Is there a lack of consensus amongst moderators about Product Management questions?

Question

Today I posted my first PM.SE question, which was clearly tagged as 'Product-Management' (existing tag), and asked a question about licensing, which IMV is absolutely in the thick of Product-Management domain. It deals with positioning, pricing, go-to-market and licensing. However, it was flagged, and I conceded by deleting the question. However, on searching again the SE site, I hit upon the following Meta question, which seems to indicate that it was indeed on topic, or at least not absolutely off-topic.

Is there a misunderstanding on my part of what the linked meta Q&A says, or is there a lack of consensus amongst the mods here? It is not a rhetorical question.

Here are examples of somewhat popular questions (with well upvoted & accepted answers) that are tagged as 'Product-Management' questions, for whom I see no real relationship with Project Management.

• What are Some Tools and Techniques for Communicating Product Updates to Existing Customers?
• How and What to Learn - New to Product Management

Kindly note that while I'm new to PM.SE, I have spent a while on SE/SO, even if not a veteran. Not using that as an excuse for any special favours, but just to say that I'm aware of the SE general etiquette, and prior research.

Answer 1

First, the question you should be asking is "Is there a consensus among the community", not moderators, as it is the community here who runs this site. Diamond moderators are here to handle exceptional circumstances. The 5 users who voted to close your post are all users of Project Management Stack Exchange who have contributed enough to gain the close/reopen privilege. Closing and reopening questions is part of the regular workflow for all users with at least 500 reputation, in order to help ensure we get the best content possible. This helps attract great project managers to our site and makes the Internet a better place.

Is the question a good fit for Stack Exchange?

Stack Exchange, all Stack Exchange sites, are Questions and Answers sites, meaning that questions are expected to be written in a way to where there is a finite answer or at least a handful of answers without there being infinite possibilities. The first part of your question is as follows:

Looking for ideas on as many licensing models as possible...

This is what Stack Exchange refers to as a polling question, and over the years we've learned these questions don't fit well with our Q&A model. First, it's difficult to evaluate which answers are more "correct", since every answer can be correct, and second, it creates a lot of noise making it harder for future visitors with a similar problem to quickly determine if the question or answers will help them. For idea generation, a traditional forum may be better than a Stack Exchange site.

Is product management on topic on Project Management Stack Exchange

The meta question you referenced was asked on day 2 of this site's private beta. We hadn't even gone public yet. A Stack Exchange beta site goes through a pain period where the community tries to figure out what the site is about, and in the early days, we weren't sure.

I thought there was a question brought up more recently about product management on this site, but I can't seem to locate it. However, it was discussed in-depth on Area 51, but the proposal for Product Management has since been deleted since the product management community has been unable to get enough committed users to launch a site. Thus, I am unable to reference any of the discussions.

I do recall that the product management community wasn't interested in merging with Project Management SE. The folks who posted insisted that project management and product management were completely separate domains.

We've not made it official, but it seems to me that product management would be off topic. If anyone from the community would like to weigh in, please do. Furthermore, those who think the two product management questions should be closed can use their close votes to put those posts on hold to help eliminate any future confusion about our site's scope. Hope this helps!

Answer 2

TL;DR

Product management as it relates to project management is certainly on-topic here, but other aspects of product or portfolio management are out of scope. In particular, the roles and responsibilities of a Product Manager within a given project-management framework are likely to be very much within the scope of this site.

Analysis of Your Referenced Questions

The questions you reference are legacy questions. Specifically:

• What are Some Tools and Techniques for Communicating Product Updates to Existing Customers?

  This question is a polling question, and as such is not a good question. However, it is on-topic because it is primarily about communications management, which is key to the success of any project management framework.

  It should probably be edited, but because it is a legacy question and has upvoted and accepted answers, the question shouldn't be ret-conned in a way that invalidates the existing answers.

  Net result: I left it alone, but wouldn't object to it's closure (but not deletion) as opinion-based.

• How and What to Learn - New to Product Management

  This question is a polling question, too broad, off-topic for project management, and a general all-around poor fit for both Stack Exchange and this site. It also doesn't conform to our current Help Center guidelines.

  Net result: I've voted to close it, although it is unlikely to be deleted altogether since it has upvoted and accepted answers.

• What are the licensing models for selling API on cloud?

  This question was deleted by the original poster, so most users can't see the linked question. In brief, the question boiled down to:

  Looking for ideas on as many licensing models as possible, for selling API on cloud? ...I am more interested in learning about the nuances of such models.

  This is a question about issues such as license selection and market analysis, neither of which is framed within a project management context or addresses an issue that would be faced by the typical practitioner of the project management profession. Additionally, it is an open-ended polling question, which would make it a close target even if it happened to be on-topic.

  Net result: The question was closed by the community, and the OP then deleted the post.

Improving the "Product-Management" Tag Excerpt

I agree that the tag excerpt for product-management was unclear. In response to this valid concern, I've clarified the product-management tag with the following guidance:

This tag should be used for questions about Product Management roles and responsibilities within a Project Management framework or context. Questions about the Product Management profession unrelated to project management are off-topic for this site.

Since tags can be edited, the contents of the tag excerpt and wiki may change by the time you read this. Nevertheless, the point is that the PMSE community takes clarity and scope seriously, and I for one appreciate you bringing this concern to meta.