Who is a Product Manager? Salary, Skills & Career
Product managers are among the most reputable and well-paid professionals who play a key role in ensuring the overall success of a product. They work with the groups outside and inside of the company to create and execute a plan to make sure the product meets its strategic and financial goals.
So, who is a product manager exactly?
A product manager can be defined as a professional who oversees and manages every step of a product’s lifecycle – from development to positioning and pricing, including sales, marketing, and branding. They provide the expertise needed to lead and drive strategic product decisions.
Read on to know more about product managers’ responsibilities, skills, and career scope.
What Does a Product Manager Do?
The responsibilities of product managers vary according to the requirement, and dimensions of the organisation. Broadly speaking, the common responsibilities that product managers handle are:
- Conducting market research and analysing customer requirements.
- Examining the specified product, service, competition, and market.
- Collaborating with the engineering, sales, marketing, and support team, to ensure business objectives and customer satisfaction goals are fulfilled.
- Managing and leading the team throughout the complete product management lifecycle.
- Collecting and analysing customers’ feedback about a product and working accordingly.
- Connecting with the internal product team and developing new opportunities to help the customers grow.
- Working with the research and analytics team to build delightful and creative products.
- Coordinating and communicating about a product with teams, higher management, and stakeholders.
Types of Product Managers
Product management is a vast domain; thus, there are different types of project managers. In this section, you would learn about the classification of some product managers depending on what they bring to the table.
Technical Product Manager
– They work on the technical aspects of the product, meaning, they address the points involving technical expertise.
Designer Product Manager
– They are responsible for the look of the product and aim to design a product that would draw the customer’s attention.
Business Product Manager
– The role of a business product manager is to draw a bigger picture of the product by examining the product’s marketing, finance, and operational viewpoint.
Data Product Manager
– Being equipped with excellent analytical skills, they are responsible for predicting the product market and sales.
Growth Product Manager
– They are responsible for specifying any type of problems in the product during its development that would restrict the product growth.
What are the Skills Required to Become a Product Manager?
Although the job designations and work descriptions vary across scenarios and organisations for a product manager, certain skills remain the same. Some of the common skills that product managers are expected to have are:
Research and Analytical Skills
– The design of any successful product is largely based on research work and data collection.
Design and Technical Skills
– To understand the technology behind your product, you need to familiarise yourself with the processes, methodologies, and tools the engineering team uses, making it important to possess design and technical skills.
Business Skills
– Basic business knowledge can help create a budget and develop an economical product strategy.
Communication Skills
– For better collaboration with the company stakeholders, managers, and product teams, efficient communication is critical.
User Understanding Skills
– This helps to identify and estimate the challenges faced by the users while using a particular product.
Leadership skills
– Being a manager, the team continuously seeks guidance. The leadership skills help understand the team’s queries and issues quickly.
People Management Skills
– Managing a team effectively to ensure all the members perform at their highest levels is an important product manager skill.
Salary of a Product Manager in India
A product manager’s salary in India starts from ₹ 6 – 7 Lakhs and goes up to ₹ 30- ₹ 35 Lakhs [Source]. The average annual salary range is between ₹ 16 Lakhs – ₹ 19[Source] Lakhs per annum. However, the salary varies as per the education qualification, years of experience, location as well as the type of company.
Product Manager Career Scope
Working in this position can further open doors to various lucrative opportunities. From a product manager, you can transition to higher-level management and administrative roles like Senior Product Manager, Director of Product, VP of Product, as well as Chief Product Officer.
However, to move up the ladder of success, you need excellent product management skills and in-depth knowledge about different aspects of product management. Undertaking certification courses and executive programmes from a reputed institute can be really helpful.
Emeritus India offers a range of online product management courses with a knowledge-rich curriculum covering things like:
- What is a product?
- What is product management?
- What is the product lifecycle?
- What are the types of product management?
- What is a product design and how is it developed?
This will help you improve your understanding of product strategy, creation, and management. You can explore more such courses on our website and choose one based on your area of interest to skyrocket your career.
