The product manager role is one of the fastest-growing, in-demand jobs on the market.
- Glassdoor ranked product manager as the #3 best job in America for 2021.
- The average salary for a product manager job in the US is $111,868 (see our Product Manager salary guide here).
- From August 2017 to June 2019, the number of product manager jobs in the US increased by 32%
Whether you are looking to become a digital product manager as a career path, or you’re just getting started in your product manager career, it’s important to understand the roles and responsibilities and how to become a great product manager.
You need to have an understanding of your stakeholders, the lifecycle of product development, the business goals, digital transformation, the user experience, and more. Let’s take a further look into what to expect in your role as a Product Manager.
Roles And Responsibilities
The digital product manager role is responsible for the prioritization of a product’s release course and product life cycle, as well as for coordinating all the processes needed to get a product not only ready for the market but onto the market as well.
This includes:
- Determining the stakeholders involved, both internal and external,
- Determining metrics for success
- Collecting and interpreting customer feedback
- Determining product features
A product manager must be able to bridge any gaps between company teams that are working on a product and the product’s final trip to release. A successful product manager will be able to create strong cohesion amongst cross-functional teams, which might include the product team, the engineering team, the sales team, and the customer support team.
In terms of specific tactics to achieve this, a product manager needs to create product roadmaps, as well as determine the overall product strategy, product vision, product development, and product features to include in the product’s lifecycle.
What’s The Most Important Thing A Digital Product Manager Does?
When I asked Daniel Zacarias, co-founder at career.pm and product manager blogger at Folding Burritos, he said:
The most important thing a product manager does is “communicat[es] a clear vision and strategy. It’s the only way to help the team create a product that serves the needs of both its target market and the business.
Parts Of The Product Manager Role
A digital product manager has multiple job responsibilities, which requires them to wear many hats. Let’s take a further look at some of these hats that a successful product manager will need to wear.
1. Product Specialist
A product manager is expected to be a market and product specialist. They have been hired to know the industry market and product. Knowing the customers as well as the competition and overall market is part of the role. Product managers have domain expertise.
A product manager must:
- Have a solid understanding of the roadmap and overall product strategy
- Be able to prioritize which new features in the backlog will be added to the product
- Understand the customer needs and be able to interpret customer feedback
2. Business Specialist
Product managers are not CEOs, but they can act as the CEO of the product being developed. They have a good handle on the whole process, including budgets, to make sure that it creates profit for the company. They must have strong business skills along with industry knowledge and be able to blend the two for the best possible product outcome.
A product manager must:
- Understand the stakeholders in the product, both internal and external
- Have an understanding of the key metrics for the product’s success
- Conduct market research and have a deep understanding of business trends and competition
3. Leadership
A significant part of a product manager’s duties involves being a leader. That doesn’t just mean being able to bark orders. Part of the product manager's skills should focus on being able to guide and support people, as well as build a strong team throughout the production process.
A product manager must:
- Coordinate cross-functional teams to ensure all team members are on the right page
- Be a decision-maker using strategic thinking and guidance from the product team
- Work with the product team, the engineering team, customer support, the sales team, and other teams to ensure a strong product vision
4. Operations
A fourth part of the product manager's role is in the area of operations. They need to work on both the large and small details of the management of a new product. Knowing how operations work and what is needed means you can either do things or delegate them to keep everything running smoothly.
A product manager must:
- Have an understanding of the current product backlog
- Understand the development process of the product—while that doesn’t have product managers in the trenches coding with developers, they will be working closely with the engineering team to ensure they understand how the product works
Key Product Manager Responsibilities
Product manager roles and responsibilities are vast and varying. The person in this role needs a significant production and business background. Here are many of the responsibilities.
1. Sets Product Vision And Roadmap
This involves using the vision of the company and the desired outcome of a product to set a product roadmap and an overall production strategy to implement the vision and goals.
Setting the product vision requires collecting product feedback and interpreting customer needs, and working with cross-functional teams to determine the future course of the product. This will include taking a look through the product backlog and determining and prioritizing which new features will be added to the product.
Related Read: 10 Best Product Backlog Tools For Backlog Management
2. Analyzes Customer Needs
Part of a product manager's responsibilities is to search out, gather, handle, and prioritize customer needs and wants. Knowing the market requirements is key to a successful product. They need to understand why customers buy products as well as what the competition is doing.
In order to develop a user experience that will satisfy customers, product managers need to take part in customer experience interviews to collect customer feedback and interpret customer needs by both taking what they say at face value and inferring needs from their feedback. A product manager will work closely with the customer support team to determine key pain points that the current product is not addressing, and how to create solutions to address this customer feedback.
3. Be An Advocate
The role description for a product manager includes the responsibility to advocate for customers and their needs. If there are issues with making sure the product is targeting the market properly, the product manager must advocate for what the customer wants.
