If a happy and successful career in product management is your goal, then you’ve come to the right place. This article will answer your questions regarding the aspects of product manager job satisfaction. It’ll also cover product manager job stress and rewards to help you understand more about the work environment and work requirements of a product manager position.
What Is a Product Manager?
A product manager is a cross-functional leader and manager who is responsible for an overall product roadmap. Their job responsibilities incorporate product planning, business strategies, the functionality of products, and customer satisfaction goals.
If you want to become a product manager in 2022, you will need to master data analysis, product design, team management, value propositions, and customer experience skills. Essentially, a product manager’s responsibility is to create the strategy for a product’s lifecycle and manage the production process to deliver a customer and business-friendly result.
Product management is a versatile profession that is needed across a wide range of technical and non-technical industries. Depending on your career goals, you can work in the healthcare, software, banking, automobile, business, or pharmaceutical sectors.
Is Product Management a Good Career?
Product management is a good career for those with excellent interpersonal skills and management skills. It is also an apt career choice for those interested in business operations management and supply chain management procedures. Product management is a profession that requires candidates with a great hold over decision-making processes and user-friendly analytics.
It is also a good career choice for those looking for an in-demand profession that comes with a decent compensation package. Whether you are an MBA graduate or an entry-level project coordinator, a product managerial position is a great career growth option.
Product Manager Satisfaction Rates
Product manager satisfaction rates across popular career search and job statistics pages present a positive outlook on the profession. According to PayScale reports, product manager job satisfaction rates score an average of 3.72 out of five stars. Reports further mention high coverage rates for medical, dental, and vision insurance for full-time product management professionals.
The software industry is one of the largest employers for product managers. According to PayScale reports, the job satisfaction rates for software product managers earn an average rating of 3.8 out of five. These job satisfaction ratings are a testament to product managers being happy in their profession across industries.
What Makes Product Management Jobs Satisfying?
There is a wide range of professional skill requirements and professional duties that make product management jobs satisfying. A career in product management brings a fair compensation rate and a good career outlook that makes this job satisfying. Read below to find the different professional and personal elements that make these roles so satisfying.
Industry flexibility
Product manager roles are in-demand across a wide range of industries and provide you with the opportunity to pursue exciting careers across several product teams. If you are a professional looking for a career that does not limit you to a single industry, then a senior product manager role will fulfill that professional aspiration.
As a product manager, you can work for software companies, business companies, pharmaceutical companies, or social media companies.
Diverse tech and non-tech job responsibilities and duties
A product manager career path allows you to acquire and solidify a wide range of tech-based and non-tech-based skills. This management position is an amalgamation of business strategy, operations, marketing, product development, and user experience design.
If you want to enhance your analytical skills, strategic thinking skills, people skills, technical background skills, and product planning skills, this career path is for you. The role allows you to take a deep dive into customer and product analytics and helps you build an impressive management and product portfolio.
Leadership role
For those who aspire to become a leader in their professional journey, product management is a career that makes this achievable. As a product leader, you will be responsible for managing and supervising product teams. Depending on the company, product managers are responsible for delegating tasks, approving development strategies, and allocating budgets.
You might also be responsible for hiring junior product managers and other employees that partake in the entire product development cycle.
Freedom to adapt
As product management is a leadership role, you will have the freedom to adapt your strategies to cater to your product deliverable goals. If you’re looking to pursue a problem-solving and decision-making profession, this position will meet that aspiration.
You will have the freedom to advise on product marketing action plans, sales strategies, and user experience design ideas. The combination of these multiple fields allows product managers to adapt their overall plans to accommodate a product’s lifecycle process.
Emphasis on data analysis
For those looking to gain in-demand data science and data analysis skills, product management is a great career choice. Product managers use data analysis to create an optimal product strategy and use customer analytics to deliver a user-friendly product. Data analysis is especially relevant to product managers who work for software companies and with digital products.
Product Manager Stress and Rewards
The stress and rewards of a product manager’s job are numerous. Know that these pros and cons will affect individuals differently depending on their educational background, industry experience, and job designation. Below are the top five product manager job stress and rewards.
