Music & Product Management

I am willing to bet that Lionel Richie did not think of himself as a Product Manager when he worked on the famous song of We Are The World in 1985.

However, watching the documentary, “The Greatest Night in Pop” via Netflix it is easy to make the comparison after hearing him utter the below words:

“I’m walking around to each little camp, putting out fires…”

“One line you can never use in life…I’m not sure about this what do you think? We have 47 artists if you say that you’ll have 47 different versions of We Are The World…so my job was to make sure, under no circumstances do we veer off what it is…”

In the first weekend it debuted, it sold a million copies. I would say that is a very successful launch. 

Lionel states it is the greatest achievement in his lifetime, not being able to compare it to any awards he won prior for his own individual music. 

We are continually reminded that you can be a Product Manager without the official title.