I know there is a hiring freeze but this role always puzzled me.
Here is what I pieced together in a few previous threads where people were mostly ranting about Product Managers, my summary is below and correct me where I am off:
Good PMs -- shield enginers, define the problem space, align stakeholders, secure resources... and keep the product vision coherent....
Bad PMs -- button pushers, act as messengers, add layers/bureaucracy, and push engineers to do their job...
Engineer View -- good PMs are rare, most engineers mainly encounter the ineffective ones only.
Sometimes people say -- when done well, PM work looks invisible, but it is often the reason things don’t fall apart as they tend to keep things together...
Anything else?