Product manager

Requiring knowledge of business, marketing, data analysis and technology, plus excellent communication and organisational skill, product management is rewarding yet challenging work

A product manager works with the people who make a product, those who use the product and those who manage the business to ensure that the product is meeting everyone's needs.

You will find opportunities at any company which makes a product of some kind. Usually, this refers to:

• technical products, such as programmes, apps and video games
• financial products, such as credit cards, mortgages and savings accounts
• manufactured products, such as appliances, pharmaceuticals and toys.

Product managers help to ensure that the product is made as efficiently as possible and that the people building it have access to the latest technologies and techniques. They also listen to the users of the product, finding out what new features they want before gathering and analysing their feedback and usage data. This helps them to make decisions about the future of the product - what will and won't be possible, which features to prioritise or to drop altogether and produce product roadmaps.

They're also responsible for the life cycle of the product, ensuring that everyone is following the product roadmap and that features are being released on time and are of a high quality.

In your role, you may focus mostly on the users of your product, sometimes referred to as product marketing, or on the creation of the product itself, known as product development.

You could manage one or two parts of a product. For example, your product may just be the search feature of a website, rather than the site as a whole.

Responsibilities

As a product manager, your tasks are likely to include:

• taking overall responsibility for the success of your product
• contributing towards product strategy and vision
• meeting regularly with all stakeholders, including product developers, marketing, customer service, finance and company heads
• collecting analysing and responding to user feedback
• managing one or more budgets
• gathering and evaluating ideas and opinions
• planning new features and changes to a product
• demonstrating new ideas and features to stakeholders
• creating timelines and roadmaps for developing the product
• attending conferences and events related to a product or sector
• implementing or supporting marketing campaigns
• creating and overseeing development and project management processes
• inspiring and enthusing colleagues and users of the product
• learning about users and a product's market
• researching competitors and similar products.

Salary

• Starting salaries for product managers and junior product managers are usually between £25,000 and £40,000.
• Experienced or senior product managers will usually earn between £35,000 and £60,000.
• Very experienced product managers, heads of product and vice presidents (VPs) of products can earn more than £60,000.

Your salary will depend on the size of the product you're responsible for, as well as on the size and the location of your employer.

Product management roles often include share options and bonus schemes.

Income figures are intended as a guide only.

Working hours

Working hours are usually 9am to 5pm and usually in the head office of an organisation. You may need to work outside of these times if your company has offices in other time zones as regular meetings and communication with all stakeholders is an essential aspect of the role.

Some companies may expect longer working hours to finish a project, such as a new feature launch. Time off in lieu is more common than paid overtime as compensation for work outside of your regular hours.

Part-time and temporary contracts are rare for product management positions and are more likely if you manage one aspect of a larger product.

What to expect

• You'll have a lot of responsibility, especially if your company relies on the success of the product you manage. You will sometimes have to make difficult decisions about the future of the product.
• The role will be mainly office based but, depending on the geographical spread of the organisation, you may need to travel regularly to meet with all the people who contribute to the product.
• Your dress code will depend on the organisation you work for, though you will have regular meetings with very senior colleagues, including company heads, so formal business attire is expected.
• There can be competition for product manager roles as companies tend to employ relatively few, sometimes just one.
• The broad range of skills required does mean that you'll almost certainly need around two years of relevant work experience to be considered for a product manager position.

Qualifications

There are no formal qualifications needed to become a product manager, although most employers will prefer candidates with a relevant qualification, especially a degree.

If the focus of the role is product development, an employer will usually ask for a degree related to their industry.

If the focus is on product marketing then employers may ask for a marketing or market research qualification. There are degrees, university short courses and HNDs in these subjects as well as certification from professional bodies like the Market Research Society (MRS).

Almost all employers would favour a candidate with a business-related degree or qualification. However, experience is the most important factor for securing a job as a product manager, and things like recommendations from recruiters or people in mutual networks can count for more than qualifications.

Skills

You'll need to be:

• knowledgeable about your product's users and industry
• decisive, visionary and able to support your decisions with research
• flexible, as you'll be working in-depth with different business functions
• a good collaborator, leader and diplomat
• organised and able to work to deadlines and roadmaps
• a very strong and clear communicator, with a variety of stakeholders at different levels of seniority and knowledge
• good at persuasion and negotiation
• able to analyse complex data and look for trends in the market and users' opinions and behaviour
• fair and objective when making decisions.

