Product Manager: What is it, Roles and Responsibilities

• Product managers are one of the most in-demand, fastest-growing jobs on the market.
• Glassdoor ranked product managers as the #3 most desirable job in America for 2021.
• The average salary for product managers in the US is $111 868 ( refer to our Product Manager salary guide).
• The number of product managers in the US grew by 32% between August 2017 and June 2019.

It doesn’t matter if you want to be a digital product manager as a career or just starting out in your career, it is important to know the roles and responsibilities of product managers and how you can become one.

Understanding your stakeholders, product development lifecycle, business goals, digital transformation, user experience, and other factors is essential. Let’s look at what you can expect as a Product Manager.

What is a Product Manager?

Product managers are responsible for identifying the customer needs and larger business goals that a product or feature will satisfy. They also articulate what success looks like for a product and rally a team to make that vision a reality. I have a deep understanding of the role of product manager after spending 10 years studying product management.

It is not difficult to understand what a product manager does. This confusion likely stems from the fact that the role has been around for a while. Product managers, unlike those who are more experienced in crafts like engineering and design, can still be segmented by their specialization.

Roles and Responsibilities

The digital product manager is responsible for prioritizing a product’s release and product cycle As well as for coordination of all processes necessary to get a product on the market.

This includes:

• Identifying all stakeholders, internal and external.
• Determining metrics for success
• Customer feedback collected and interpreted
• Determining product features

Product managers must be able to cross any lines between the company teams working on a product, and its final trip to release. A product manager who is successful will be able to create strong cohesion between cross-functional teams. This could include the product team and engineering team as well as the sales and customer support teams.

To achieve this goal, a product manager must develop product roadmaps and determine the overall product strategy, product vision, and features that will be included in the product’s lifetime.

Parts of Product Manager Role

Digital product managers have multiple job responsibilities. This means they must wear many hats. Let’s look at some of the hats a product manager must wear to be successful.

1. Product Specialist

Product managers are expected to be market and product specialists. They are expected to be knowledgeable about the product and industry. The role requires them to know the customers, as well as the market and competition. Product managers are experts in their field.

A product manager must:

• Be able to understand the product roadmap and overall strategy
• You will be able to prioritize which features from the backlog will be added to the product
• Understanding the customer’s needs and being able to interpret their feedback