Product Manager Stress
- High work stress. Being a product manager comes with high expectations that can often prove to be stressful. As a manager, you are not only responsible for the product development and delivery process, but also for the entire product management team. Your job duties entail dealing with workplace conflicts, allocating tasks, and making tough decisions.
- Budget constraints. Your job duties also cover financial management. Product development operations, similar to most operations, can go above the allocated budget, and this can make a product manager’s job very stressful.
- Unfixed work schedule. To efficiently manage and supervise the product development process, a product manager must make themselves available at all times. This can make the work schedule undetermined. You might need to go to work during evenings or weekends to help clear the product backlog.
- Lack of authority. Although product management is a leadership position, depending on your background, you may lack in-depth product understanding. This translates to you having to rely on the solutions offered by software and business experts and not having formal authority over the decision-making process.
- Surface-level skills. Product management is essentially a team-building and management job that requires you to work with technical and non-technical professionals. Despite the job being multifaceted and dynamic, you will gain a surface-level understanding of each subject area.
Product Manager Rewards
- Highly in-demand. Talent management and operations management professions are highly in-demand across software and business tech industries. Today, lucrative companies including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Uber hire product managers as software and business leaders.
- Rewarding job growth prospects. A product manager job is a leadership role that opens up several rewarding directorial and chief positions. A product manager can advance their career into senior product management, director of product management, or chief product officer positions.
- Acquisition of a wide range of in-demand skills. Product managers are responsible for delivering an optimal product, which requires them to work with a diverse team. Throughout the product development process, managers acquire user experience, software, business operations management, and financial management skills.
- Flexible educational requirements. To become a product manager, you do not necessarily need to have a bachelor’s degree. A coding bootcamp or online course can also help you enter the field. There are tons of project management bootcamps you can attend to kickstart this management career.
- Rewarding outcome. The job of a product manager can be quite rewarding. You will work from a product conception and design until the culmination of a final product. The completion of this process can be a rewarding outcome.
Life as a Product Manager
Your life as a product manager will include both technical and non-technical management duties. Read on to learn about the average salary, work environment, employment benefits, and job outlook rate of a product manager. The following section also covers the top high-paying product management jobs you can pursue.
Product Manager Work Environment
A product manager’s work environment can be hectic and stressful. This management position requires you to conduct decision-making, problem-solving, and management tasks. You are also required to have a working understanding of several technical and non-technical subject areas, which can add immense pressure to your daily job tasks.
Product managers work with UX/UI design, software development, financial budgeting, business operations management, and product marketing. However, despite the job requirements being challenging, a product manager’s work environment can also be very gratifying. Successful project completion and achieving an optimal product delivery can be very rewarding.
Product Manager Benefits
Similar to most full-time management positions, product manager benefits also include high coverage of medical, health, dental, and vision insurance. The employee benefits also cover paid sick leaves, vacation days, a 401(k) savings plan, and retirement plans.
Depending on your company, you might also have access to more lucrative employee benefits. For instance, if you get hired as a product manager at Google, along with the typical benefits, you will also get a portion of Google’s Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) and tuition reimbursement opportunities.
Product Manager Career Growth
Product manager career growth opens up various directorial and senior management job opportunities. Your career trajectory depends on your professional experience and educational background. You can climb up the ladder to a director of product management position, senior product manager, or chief of product position.
If you entered product management with a software engineering or a software development background, you can grow into a chief of technology or a senior software manager position. As you advance your career into higher executive positions you will earn lucrative salaries.
Product Manager Job Outlook, Salaries, and Career Growth
The job outlook, salaries, and career growth prospects for product managers reflect a positive outlook. As this is a managerial and a senior position, you will earn a lucrative compensation package and open up job opportunities across high-level executive positions.
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According to Glassdoor’s 50 best jobs in America for 2021, product managers rank number three and earn a 3.9 out of five in job satisfaction ratings.
Is Product Management In Demand?
