At my company this is true [1]. I personally don't get to work with product managers (who work in biz dev mostly and do not work with developers/researchers/etc...), only program managers.
From wiki:
> Diverse interpretations regarding the role of the product manager are the norm. The product manager title is often used in many ways to describe drastically different duties and responsibilities. Even within the high-tech industry where product management is better defined, the product manager's job description varies widely among companies. This is due to tradition and intuitive interpretations by different individuals.
From wiki:
> Diverse interpretations regarding the role of the product manager are the norm. The product manager title is often used in many ways to describe drastically different duties and responsibilities. Even within the high-tech industry where product management is better defined, the product manager's job description varies widely among companies. This is due to tradition and intuitive interpretations by different individuals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_manager
I only mentioned it because I was intentionally talking about project managers, who are often confused with product managers anyways, e.g. see:
https://www.linkedin.com/grp/post/42629-100151081
[1] http://www.quora.com/What-does-a-Microsoft-Product-Manager-d...