[codingdave]

All software companies have someone fulfilling this role, it just isn't always a full-time job with that title. Somebody is deciding what the product will do. In tiny companies, it may be the founders. As it grows, that may filter down to other teams. Or, if nobody takes on the role, the engineers will take it by default because they are literally the ones who choose what the product does as they write it.

As your company grows, it easily becomes a full-time job, if not a full team. It has nothing to do with 'Project Managers' from the 90s. It actually is not about project management at all in many cases... the engineering teams run their own processes. But it is about making sure they are solving the right problems, at the right time, in the right way. (Meaning, correct consumer experience... Product Managers should not be telling the engineers what to do on the technical side.)