Career opportunities in product management

“A great product manager has the brain of an engineer, the heart of a designer, and the speech of a diplomat,” says Deep Nishar, the former Vice President of Product at LinkedIn.

Product Management is one of the most versatile and challenging fields in the industry, tracing down its history in a memo written by Neil H. McElroy at Procter & Gamble in 1931.

In this 800-word memo, McElroy had expressed the company’s need to hire “Brand Men”, what we now know as “Product Managers” — who represent the voice of the customers, and are responsible for supervising the entire lifecycle of a product, ensuring the right product, at the right price, the right platform, using the right promotion techniques and channel.

The key metrics by which a product manager is judged is identifying problems and providing solutions to customer pain points and ultimately, drive up sales and profit.

Modern-day product managers shoulder multiple responsibilities, both on the technical as well as the business fronts of an organisation. With companies adopting new age technologies, the scope for this challenging role has grown multifold.

There are ample opportunities in the industry for potential product managers, offering high remuneration.

The role of a product manager is interdisciplinary as it takes good strategy, leadership, design, marketing to successfully launch a product.

The roles of a product manager, depend on several factors — the company's size, budget and business objectives.

In some organisations, titles like delivery manager, project manager, are also used for product management roles. Typically, a list of product management roles include Director of Product, Associate Product Manager, Product Manager, Senior Product Manager, VP of Product and Chief Product Officer.

An Associate Product Manager's role includes product/project managing experiences. Entry level graduates with a background in Computer Science, business or other related fields are considered for this role. This is the first stop for the product management role, which requires one to define customer problems and opportunities.

Associate Product managers do not lead products but they are responsible for problem and solution discovery.

Product Managers generally have mid-level experience, as the role requires one to make important decisions in business by incorporating data and customer relationships. This role also requires the designated person to influence stakeholders, align resources and make necessary decisions related to prioritisation.

The next move in the lives of an associate product manager should be once they have demonstrable understanding of the products and confident approach to broader business goals.

Senior Product Management roles often seen accountability for decisions comes into the play, as they work closely with key stakeholders and executives. This decision making involves deep knowledge of the market and product, which demands an increased sense of responsibility and authority.

Product strategy communication also forms a huge part of their Senior PM role and companies generally look for people with a good amount of experience for this role.

The Director of Product role requires someone with high-level leadership experience and excellent hard and soft skills to represent the executive lead of a company. This role is focused around enhancing the processes and improving overall team performances. A Director of Product drives the product roadmap from the inception of an idea to the delivery to customer and feedback.

Vice President of Product is usually the final stop for someone in this career. The VP Product ensures the alignment of strategic product designs with business objectives. The person is also responsible for the budgeting the product and protecting it from the internal conflicts amongst the teams.

In order to succeed in these roles, one needs some core skills such as thinking strategically, having a business inclined mindset, effective communication, good-listening skills, leadership, technically proficient, UX background, collaborative.

Product management is considered a cornerstone in modern day brand management. In the digital-first world, the product management role is considered extremely important for innovation and growth in the workplace, both in IT or non-IT organisations.

As companies adopt new age technologies, the scope for Product Management will continue to grow in every sphere of business operation and so will the earning potential.

(The author is the CEO and co-founder of an education platform for students and early career professionals)