Marie C. Cassandra

One of our group members, brought his UX Designer along for the discussion. Having a UX representative at the table was a great addition to the discussion. They both strongly felt that UX & PM should be side-by-side, collaborative teams. Here are some paraphrased thoughts from the rest of the table:

• COLLABORATION. Everyone has buy in to the product, the PM drives the priorities, requirements, and communication.
• A PM can’t be good PM without some UX skills and vice versa.
• Organization depends on the industry or the software methodology. Side-by-side probably makes more sense for agile environments whereas it might make sense for UX to report in to Product for a more traditional top-down waterfall environment.
•  Counterpoint: In an agile environment, hierarchy becomes even more important because you have to make quick decisions.
• UX should report into Product because the PM is the CEO of the Product. BUT it’s important to remember that good CEOs don’t make all final decisions- they have the wisdom to know when to defer to the right people to make a decision. 
• One member pointed out that UX is an aspect of the Product, so UX should report into Product.
• The org structure is not as important as actual project practice. Dev, UX, and PMs should work together as a team with Product having final sign-off. Ultimately, it’s an issue of trust and control. If you have those two elements, the org chart doesn’t really matter.
• Lateral teams work well where PM has final word on marketing and requirements while UX has last word about visual design and interaction.

Someone proposed that 

but most disagreed and felt strongly that Product should strongly care about the user too.

By far the group favorite was proposed by Tom: 

After our discussion, I found the slide pictured above which I also think does a good job of breaking down the roles. 

Agree? Disagree? Please comment below!