What Does A Product Manager Do? Full Job Description + Responsibilities

Are you looking to hire a product manager or seeking a job as a product manager and wondering what is product manager’s job description?

You’ve come to the right place.

We’ve put together everything that you need to know about the roles and responsibilities of a product manager. This product manager job description is so detailed that you don’t need to refer to any other resource anymore.

You can use this as a product manager job description sample template in your hiring process too. And if you’re a candidate that’s interested in product management, check out our product manager resume templates to get you hired.

What does a product manager do?

First off, a product manager is not the same as a project manager. A product manager is involved in the product development and product management process that involves working with cross-functional teams such as business, design, engineering and even customers.

If you’re a project manager or interested in becoming one, check out our project manager resume templates for building your career.

The only similarity is that product managers and project managers both have full control over assigned projects. But the projects which product managers undertake are aimed at creating products in accordance with the specific requirements of a particular set of customers.

Product managers have to do extensive planning, market research, and cross-functional team management in order to ensure seamless production and delivery of the product. Let’s explore the basics which you must know before hiring or becoming a member of the product management team.

Checkout: The best resume templates to get hired

What Is Product Management

Product management in an organization is often involved in the creation of a new product line, the product strategy and thereafter, production and marketing of the product.

Every enterprise needs to have a comprehensive process for product planning, predicting, creation and product marketing which collectively is called product management.

Development and marketing are the two integral aspects of product management. It’s true that these two fields are diverse, but they do balance each other out as without one the other is incomplete.

Product Manager Roles and Responsibilities

1. The first task for product managers is to come up with a unique product vision and prepare a product strategy for its development. The core idea must be driven by the thought of providing customers with benefits and value.

In order to check the feasibility of the idea, product managers analyze the market scenario and identify specific requirements. This helps them to make the concept clear to the team and move ahead confidently.

2. Creating a project timeline and schedule is the next important task of product managers. They determine the deliverables of their teams and build a robust release plan. This plan will comprise working on feedback, ideas, and prioritizing features for the upcoming product.

3. Product managers lead cross-functional teams as they work closely with engineers, sales professionals, marketers, and support reps. This is why a product manager must have impeccable communication skills and an ear to the ground.

In order to keep everyone on the same page, the product roadmap or the product strategy prepared by product managers is extremely important. This plan updates all the team members and makes them aware of what’s happening in the project.

Job Description of a Product Manager

Product managers are responsible to plan for product development in the most efficient manner possible. In order to achieve this goal, they do market research and gather specific product requirements. Based on the results, they create product development strategy, pricing plans and marketing strategies.

Let’s have a look at the core duties of a product manager:

• Understand the specific needs of customers through extensive market research.
• Come up with unique product ideas and develop product lines.
• Compare different products and analyze the key strengths and weakness of business rivals.
• Build product sales strategies mutually with the sales head.
• Work with the support team and end customers to evaluate the efficiency of calls.
• Provide the management with long as well as short term product sales predictions and analysis.
• Assess product availability by checking inventory levels and production timelines (if it’s a physical product).
• Perform return on investment analysis and bring new products to the market.
• Launch new products successfully by working in harmony with the sales, advertising, and production teams.
• Analyse the market research, demand, and production cost to prepare the pricing plan for the product.
• Attend relevant seminars, workshops, and technical learning sessions to sharpen the skills.
• Supervise the product team and plan their coaching and appraisal.
• Plan and allocate functioning needs in order to follow up on work outcomes.

Product Manager Salary

The product manager salary varies in accordance with the region, industry and position.

• Average associate product manager salary: $97,000
• Average product manager salary: $126,000
• Average director of product management salary: $187,000
• Average VP of product management salary: $240,000
• Average chief product officer salary: $300,000

Source: PayScale

In today’s age, product managers should be tech-friendly, as they have to deal with huge amounts of data that require tools and platforms to help in collection, storage and data analysis.

There are multiple product management solutions available in the market to simplify complex tasks for product managers. But remember to keep your specific requirements in mind before choosing one of these platforms.

Moreover, being in a growing field product management professionals should make efforts to keep up with the latest market trends and customer wants in order to build high-end products.