How does the product manager role change when you’re focused on enterprise customers vs mid-market and SMB?

 In the broadest sense, the role of the product manager doesn't change. The customer profile changes, the buying patterns change, and the routes to market change. The core PM responsibilities don't necessarily change. However, many of those customer changes have an impact on how the PM does their job. For example, enterprises often separate the end user (the person who wants to use your product), the decision maker (often someone higher in the user's reporting chain), and the economic buyer (usu ...Read More

Enterprise vs. mid-market vs. SMB customers are typically defined based on the number of employees in the organization and its revenue.  Regardless of the organization size, many of the core PM activities are similar.  However, there are some key differences I’ve experienced that are worth noting.  PMs should keep these in mind and factor them in as they build out their product and release plans. Build for all segments Typically, you’ll have a small number of very large enterprise customers and ...Read More

A product usually graduates from the SMB mid-market customers to larger enterprise customers as it stabilises. Larger enterprises usually look for reference implementations before committing, which usually makes the overall sale that much harder. Some key features that usually cut across product modules that make a product enterprise-grade are: As employee roles & responsibilities tend to be defined in larger orgs, they usually look for granular and flexible user access controls and permissi ...Read More

Irrespective of whether you are a PM building for enterprise customers or mid-market and SMB, the core skills of product management stay the same. You are solving problems, driving outcomes, and building great products with your team. But how you do that changes a lot based on the customer segment. Enterprise PMs have to navigate multiple stakeholders and build flexible systems that can fit into the customer's environment. SMB PMs need to be laser-focused on simplicity, speed, and scale. Both ar ...Read More

I agree with the comments from other responses. There are a few additional items I would add: Additional requirements / taxes When targetting larger enterprises (and some certain vertical in the small/medium space), there will be additional requirements you will need to address. These are not necessarily linked to your product's value itself, but just items that are table stakes to get into the customer. A simple example is security, which though not something to be ignored for within consumer s ...Read More