Product department org chart example
A product department of about twenty-five in a software company, drawn around the decision every product chart has to make first: whether product is a strategy function that reports to the chief executive or a delivery function that reports to engineering. This one reports to the CEO, and the chart shows what that costs and buys.
How a product department is usually structured
Product reports to the chief executive through a chief product officer in companies that treat it as strategy, and to the CTO or COO in companies that treat it as delivery. Which one says what the product team is allowed to decide. Draw the executive above the department, and draw the VP of engineering beside it, because the product chart is half about the border with engineering: every product director is paired with an engineering counterpart, and the dotted lines make the pairs visible.
Product management mirrors engineering on purpose: a director for each area the engineering teams are organized around, core and growth here, with product managers stacked beneath, so that every engineering team has a product manager and every product manager has a team. Design is a department of its own under a head of design, with a design lead over the designers and a UX writer, not a pool of designers borrowed by product managers. User research is small, reports to the CPO rather than to design, and belongs to nobody's roadmap, which is the only way its findings get believed.
Product operations is the CPO's instrument: the analysts who own the metrics, the tooling and the roadmap process, beside the directors rather than under them, so the numbers that judge a director are not produced by the director's own team. The last line on the chart is a border: product marketing sits in marketing, with a solid line to the CMO and a dotted line to the CPO, which is the same arrangement the marketing department page draws from its side.
Typical titles by level
The vocabulary these charts use, from the top down. Titles vary by country and by company; the levels don't.
| Level | Titles you'll see |
|---|---|
| Leadership | Chief Product Officer, VP of Product, Head of Product; Head of Design, Head of User Research |
| Directors and leads | Director of Product (by area), Group Product Manager, Design Lead, Research Lead, Product Operations Manager |
| Product, design and research | Senior Product Manager, Product Manager, Associate Product Manager, Senior Product Designer, Product Designer, UX Writer, User Researcher, Product Analyst |
| Extended team | Product Design Intern; research recruiting and design agencies (as contractors); product marketing managers (in marketing, dotted-lined to product) |
Where these charts go wrong
Product charts fail by drawing product managers under engineering managers, which makes them project managers; by borrowing designers into product teams with no design lead, so the discipline dissolves; by putting research inside design, where it confirms the design; by moving product marketing into product with no line to marketing, so launches surprise the people who announce them; and by giving the CPO twelve direct reports because every product manager was made a peer.
Questions people ask
- Who does product report to?
- The chief executive, through a chief product officer, in companies where product decides what gets built; the CTO or COO in companies where product schedules what engineering or the business has decided. Neither is wrong, but the chart should say which, because a product team drawn under the CEO and treated as a delivery function spends its year confused.
- How many product managers should a director of product have?
- Four to six, each paired with an engineering team. Above six the director stops seeing the product; below three the director is a senior product manager with a title. The directors map to the engineering areas, so the answer is usually decided by how engineering is organized.
- Should designers report to product or engineering?
- To a head of design, who reports to the CPO, with each designer assigned to a product area. Designers under product managers lose their discipline; under engineering managers they lose their say. A design department beside product, with a lead who owns careers and standards, is the shape that keeps both.
- Where does product marketing sit?
- In marketing, with a solid line to the CMO and a dotted line to the chief product officer. Product marketing turns the roadmap into positioning and launches, so it works with product every day and belongs to marketing for the calendar and the standards. Inside product, launches surprise marketing; inside marketing with no line to product, positioning surprises the engineers.
Other industries
- ManufacturingTwo shifts, and quality kept out of production's line.
- LogisticsDispatch runs the day; supervisors run the people.
- ConstructionOffice and field, meeting on every project.
- Software startupSquads under a CTO; product managers on a dotted line.
- NonprofitThe board on top, programs beside the money.
- Medical practiceA clinical line and a business line, crossing at nursing.
- SchoolDepartments led by teachers who also manage.
- HotelSix divisions around one general manager.
- Marketing agencyDisciplines own people; pods own the work.
- Security & facilities servicesSites stacked under supervisors; a 24-hour control room.
- Sales teamRegions for closers, a team for openers, RevOps beside them.
- Accounting firmA partner pyramid, three service lines.
- Law firmPractice groups, and the business side that runs the firm.
- ChurchA board that governs, a pastor who leads, ministries below.
- RestaurantFront of house and back of house, meeting at the pass.
- IT departmentRun, build and secure, under one director.
- HR departmentPartners, specialists and operations: the three legs.
- Local governmentElected above appointed, and two officers who answer to the council.
- Utility companyField crews, a 24-hour control center, and a regulator in the room.
- BankThree lines of defense, drawn as lines.
- Staffing agencySales desks, recruiting desks, and a back office that pays two thousand people.
- HospitalTwo hierarchies that meet at the bedside.
- Retail chainHead office, the field, and a store drawn once.
- Small businessOne owner, two managers, and the jobs the owner still does.
- Finance departmentAccounting closes the books; FP&A says what they mean.
- Marketing departmentDemand, product, brand, and the operations under all three.
- Customer service departmentTeams on the floor; quality, training and scheduling beside them.
- Engineering departmentProduct teams under a VP of engineering; platform, data and security under the CTO.
- Operations departmentSupply chain, fulfillment and the functions that keep both honest.
- Consulting firmThree practices, one firm behind them, and no engagement on the chart.
- Real estate brokerageAgents who are not employees, on the chart anyway.
- Insurance agencySales on one side, service on the other, and the lines where they meet.
- Dental practiceA clinical line the law draws, and a business line the office manager runs.
- UniversityAn academic line and an administrative line, and governance kept off the chart.
- E-commerce companyThe site is the store, the warehouse is a contractor, and the lines between them are drawn.
- Veterinary clinicThe doctors own the medicine, the manager owns the day, and the technicians answer to both.
- Auto dealershipThe front end sells the cars; the back end pays the bills; the chart shows where they meet.
- School districtSchools on one line, the money on another, and a board that governs from a second chart.
- Police departmentPatrol takes the calls, investigations takes the cases, and professional standards answers to the chief alone.
- Nursing homeThe administrator holds the license, the director of nursing holds the building, and the survey reads both lines.
- Property management companyThe owners and the boards are clients, the site staff are employees, and the chart is where the two facts meet.
Or start from a structure — functional, divisional, matrix or flat — or from your own spreadsheet. The guides cover a reorg, a merger, an assistant's chart and a consultant's deliverable.
Make it yours
Download the spreadsheet, replace the names, import it — the chart redraws itself. Or start empty and drag people until it's true. Building is free at any size.