How to Become a Product Manager

But how do you become a product manager? In this guide, we’ll answer that question, and give you all the information you need to decide whether a career in product management is for you. We’ll also give you resources on product manager salaries, training programs, and tips on how to find your first job as a product manager.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not track the job outlook for product managers, although there are many open positions in the field. For example, there are over 109,000 open product manager jobs on LinkedIn. Technical product management jobs are also expected to grow as companies develop more technology-based projects, which will create a need for skilled product managers with technical backgrounds.

The exact amount you make will depend on a variety of factors such as the company you work for and your location. For example, product managers in San Francisco earn an average salary of over $109,000 per year,and some positions offer salaries of up to $170,900 per year.

The amount you earn will also depend on your experience. Senior product managers can expect to earn an average of almost $131,000, and some positions offer up to $195,000.

Further, your salary will depend on the type of product manager you are. Internal product managers, for example, earn an average of over $82,000 per year; technical product managers make an average of almost $117,000

1. Attend a coding bootcamp specializing in product management
2. Earn a business management or computer science (for technical product managers) degree from a traditional university
3. Learn product management through your own learning

1. Product Strategy.

   As a product manager, you’ll be in charge of setting the strategy for a product. These strategies will outline your target market, buyer personas, and how you plan to launch and scale your product. This strategy will guide the entire product development process, and give team members an idea of what their role in the product development process will be. You should be able to write an effective strategy, and work with other team members to ensure you cover all bases in the strategy.

2. Product Design.

   You don’t need to have technical design skills to succeed as a product manager, but you should know the fundamentals of product design. You should be able to put together a rough plan for the design of a product, which can then be shared with the design and development teams. If you have good product design skills, that’s great!

3. Product Lifecycles.

   The product life cycle is one of the most important ideas in product management. The product life cycle states that there are four main stages of a product: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. You should know what these stages mean, and how you should allocate team resources based on the stage a product is at in the product life cycle.

4. Value Propositions.

   As a product manager, you will need to have an understanding of value propositions and customer pain points. You should know how to define a value proposition, and be able to explain to your team how the value proposition relates to the main development goals of a product. You should also be able to conduct basic market research to confirm your thoughts around customer pain points for a product.

5. Data Analysis.

   Product management is metric-driven. You’ll need to be able to use basic data analytics tools such as Mixpanel, Google Analytics, or Tableau to analyze performance data from a product. You should also be able to use that information to make better decisions about product updates. While you may have a data analyst who performs this role, you’ll still be in charge of analyzing KPI information in your job, and processing that data as well.

• Problem Solving.

  The main goal of a product manager is to ensure a product is solving a problem for a specific audience. And in order to solve that problem, you must think analytically about customer pain points, and experiment with different solutions until they find one that works. You should also be able to solve any problems that arise during the implementation phase, to ensure everyone is on track based on your deadlines.

• Communication and Teamwork.

  As a product manager, you’ll have to communicate with other members of your organization on a daily basis. You will be in charge of managing other employees and will have to share information about deadlines and priorities. You should also be able to work well with others in your team, assign them the right responsibilities, and ensure everyone is on track to meet their goals.

• Creativity.

  Product managers often need to come up with creative solutions to difficult problems. Although you’ll have to follow certain processes during product management, you’ll need to think creatively when coming up with the design and feature set for a product.

1. Choose a product management career path
2. Learn about product management through a bootcamp or university
3. Refine your technical skills
4. Create a product manager resume
5. Craft your product management portfolio
6. Start looking for a job
7. Prepare for your technical interview