Software product management does not get as much attention in scientific research as it should have, compared to the high value product software companies ascribe to it. In this paper, we give a status overview of the current software product management domain by performing a literature study and field studies with product managers. Based on these, we are able to present a reference framework for software product management, in which the key process areas, stakeholders and their relations are modeled. To validate the reference framework, we perform a case study in which we analyze the stakeholder communication concerning the conception, development and launching of a new product al a major software vendor. Finally, we propose the Software Product Management Workbench for operational support for product managers in product software companies.