Solution managers are needed to build large-scale solutions with multiple Agile release trains. The solution manager is authorized to prepare a solution backlog and works with a solution train engineer and solution architect to deliver solutions. They work closely with the Product Manager to ensure the delivery of solutions.

System architects or engineers are the ones who are responsible for providing technical support to the Agile release train. They keep a check on any technical issue and solve it as soon as possible. Product Managers work with system architects or engineers to fulfill the technical requirements to support the solution.

SAFe is a set of organizations that help large enterprises to build and deliver better software by keeping them updated with the new market trends, customer needs, and latest technology. 

It provides enterprises with a framework that is tried and tested and has proven successful. 

Product Managers in SAFe play a vital role by guiding the team at every stage and helping them in the execution of what was planned. They are the ones who work continuously from the laying of plans to the launch of the product and are responsible for the success of the product.  

Simpliaxis is one of the leading professional certification training providers in the world offering multiple courses related to SAFe methodologies. We offer numerous SAFe related courses such as Leading SAFe® (6.0) Certification Training, SAFe® 6.0 Scrum Master (SSM) Certification Training, SAFe®6.0 Product Owner/Product Manager Certification Training,SAFe® Advanced Scrum Master (SASM) Certification Training, Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) Certification Training, SAFe® 6.0 Architects Certification Training, SAFe® for Teams Certification Training, SAFe® 6.0 DevOps Certification Training, SAFe® Agile Product Management Training (SAFe® APM) Certification Training and much more. Simpliaxis delivers training to both individuals and corporate groups through instructor-led classroom and online virtual sessions.