Pursuing a Career in Product Management? Know the Average Salary of Product Managers in India
If you are into product management or considering transitioning in this field, you have landed on the right article.
In this article, we will discuss in detail about a product manager’s job description, the skills you require to become an eminent product manager, and the steps you need to undertake to advance your career in product management. You will also learn about the average salary of product managers in India (experienced as well as freshers).
Even if you think you already possess the skills required to become a product manager, it is highly recommended to keep upskilling yourself to fuel your career and earn a higher pay package. This will make even more sense when you would know how largely a product manager’s salary in India depends on how updated and upskilled they are.
Before getting into the details of the average salary of a product manager in India, let’s take a brief look into who a project manager is. Precisely, it is what it sounds like – comprehensive management of the products being manufactured and delivered. It is essential to remember that ‘management’ is a highly subjective term here, which is relative to its context.
Product management is a field in every organization or company that manages a product’s lifecycle. Right from the conception of an idea to building creative and innovative marketing strategies – product management includes everything that any individual can find about a product till the time it is running actively. As the demand for product managers is high and the competition is fierce, a product manager’s salary falls in a higher salary bracket.
Precisely, the more experience you gain, the higher will be your salary – this is valid for most of the job profiles across the world, including product management. Now, let’s break down a product manager’s salary in India, which would depend on the years of experience they have in the industry.
Fresher Product Manager’s Salary in India
Fresher product managers’ average salary in India is around Rs. 11.02 L.P.A. And, if you are a product manager with some experience, maybe upto 3 years, you would be able to earn around Rs 12.6 L.P.A.
Experienced Product Manager’s Salary in India
Like we mentioned above, a product manager’s salary in India increases with experience, therefore, the average salary of an experienced product manager in India would be around Rs 20,08,430. It may go upto Rs 30 Lakh as you will gain more experience and enhance your skill set.
Product Manager’s Job Description
Ideally, a product manager’s job description outlines the following responsibilities:
- Setting out the product vision, the roadmap, and the strategy
- Specifying the research that is needed for gathering market information to determine and represent the needs of target audience
- Providing perspective and insights into product portfolio planning
- Reviewing product requirements and specifications and evaluating fresh and new product ideas
- Working in liaison with sales, marketing, support, and engineering to ensure the fulfilment of customer satisfaction and business case goals.
- Gauging the competition in market by comparing the product that your company sells with that of the competitors
- Calling up the customers with the field salespeople for assessing product market data and evaluating sales call results.
- Defining product marketing communication’s objectives
- Preparing long-term and short-term reports, analyses, and forecasts on product sales
- Determining product pricing on the basis of reviewing sales and production cost and market research data.
- Building an efficient product management team by recruiting and training the appropriate candidates.
Skills Required for a Product Manager’s Job
In order to make your career grow in product management and earn the highest possible salary, it is essential for you to possess the following skills –
- Strategic Thinking
After setting the key initiatives and goals of the product, a product manager needs to recognize and realize the larger vision. This begins with putting forward the right questions and then contemplating the market as well as the competition.
- Excellent Oratory Skills
While keeping many people in the loop and adjusting the language according to the audience – right from sales personnel and customers to finance and marketing – the product managers coordinate with external and internal stakeholders throughout the lifecycle of a product. This requires a high level of expertise in various fields and excellent oratory skills to communicate with everyone in a simple, understandable, and effective way.
- Neat Negotiation Skills
As discussed earlier, product managers work with diversified teams, both externally and internally. Be it Marketing, Tech, HR, Sales – the product manager is usually found shaking hands with everyone as a manager they need to coordinate and negotiate effectively and affably with every team to get the work done on time. Herein, you would require excellent negotiation skills.
- Resourceful and Analytical
Product managers are highly valued for their problem-solving, meaningful analysis along with holistic approaches. These mini-CEOs are capable of guiding the content direction, development, UI, marketing and visualizing outcomes at both micro and macro sales.
- Practising Empathy
As a product manager, you are required to be at ease as you meditate through diversified skill sets like communication, market research, the psychology of the users, communication, etc. At every step, you would need to properly understand and weigh down the customers’ and stakeholders’ opinions.
- Close Attention to Every Detail
An efficient project manager can easily spot the possibilities and opportunities in areas that other people would have seen as a wasteland. Therefore, it is essential for project managers to pay close attention to every detail to analyze and find possible opportunities.
- The Fight Outlook
To be a successful and enviable product manager, you should essentially have the conviction to say NO multiple times instead of surrendering to the scenarios. As the products are manufactured with limited time, a barrage of ideas and resources, the product managers should be inherently tied to the products’ success and be able to deliver more than anyone else.
- Long-sightedness
A product manager can easily forecast the product’s approximate benefits by applying experiences from the past and leveraging comparable benchmarks. They also help in measuring interests once the products are launched and factor the learnings into future forecasts and prioritization.
How Can You Accelerate Your Career in Product Management?
While gaining years of experience is one way of earning a higher pay package, pursuing a product management programmes can significantly help you in accelerating your career. It is highly recommended to pursue such career-sensitive courses from globally renowned institutions, otherwise undertaking the course might not be as fruitful as it should have been.
Emeritus India offers various programs in product management in collaboration with highly reputed universities. These courses have varied duration and curricula. Depending on your area of interest and the phase of your career, you can choose an appropriate product management programme for yourself.
