The 1931 P&G memo by 26-year-old Neil McElroy that invented the product manager role
aakashgupta · x · 2026-10-28
In 1931, 26-year-old Neil McElroy, handling Camay soap advertising at P&G, wrote a 3-page memo (May 13, 1931) introducing the "brand man": one person owning a product end to end, close to the customer. That idea created the PM role and still underpins every PM job description today. Aakash Gupta expands on this in his Product Growth newsletter.
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