What's The Difference Between Product Operations and Business Operations

Operations teams can be funny: people are not completely sure what their role is. On top of this, we add that they can be product or business focused (even other disciplines), well, now everyone is confused.

What is Product Operations?

They are teams that aim to build systems (operations) that help product teams to do their job. They aim to make operations smooth, provide scalable solutions, and repeatable systems that focus on strategy, execution, innovation, and customer satisfaction. 

Typically, they focus on the next disciplines: product management, design, and engineering. Depending on the organization, they can extend to other teams, like data science and QA.

Product operations work closely with the product leaders, lead of product (CPO), lead of design VP of Design) and lead of engineering (CTO).

What is Business Operations

These are teams that aim to build smooth systems that help teams achieve business success. They aim to maximize business performance, revenue, and efficiency. They do this by creating or optimizing processes that help with smooth operations, provide scalable solutions, and repeatable systems, to help create strategies or define market entry.

Typically, they focus on extended teams: sales, marketing, and product. In some companies, they extend to all teams in the organization, whereas in others, they focus on those that are building the product and getting it to the market.

Business operations work closely with the company leadership or executive team.

So how are they different?

If you work in one of these teams, the difference will be obvious, but for others, they might sound very similar. Think of it, as product operations is focusing on achieving product success, while business operations aim to achieve business success. Is a small difference, but the point of view changes quite dramatically.

The tools they need to do their work are often similar, but their intent is quite different.

Product Operations:

• Help teams create a toolkit for teams to do their work. Some examples can be: user stories, jobs-to-be-done, and ideation workshops
• Create processes and definition of done (DoD) to ensure that all work has gone through some stages: discovery, prototyping, planning, implementation, delivery, feedback, and iteration
• Analyze product data and build relevant systems to bring visibility or provide insights to product teams.
• Manage OKRs or KPIs to ensure alignment with strategic goals.

Business Operations:

• Coordinate large-scale initiatives and organizational scaling
• Developing strategies for market entry, typically focused on sales and marketing
• Ensure that internal processes are smooth and efficient accross departments
• Managing and optimizing systems that help developing the business

From Chaos to Business Impact

Strategic alignment is not just a buzzword; it's a proven way to stop wasting resources and start driving real business impact.

Are your product roadmaps costing you wasted effort and missed opportunities? My recent poll of over 400 Product Managers and Leaders revealed a shocking truth: a staggering 72% of roadmaps are NOT strategically aligned, leading to features with no impact and stagnant growth.

In this webinar you'll discover:

• The Hidden Costs: How misaligned roadmaps silently drain resources.

• The 3 Key Problems: Why most product teams struggle to connect strategy to their roadmap.

• The Path to Impact: A simple, actionable framework to refocus your team for measurable business results.

Ready to stop building features and start building business impact? Join my free webinar now.