Role clarity is how well you understand what’s expected from you and what you expect from others during collaboration. This usually has some general aspects such as what’s expected from a Senior PM in your organization, but often also has context-related aspects such as how to best act as a Senior PM within a particular team given its scope, the current situation, and the other team members involved.

Clarifying roles is even more crucial in temporary collaborations such as working groups or multi-team efforts for a joint product initiative. Sometimes this is just about who will feel responsible for scheduling a follow-up meeting or informing others of the progress, but it also involves mandates for decision-making.

As a PM it’s important not to rely on your superiors to provide complete role clarity for you, but to take the initiative to create it whenever you notice ambiguity.

Part 1 in a series on clarity, the superpower of product people.

Pushing for clarity is our job as product managers.

A lightly biased analogy

Why product managers need to take the driver seat in getting alignment for their product.