Shawn Bradley 
When a business is launching a new product, there are always some questions surrounding its launch. Like, how is this product better than the previous products? Is it something completely new and never seen before in the market? What purpose does it serve? Does this product even align with customer demand? Is the marketing campaign doing justice to what this product is actually about? And so on. And there is a single person who can answer all these questions by ensuring that this product is perfect in every aspect, actually caters to the demand of the consumers, and helps the business in its success. And that person is the Product Manager.
Who is a Product Manager?
A product manager figures out potential opportunities in the business world for new products. Then, from inventing to designing to the product’s launch, the product manager “manages” or caters to every step of product development and its launch. They work with all departments or teams in the company, like designers, developers, marketing teams, sales teams, customer support teams, etc., to ensure that the business comes out with the best product in the market. They are also constantly in contact with the upper management to update them about the product development process, its potential success, and everything in between.
Things to Know to Become a Product Manager
Every business needs an expert product manager. No business, company, or organization can even think about investing in a product without a product manager providing them with all the technical analysis and ensuring that a product is worth investing in in the first place.
So the question is, if you want to become a product manager, which things should you keep in mind? This article is a chest of information about product manager roles and responsibilities, educational requirements, skillset, earning potential, etc. Let’s dive into it.
Roles and Responsibilities:Product management is a diverse field; at its very core, you can say it’s simply the intersection of business, technology, and user experience. Thus, a product manager is in charge of end-to-end product lifecycle management. This includes product planning and marketing based on consumers’ requirements. If you work as a product manager, you will fulfill duties like developing the basic vision of the product, defining overall goals and strategies regarding the product, managing the revenue, etc. If you work in this field, you can easily work your way up to the top positions as you gain more experience.
A typical career path in product management includes the following roles: Associate Product Manager, Product Manager, Senior Product Manager, Group Product Manager, Director Product Management, VP Product Management, and finally, the highest post, Chief Product Officer.
Even though different roles come with different sets of responsibilities, here is an overview of general or basic responsibilities that a product manager, no matter their role or position, has to take care of.
Conducting Research: Research the product, its usage, scope, market, persona of the users of said product, the competitors’ products, etc.
Developing Strategy: Develop the vision and roadmap for the product, its development lifecycle, goals, objectives, etc.
Planning Communication: First, the product manager communicates with the key stakeholders regarding research insights and execution strategies. Then they communicate with the product and development teams regarding the requirements and roadmap to efficiently execute all the development plans.
Coordinating With All Teams: Work with engineering, marketing, development, and sales teams to ensure everything gets done correctly. And fix any issues along the way to ensure each team is working in harmony to ensure product success.
Analyzing Feedback Data: Gather and analyze consumers’ feedback after the product’s launch to incorporate any changes or improvements based on users’ demands.
Educational Requirements
There is no specific degree to earn to become a product manager. But, of course, a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field is required. For example, a bachelor’s degree in business education, economics, marketing, communication, or statistics will help you develop a basic foundation for working in any product management role.
For reference, Lucila Rey analyzed the data regarding the educational background of product managers working in top tech companies. The results revealed that the educational background of those product managers was much more diverse. 19.3% of them studied computer and information sciences, 13.3% studied business administration, 11.1% studied marketing, and 10.5% studied economics.
Skillset
To excel in this field, you need to have both soft skills and hard skills. You can develop soft skills with any degree you study, and if your degree is not much technical, then you might need some extra training or work experience to truly develop hard skills. Overall, you should have such a skillset that makes you a future visionary and product evangelist person. You should have a little bit of knowledge of everything like design, engineering, sales, marketing, etc.
You must also be a tech-savvy person to be able to adopt new and better technologies for product design, development, data analytics, etc. You must possess top-notch communication skills. You should know your way around metrics because data collection and analysis are a major part of a product manager’s job.
Salary and Employment Growth
This field is rapidly growing with rising demand for product managers in every business. That’s why this is a high-paying field. The annual base salary of a product manager is almost $93,919. BLS reports that industrial product managers earn a $103,150 annual median wage. BLS also states that because of expected retirements and transfers of industrial product managers in coming years, there will be, on average, 15,400 industrial product manager job vacancies each year till 2031.
The entry-level base pay as a product manager is approximately $77,000, which is much more than the national average pay of $55,000. As your experience expands and you work in a higher role, your pay also increases. Technical product managers make up to $155,000 per year on average. The director of products earns $273,000 annually.
Conclusion
A product manager constantly engages with all business departments and upper management to ensure a smooth product life cycle. A product manager performs research to identify possibilities for launching new products in the market. If you want to be a product manager, this article will be your complete guide about the roles, duties, qualifications, skills, and salary of a product manager.