Work experience

Experience and knowledge are both essential for getting a job as a product manager. Due to the high level of responsibility of most positions, employers usually prefer candidates to have some kind of record of commercial success, to come recommended by someone they trust, or to have worked in the company itself and built up a good relationship and reputation with the company's management.

Try to gain some experience in positions of responsibility. This could be leading a university society, taking part in business competitions and challenges, becoming a trustee for a charity or asking to lead on important projects during an internship, part-time job or voluntary position.

Product managers are experts in their product, so you should also try to use work experience as an opportunity to learn about the building, marketing and success of the types of products that interest you. For example, it's expected that technical product managers have a good understanding of IT and how software is built in order to work well with the product developers. Internships, part-time jobs, work shadowing and volunteering in a sector that interests you are good ways of building the first-hand knowledge that a product manager needs.

All product managers need a good understanding of how businesses work and what makes them successful in their market. These skills are very similar to those of an entrepreneur - starting a business, even if it's on a very small scale, can show employers that you're responsible, hardworking and knowledgeable about commerce.

You could also see if your university has any business, entrepreneurship, marketing or finance societies that you could join to work with and learn from other students.

Find out more about the different kinds of work experience and internships that are available.

Employers

Most companies who hire product managers are in the private sector, although there will still be occasional non-profit and public sector employers with product management openings.

You'll find the most vacancies on job sites which specialise in the tech, business and financial services industries. However, many employers will use general job sites too.

The majority of product management positions in the UK are in tech organisations, where the products are apps or online services. Look for vacancies on specialist technical job sites such as:

• CWJobs
• Unicorn Hunt
• Women in Technology

Many employers use recruitment agencies to hire product managers, as the required knowledge and skillset is not something that you can easily demonstrate solely with standard in-house screening techniques like assessment centres and psychometric tests.

For this reason, networking and speculative applications might also help you get a job as a product manager. As well as your knowledge and experience, employers will want to hear your ideas for the development of their products and any insights you have about the market they operate in.

It's extremely unusual for an employer to recruit a product manager without at least two years' relevant experience. When starting out in your career, it's best to look for work in areas which have a lot of overlap with product management such as programming, sales and account management, marketing, market research or project management. This will give you a platform either to work your way up within the organisation into a product management role, or to move to another employer looking for someone with your skills and experience.

Professional development

The training and development you receive as a product manager will vary greatly according to your employer. Your employer will probably focus on developing your:

• knowledge of their sector and users through industry events, mentorship and by supporting self-led research
• organisational and project management skills through qualifications like PRINCE2 and training you in different working methods like agile software development and Kanban
• presentation and communication skills through training courses and coaching.

There are certifications in product management available through some international professional bodies such as:

• Association of International Product Marketing and Management (AIPMM)
• International Software Product Management Association (ISPMA) - for technical product managers
• Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) - for new professionals.

However, these won't usually be necessary for your professional development in UK organisations, though the resources and events they list may be useful during the early stages of your career.

Career prospects

At a large employer, you'll usually start your product management career as part of a product team, with either shared responsibility for a product, sole responsibility for one aspect of it or focusing on one part of product management such as marketing or development.

Early in your career it's unlikely that you'll be the only product manager in an organisation unless they are a very small company, you have significant prior experience or come highly recommended by someone they trust.

After around five years you may find that you are ready to manage a small product team or move to being a loan product manager with more responsibility. You may need to complete some management training at this stage. Product team leaders will usually have job titles like senior product manager, product owner or head of product. If you're managing staff, you'll find that you have more input into the product strategy but some of your time will also be dedicated to line management duties.

After around ten years' working in product management you may be in a position to look for work at an executive or board level, in roles such as vice president (VP) of product, chief operating officer, chief marketing officer or chief technology officer.

The broad range of duties in product management means that moving between different job functions is an option even at a senior level. You're also equipped with most of the knowledge and skills needed to start your own business, which is also an option for experienced product managers.