It can be all too easy for the engineering team to think that what they build as a solution will be understood by the customers without further guidance. A successful product manager will be able to point to customer feedback to determine whether the best possible user experience is delivered to the customer.
A product manager will always keep the business goals in mind and play a key role in the decision-making process to ensure that the product meets the needs of a customer.
4. Gather The Team
There are many players in the product management process and the product manager needs to make sure that engineering, sales, marketing, and customer service are working as a team to meet the business case and customer goals.
A product manager must know how to ensure effective cross-functionality between teams. This requires strong communication guidelines to ensure that everyone is on the same page in regards to the overall product vision.
For more on digital product manager skills you should have, check out our guide here.
5. Test Programs
As the product gets closer to the end, product managers are responsible for running the beta and pilot programs. They will also repeatedly review work that is completed and make sure the product is meeting customer expectations, as well as oversee iterations of the product as needed.
For this, a product manager should be familiar with the agile framework to get rapid feedback and make adjustments. A product manager will want to have an understanding of what has been successful in the pilot programs, and through interpreting customer feedback, how to improve the product in future iterations.
6. Act As An Innovator
Product management has the key responsibilities of building new business cases for new products, making improvements to those that have already been produced, and looking for new business ventures.
As mentioned, a product manager should think of themselves as the CEO of the product. Through constant user research, a product manager can determine whether customer needs can be met by iterating on the current product, or whether a new product altogether would be a better idea.
7. Be A Presenter
A big part of a product manager's role is the responsibility to provide complete reporting and documentation. This includes business cases, market needs docs, and product roadmaps, just to name a few.
There are others such as case studies, product comparisons, and competitor analysis that may also be needed. Documentation for presentations and data sharing is going to be a large part of the product management role as well.
In order to effectively convey customer needs, a product manager needs to be a storyteller, as well as use data and metrics to back it up.
For more on a product manager’s roles and responsibilities, view our guide here.
How The Product Manager Role Varies Across Companies?
As the product manager role is still fairly new, there’s not a single consensus on what the role is—however, best practices have begun to emerge over the years.
What will be considered a product manager role at one company might not be considered a product role at another. While a startup is more likely a product manager that covers a wide range of responsibilities and wears lots of hats, a larger company will be more specialized in product roles.
Some of these specialized roles include product owners or technical product managers.
For a better understanding of how some of these product roles differ, check out the following:
- Product Owner Vs Product Manager: Who Runs The Show?
- Technical Product Manager Vs Product Manager: Key Differences
- A Guide To The Product Manager Career Path + Roles And Skills
- Wearing Many Hats: Managing Products Without A Complete Team
Want To Become A Product Manager?
If your goal is to become a product manager or you are new to the position, there are many roles and responsibilities you have to fulfill.
You need digital product manager skills and a background in both the business and the product. Necessary skills and knowledge include knowledge about product production, good written and verbal communication skills, soft skills, and tech skills. While many people who are interested in or are already in this position have a bachelor's degree, some have a master's degree or other extra training and certifications in business and product marketing.
Being a product manager gives you a training ground for further advancement into executive roles. Learning more about engineering, development teams, and the creative side is a big bonus of the position as well. The more you learn and grow, the better your chances at moving up are.
Subscribe to The Product Manager Newsletter to stay on the leading edge of the field. Being a product manager lets you see the benefits of a job well done and a product that is enjoyed by your company's customers, propelling your business to success. You can also learn from these experts in product management.
Check this list out for tools to help you become the best PM: 10 Best Product Management Roadmap Tools For 2021
FAQs
What are the roles and responsibilities of product manager? ›
A product manager's job description involves planning and executing the product's lifecycle. It also includes curating and prioritizing the requirements of products and customers. Product managers work closely with the sales, marketing, and engineering teams for various aspects.
What would you do in first 90 days as a product manager? ›Within Your First 90 Days as a Product Manager
Choose a product feature that can be prioritized by your team; Begin shaping necessary product development processes with all relevant stakeholders; Ship your first feature or product function; Begin work on your next product development priority.
Meet everyone.
It's a great idea to schedule meetings with everyone to figure out who does what and ensure you get a bird's eye view of the current dynamic. Chatting with your team and your peers give you an opportunity to ask questions, listen to gripes and suggestions, and assess what's working and what's not.
Part of a product manager's responsibilities is to search out, gather, handle, and prioritize customer needs and wants. Knowing the market requirements is key to a successful product. They need to understand why customers buy products as well as what the competition is doing.
What are the 5 P's of product management? ›The 5 areas you need to make decisions about are: PRODUCT, PRICE, PROMOTION, PLACE AND PEOPLE. Although the 5 Ps are somewhat controllable, they are always subject to your internal and external marketing environments.