Yes, product management is in demand across software, business intelligence, and marketing sectors. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the projected job outlook rate for product managers is 10 percent between 2020 to 2030 and falls under advertising, promotions, and marketing management occupations.
However, your industry of employment also plays a crucial role in determining whether product management is in demand or not. According to BLS, industrial production managers have a projected job outlook rate of five percent, which is slower than that of software product managers.
Product Manager Salaries
Product managers earn a lucrative compensation package and work across high-paying tech companies. According to Glassdoor, product managers earn an average salary of $113,446 per year. Glassdoor further breaks down product managers’ salaries for top companies. Product managers earn $131,060 at Microsoft, $167,362 at Google, and $201,896 at Meta.
However, your salary will vary depending on your job designation and professional experience. According to ZipRecruiter, the national average salary for entry-level product managers is $50,332.
High-Paying Product Management Jobs
| Job Title | Average Salary |
| Senior Vice President of Product Management | $219,114 |
| Vice President of Product Management | $172,821 |
| Vice President of Product Development | $163,891 |
| Senior Product Manager | $127,263 |
| Software Product Manager | $99,511 |
Senior Vice President of Product Management
Senior Vice President of Product Management Average Salary: $219,114
The senior vice president of product management is an executive position, where you will directly work with the director of product management and business operations head to establish an overall product development strategy. This role requires ample leadership, interpersonal, and management skills.
You will work with the vice president of product management and the senior product manager to ensure a smooth product operations process. This senior position requires several years of industry experience, paired with software, management, and business operations skills.
Vice President of Product Management
Vice President of Product Management Average Salary: $172,821
The vice president of product management works with the senior product manager and senior product development manager throughout the product development lifecycle. A primary job duty of a vice president of product management is to ensure business strategies and goals are met upon the final product delivery.
As a vice president of product management, you also have the power to delegate tasks across the senior management team and recruit efficient candidates for the position. This position also deals with the directors, chiefs of UX/UI design, product marketing, and business operations teams.
Vice President of Product Development
Vice President of Product Development Average Salary: $163,891
The vice president of product development is responsible for ensuring a smooth and optimal product launch. The vice president of product development only focuses on the development cycle of product operations. They work with team leaders in marketing, business operations, finance, and customer analytics to develop a business and user-friendly product.
Senior Product Manager
Senior Product Manager Average Salary: $127,263
If you have two to three years of industry experience as a product manager, you can apply for a senior product manager position. As a senior product manager, you will be responsible for multiple projects at a time. You will work with product managers to supervise individual projects and make financial and product strategy decisions.
Senior product managers report to the vice president of product management with daily operations progress and work with managers to execute the business goals and user experience goals.
Software Product Manager
Software Product Manager Average Salary: $99,511
In the current product management job market, software product managers are sought-after employees. Today, software product managers are hired by top tech firms including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta. This position requires an extensive background in software development or software engineering.
You will work with a team of software developers, UX/UI designers, data analysts, and product marketers to develop an optimal software product. Similar to the general product manager, you are also responsible for budgetary maintenance.
Should I Become a Product Manager?
You should become a product manager if you are passionate about the product development lifecycle, business operations, talent management, and data analytics. The product management profession is rapidly growing and is a sought-after position across the software industry.
As a product manager, you get the opportunity to enhance your portfolio and candidacy with an array of technical and non-technical skills. The position also opens up several lucrative career possibilities, potentially launching you into directorial and chief positions.
Product Manager Career Change FAQ
Yes, product management is a good career that offers a high compensation rate and has a high projected job outlook. As a product manager you can earn an average salary of $113,446 per year. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects product management occupations to grow by 10 percent between 2020 and 2030.
There are several career growth opportunities available to a product manager. The career paths vary depending on your industry and professional background. You can progress your career into a director of product management, senior software product management, or vice president of product development position.
No, you do not need a degree to become a product manager. You can enter the field with a coding bootcamp certificate or an online course certification paired with industry experience. However, the industry-standard requirement is a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration or Software Development.
You need operations management, interpersonal, software development, talent management, supply chain management, UX/UI design, and data analytics skills to become a successful product manager.
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