Meaning of project according to Project Management Institute (PMI):

“A project is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources. And a project is unique in that it is not a routine operation, but a specific set of operations designed to accomplish a singular goal.”

On the other hand, a product is a good, service, platform, application, system, etc., that is created, generally for sale, to meet customer and business needs. In retail and manufacturing, this may be taking materials and turning them into finished goods. In technology, your product may be software or a service, which need maintenance and upgrades. such as KDES Sales and Inventory Management Solution

Looking at the definitions, we can see that you may choose one or the other depending on the situation.

Should I shift my Focus from project to product?

When it comes to Lean and Agile, major shifts in focus are needed to move from executing projects to maintaining products, precisely because of user expectations and feedback. Over time, as users change how they engage with a product or service, the business needs to change in response. If work is delivered with a project focus,then the product or service team may not have any of the historical knowledge needed to address user feedback.

The important thing is to ask when the project-based mindset is more useful or would yield more value than a product-based mindset. By comparing them side by side, you can see why traditional project-minded approaches to software and service releases have led to problems like poor predictability, inability to change delivery strategy due to new market information mid-flight, and loss of tribal knowledge. Also, the product mindset tends to treat the humans involved at all levels as unique individuals with their own motivations, rather than interchangeable “resources.”