A Day in the Life: Product Manager - Balance The Grind (2023)

FAQs

What is a day in the life of a product manager? ›

Product managers must follow updates in the industry, from new trends in technology to popular marketing strategies. So, they read news/blogs related to their work area and talk to other PMs. Also, they talk to users/customers to sustain their relationships healthily and get feedback about their products.

A product manager is the person who identifies the customer need and the larger business objectives that a product or feature will fulfill, articulates what success looks like for a product, and rallies a team to turn that vision into a reality.

Product management is a well-paid job and has a high level of job satisfaction. The product manager's salary is primarily based on years of experience, job location and skills. The average annual salary for product managers can range from $61,000 to $200,000 per year.

Every day is different for a product manager. If you like structure and planned sprints for your tasks, product management may be an unpleasant and stressful job for you!

Our research shows that the hardest parts of the job for many product managers are organizational comms, managing deadlines, team alignment, and balancing different responsibilities.

The 30 60 90 day plan is designed to help new managers focus on the 3 elements: people, process, and product and helps them prioritize areas of emphasis in the first 30 60 90 days. A 30-60-90 day plan details the targets you plan to accomplish in the first 30, 60, and 90 days of your role.

In summary, if you're wondering whether you should quit your job as a Product Manager, take a moment to remember that you have better options and resources available. If the environment is toxic and doesn't serve to challenge you or help you grow, it might be time to leave.

It identifies the three primary areas of focus for product management, namely: Product discovery. Product Planning. Product Development.

Is product manager a high level role? ›

Product managers are mid-level roles. While you don't necessarily have to have a direct product management background, you should have professional experience and demonstrable skills in communication, leadership, and strategy. Product managers are responsible for the strategy, roadmap, and features of a product.

Superpower 1: Intellectual curiosity

Great product managers are incredibly curious. If something isn't working, they are relentless in trying to understand why. They continually ask questions and zero in on the problem like a heat-seeking missile, but they are rarely satisfied with face-value answers.

There are three strengths that employers find particularly attractive in Product Manager candidates: The ability to make the company money. The ability to save the company money. The ability to save the company time.

The average age of an employed product manager is 38 years old.

Some fast growing industries, especially those depending upon technology, have a higher demand for product managers, thus are more likely to pay higher salaries to feed such demand.

A Chief Product Officer (CPO) is the most senior product person in an organisation. They usually manage more than one team of product managers and represent product in the C-suite or management team.

Product management is a unique career path in that it involves a broad set of skills and competencies. We believe that all types of personalities can thrive in product management roles if they elect to invest time into finding their strengths.

Being a product manager is lonely.

A universal aspect of Product Management that people don't expect is just how lonely it feels to be a PM. You could be working with a team of 100 people, be in 10 meetings a day, and yet often feel super-lonely because no one else shares your struggles or truly understands them.

As Apple CEO, Steve Jobs involved himself as a de facto product manager by having a hand in the design, direction, vision, and messaging of its most important products, including the iPod.

How do you create a 30-60-90 day plan for a new role? ›

An effective 30-60-90 day plan consists of three larger phases — one for days 1-30, one for days 31-60, and one for days 61-90. Each phase has its own goal. For example, the goal in the first 30 days is to learn as much as possible about your new job.

Ask questions. One of the hardest challenges in product management is getting people aligned—especially if they have different reporting lines and objectives. Here it helps to remember that our job is not to have all the answers—but to ask the best questions.

Lack of control in product development affects the effectiveness of a product manager. You as a product manager need to take the consensus of all other people associated with the product team before making any major decisions. This is another pain point that a Product manager goes through.

Discover, Design, Develop, Deploy, Deliver ^TM

This is what we call the “5D vision of Product Management”. Product managers need to consider, plan, and execute in all 5 Dimensions to create great products.

One of the most important skills of a product manager is communication. This is because they need to convince the stakeholders, design teams, clients, and everyone involved in the product's lifecycle. Good communication skills of a product manager can be a big help in the entire lifecycle of a product.

“The old man believes in the 80-20 goal- setting rule. That is, 80% of your really important results will come from 20% of your goals. So we only do One Minute Goal Setting on that 20%, that is, our key areas of responsibility—maybe three to six goals in all.

What should a manager do in the first 3 months? ›

Start building relationships with stakeholders, customers, teams, and direct reports. As you get started, set up recurring meetings with your most important partners to start building relationships and gathering information towards creating a vision and strategy.

Losing Business Focus

Despite all of its advantages, many product managers fail to be effective in such an environment. This often happens when managers are plunged into this unfamiliar environment when they've yet to fully understand this new approach, as well as the changes it brings.

Perhaps the hardest part of being a Product Manager is the community-building aspect. A person can have all the qualifications and hard skills needed to be the best Product Manager to date, but without the ability to effectively build relationships across teams and with colleagues, they may never succeed.

Because product management blends so many skills and responsibilities, it can be a difficult role to achieve. Product managers often work in other jobs before demonstrating the ability to develop a new product and lead a team. It requires persistence, which makes landing the position worthwhile.

Work with product leadership and company leadership to set product objectives aligned with high-level strategy. Prioritize the most strategically valuable feature ideas. Meet with sales, marketing, legal, and leadership to evaluate the viability of feature ideas.

Four Levels of the Product. There are four levels of a product (shown in the figure below): core, tangible, augmented, and promised. Each is important to understand in order to address the customer needs and offer the customer a complete experience.

The easy answer to this question — “What makes a great product manager?” — would be a list of skills. A long list that would include: subject matter expertise, outstanding communication skills, market knowledge, leadership ability, innovativeness, strong researching skills, the ability to think strategically, etc.

Generally, product managers make more than project managers in the US. The average product manager's salary in the US is $111,755 a year, while a project manager in the US makes an average salary of $87,637, according to August 2021 data from Glassdoor.

Once a product manager has around 3-5 years of experience under their belt, they can move up to the role of a senior product manager. At this level, you'll be taking on more responsibilities in your role, which include the following: Managing product managers. Managing collaboration across cross functional teams.

It's not uncommon for product managers to work 50, 60, or even 70 hours per week. To-dos pile up and speed is of the essence, so work often spills over into nights and even weekends. The extra hours can help finish an urgent project, but often leave people feeling burnt out and unfulfilled.

Is it stressful being a product manager? ›

With great responsibility, comes great stress. Due to its versatility, the role of a product manager is extremely challenging. Although this career is also very rewarding and fulfilling, it can often be frustrating for many reasons.

Lack of opportunity—There aren't too many product managers content to do their existing job forever; they're looking for chances to advance, take on more responsibility, and expand their skill set.

The average age of an employed product manager is 38 years old.

What's the hardest part of product management? Our research shows that the hardest parts of the job for many product managers are organizational comms, managing deadlines, team alignment, and balancing different responsibilities.

The demand for these professionals is high in the market and many companies pay handsome amounts for this role. That's the primary reason product manager salary in India is quite high. The ever increasing demand.

Monotony. While product managers do have multiple responsibilities to handle, they tend to work more or less on the same product in the long term, rather than transitioning from assignment to assignment as a project manager does. This makes the job monotonous at times, with the risk of losing interest in the role.

Product management is in the top 10 on Glassdoor's list of America's 50 best jobs (2022). Technology companies take the lead in product management with a 51%recruitment rate. Although we see a little rise in the last years, unemployment rates for product managers are pretty low.

The “loneliest job in the world” is a reference to the presidency of the United States, supposedly a supremely lonely and isolating job because of the enormous responsibility that it entails.