Mobile vs Web Product Management, what’s the difference?

Mobile product management is an area often overlooked in the product space. For those working in the space, growing and launching mobile products requires a different set of challenges and skills.

To unpack these, we spoke with Shir Inbal, Senior Product Manager at Pendo. Shir started out her career in marketing and later transitioned into ad tech as a data analyst. Over time, she found her passion in product management, as she was pulled into the field to have an opportunity to build solutions that solve real problems. Before joining Pendo, she worked in fintech, infrastructure, and cloud-based platforms.

Mobile product management is primarily focused on products that operate on mobile devices—phones, tablets, smartwatches, automotive interfaces, and even smart TVs. While it sounds straightforward, the ecosystem is vast and fragmented. Unlike web-based product management, where a single web agent can serve multiple platforms, mobile requires product teams to work with different operating systems (iOS, Android, etc.), multiple frameworks, and unique device constraints.

At Pendo, we enable mobile product teams by providing analytics, guides, NPS’ and Sentiment analysis to help them understand and improve their users' experience. What makes mobile unique is the need for adaptability. You have to account for different screen sizes, usability challenges, and the fact that mobile users often multitask or switch between devices.

One of the biggest challenges is usability. Mobile screens are small, which means product teams have to be intentional about UI/UX design. Every button placement, pop-up, or tooltip can impact user engagement.

Another challenge is user focus. People use mobile apps while doing other activities—commuting, watching TV, or even walking. This means they’re less focused than they would be while using a web app at a desk. As a mobile product manager, you have to account for these distractions and design experiences that are clear and require minimal cognitive load.

Additionally, technical constraints make mobile product management more complex. Unlike web apps, where updates can be rolled out instantly, mobile apps require SDK updates, versioning, and dependency management. If you’re rolling out new features, you need to ensure that users actually update their app to see them, which isn't always guaranteed.

Mobile personas can vary significantly depending on whether you're in B2B or B2C.

For B2C apps, users expect fast, intuitive experiences. Whether it's social media or e-commerce, engagement, retention, and stickiness are critical KPIs. Users might delete an app in seconds if it doesn't meet their expectations.

For B2B, it’s different. In many cases, employees are required to use the app. The challenge for B2B mobile product managers is ensuring that the experience is seamless, efficient, and improves productivity. At Pendo, our primary mobile users are product managers, product marketers, and education teams. Unlike B2C, where the end-user has the freedom to leave, B2B apps focus more on feature adoption and usability within an organisation.

A good mobile product manager should have limited but essential technical knowledge—enough to understand frameworks and constraints but not necessarily at a developer’s level. More importantly, mobile product managers need to be highly UX-focused. Because mobile experiences are constrained by screen size and user focus, the ability to create simple, intuitive interactions is crucial.

Testing is also a huge part of mobile product management. You need to test across different devices, screen sizes, and orientations to make sure your app delivers a consistent experience. AB testing can be very useful to test different variations of a feature or product before deciding on a full rollout.

It once again depends on whether you're working in B2B or B2C:

For B2C: Retention, stickiness, and conversion rates are important. How many users are returning? Are they completing desired actions within the app? For example, on social media apps, are they adding friends? On e-commerce, are they making purchases?

For B2B: Feature adoption, usability metrics, and engagement are critical. If employees are required to use an app, are they using it efficiently? Are they leveraging new features? Churn and retention are also important, but they're often secondary to ensuring that users can easily navigate and complete key tasks within the app.

This varies by company, but generally speaking, mobile teams tend to have a closer relationship with developers than web-based product teams. Mobile development is more resource-intensive, so prioritisation and stakeholder alignment are key.

At Pendo, since we don’t have our own mobile app, we focus on supporting our customers' mobile teams. This means we need strong collaboration with both developers and product teams to make sure our SDK can seamlessly integrate with their mobile frameworks. In other organisations, mobile teams might include dedicated UX designers, engineers focused in iOS/Android, and QA teams to ensure proper device compatibility.

One big lesson is that usability and simplicity drive user satisfaction. Mobile experiences should be effortless. The best mobile apps create muscle memory—users instinctively know where to tap, swipe, and interact.

Another major learning is that technical constraints matter. Unlike web apps, where you can push updates continuously, mobile apps rely on user updates. You have to ensure that your releases provide enough value for users to bother updating their apps.

Finally, cross-platform journeys matter. Many users move between mobile and web, so having a seamless transition between different devices is crucial for retention and engagement.