How many product managers

If the product manager role intrigues you, here are 15 statistics about a career in product management you need to know:.

In an attempt to get an idea of the number of product managers out there, we ran a search on the social network for career and business professionals, LinkedIn. We found that , individuals listed their profiles as a product manager August 22, Of course, the actual numbers are likely to be higher because some people may not have profiles on LinkedIn. This indicates a growth of over half a million in about six years. The results show that The other 1.

The same percentage is involved in go-to-market decisions, with half of these also taking part in making decisions involving pricing. The pie chart below, provides an idea of what most product managers say they spend most of their time doing. Read more about what product managers do to find out more about the role and key responsibilities.

Customers also generally tend to have more information, making them more demanding. The same article also reports that Harvard Business School reports that it is only able to accept one in every three applications to its Product Management course. Finding the average salary of a product manager is quite complicated because different sources use different methods in providing answers.

However, it is essential to note that salaries are affected by demand, location, cost of living, and standard of living in various parts of the world. One of the go-to sources for salary information, Glassdoor , a U. With the U. Census data showing that the median household income in the U. Read more about salaries in our product manager salary and career guide.

Product managers in the East and West coast areas are among the highest-paid U. This way, companies managing data can understand with almost perfect exactitude how long and why certain machines can conduct a certain task. But our most ambitious thinkers are already seeking to apply these insights into fields as diverse as crime prevention or infrastructure building. There are so many stereotypes associated with working at startups. The vanity of founders, the geekiness of developers, the absurd quantities of money… Most of them are only applicable to a minority.

Startups are simply seeds, the beginning of what could be a really interesting addition to the tech business sphere. As such, they hold special rules for PMs dealing with startup products. Unless you belong to a privileged few within the community, it is very likely that you will be dealing with limited resources.

This will mean more hours and more work; so pick your colleagues wisely! The most important thing is to make that journey from your Product Vision to an actual service that can be marketed and provide a solution to a certain market. What are the essential tools and software for product managers in ? Find out the main differences between prototypes and MVPs in product development.

By sharing your email, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. Leave a friend's email below and we'll send them their own 'The Product Book' straight away! How to Get a Product Manager Job. Table of Contents. November 9, Enjoyed the article? You may like this too:. A Curated List of Tools and Software for Product Managers in What are the essential tools and software for product managers in ? Unlock The Template. Get it for free. Get It For Free.

This Webinar Starts in. Do not read alone! Offer expires in:. Get it for free today. Offer expires in. From my point of view, if you are having trouble landing a product management job with your current credentials, then going for a graduate degree can be a great way to transfer into the role, because of the network that you'll build.

If you already have a product manager job, I wouldn't generally be recommended to stop and go back to school. You can learn a lot on the job. It's more about getting your very first job, and then your work speaks for itself. Horn: I'd say it kind of goes two ways. In general, I think you probably need a bachelor's to get into product management. Usually when you have at least a bachelors, there's more of a common language, but that's not the biggest deal.

Having an MBA, though, I usually find those candidates are less than the greatest. They've had too much schooling and not enough real-world experience. It's real-world experience that really matters. Everyone can put together a product strategy, but can you get it done?

Can you work with people? Can you manage the politics of it? That, at the end of the day, [is what] you have to do to be a successful product manager. This is an American Express-issued card card that lets our members earn points and other benefits. Part of my responsibility is making sure that anyone who has the card is able to redeem their benefits and is aware of what those benefits are.

Another part is allowing new people to sign up for the card. A lot of my job is direct people management, so having one-on-ones with people, talking about their career growth plans, their goals, the areas that they're working on. Another aspect is supporting projects. So we have a workshop twice a week; that's when teams bring in things they're working on and, no matter what stage of the process they're in —-whether it's in the discovery phase or if it's got designs and they're getting closer to design review — we workshop the challenges they're going through.

My role is a lot of customer development, a lot of basically talking to customers, identifying features, overseeing roadmaps, product strategy, really everything that is in and around product management. Dixon: Product management in general is a thankless role. When the team does really well and delivers, the developers and designers get the credit. When something goes wrong, leadership points the finger at the product manager and says, "What'd you do? Bavaro: I think one of the parts that's pretty common for people to find tricky is that you've got lots of stakeholders, lots of different people who have different ideas, beliefs, and goals.

How do you avoid getting stuck in decision paralysis? Horn: I'd say that when you think about just product management in general, it's making sure that you've not just identified the most valuable problem to solve, but that you're also solving it correctly. That's the hardest part. Dixon: For me, I get a lot of satisfaction from actually going through the process, going from a concept to having something built and having people use it.

For some people, I think the satisfaction they get is really just the learning, because for them it's a stepping stone to more of an executive role.

Other people just really like the creativity. Bavaro: Product managers help decide what problems the team should solve and help define what success looks like. I think it's very rewarding to help a team of people focus on important problems, especially because the vast majority of the time, those problems are really customer-based.

It can be really rewarding to talk to customers who are impacted by changes you've made. Bavaro: Lots of people blog about product management. Intercom also has a really great product blog. I also find it helpful to look at general purpose management books, like High Output Management or The Manager's Path, that aren't specifically about product management. But a lot of general management's principles are ones that product managers will find helpful.