How To Write A Product Manager Job Description

Writing a great job description takes some effort and time. You don’t want just to throw something together and then hope that the right person finds your job posting on Zippia.

You want to write a job title that appeals to the right person, draws them in, and makes them want to work for your company. That takes some effort and research. So, let’s get started.

What Does a Product Manager Do?

Product managers are excellent at organization, sales, creative thinking, and they tend to be good at seeing the big picture. They are tasked with taking a product and creating the marketing cycle around that product.

They pinpoint what it is about that product that makes it amazing, they highlight those things and appeal to the right groups of people, and they direct the journey of a product.

Product Manager Duties and Responsibilities

Product managers are usually part of a large team, and they often fill the lead position in that team, telling everyone else what to do. Their responsibilities depend on the size of the company, the number of products being sold, and their area of expertise.

Typically, product managers have a pretty long career behind them, and they’ve advanced into this senior position. But it’s worth looking at some responsibilities they may have in the role with your company.

• Conduct market research to find “needs” in the marketplace

• Present needs and solutions to investors

• Oversee the creation of the product

• Identify marketing objectives and conduct further research

• Complete extensive market research to assess competition

• Begin targeting the market and setting goals for sales

• Create reports specifying timelines and marketing approaches

• Connect with sales channels to begin the sales/ordering/shipping process

• Manage production and inventory counts

• Oversee shipping and order fulfillment

• Adjust marketing as necessary to reach appropriate markets

• Adapt as necessary

If that seems like a lot of responsibility – it is. Not every product manager will have all of those tasks. Many will oversee areas but have teams that help them do the work. They are simply the puppet master of the product’s lifeline.

Skills and Qualifications of a Product Manager

Your company needs can vary from another company’s. That means that what you expect from your product manager might be different. It’s a good idea to look at your specific role, the tasks you need them to perform, and then determine the skillset you want.

But some of the common skills and qualifications you’ll be looking for will include the following:

• Excellent soft skills. What are soft skills? They tend to be innate skills that you can’t learn in school. Some soft skills are critical thinking, leadership, a positive attitude, ability to inspire, a strong work ethic, and probably the most important of all for a product manager, communication.

• Marketing skills. Most product managers need to be involved in the marketing aspect of a product. This means an extensive background in marketing is very useful.

• Supervisor skills. A product manager supervises many people and different teams. Their ability to supervise effectively and react quickly and get a team to follow them is critical. They often come from a management position.

• Detail-oriented. There are so many small pieces involved in creating, producing, and selling a product that you need someone who understands all of the little details.

• Big picture planner. On the other end of the spectrum, this person also needs to see the big picture. They need to realize when something is a minor issue and can slip by or when something will affect the outcome.

• Calm and collected. Working under pressure is a constant issue for this career, so you need someone who is not fazed by stress.

• Empathetic. Understanding their target audience is crucial when deciding what products are important and how to market them. But being able to empathize with their team is also a key skill.

• Education. While a formal education isn’t necessarily required, it’s often attained and important. Even just a bachelor’s degree shows a level of well-rounded thinking that is useful for product managers. You’ll find that most have their master’s degrees.

Objectives for a Product Manager

Some people like to sum up the role of a product manager by saying their objective is to build once and sell many times. This is a bit trite and doesn’t encompass the entire spectrum of what’s involved. But on a basic level, it’s pretty accurate.

A product manager is looking to find that one product that will take the world by storm and then manage it to even bigger success than imagined. That’s the dream and the ultimate objective.

Salary Expectations for a Product Manager

A product manager working for a small start-up is certainly not going to earn the same amount as one who works for a brand known worldwide.

At Zippia, we communicate with hiring managers and recruiters regularly. We also speak with people who have the career of product manager. Our research has found that the average salary per year for product managers is about $118,000.

That means as an entry-level product manager, you can expect around $88,000 a year. In contrast, those people who have been in the industry for a long time and have a good track record will earn a salary of about $159,000 per year.

We’ve also discovered that product managers in California, New York, and Virginia receive the highest wages. It should be noted that the cost of living in those states is also fairly high.

Education Requirements for Product Managers

As mentioned above, it’s not uncommon for product managers to have at least a bachelor’s degree, and many have a master’s degree.

But again, it depends on the field they’re working in and the technological level of the product. A simple item, like a new knife with a sharp blade, a simple item doesn’t require a product manager with as much education as a high-tech health care documenting product.

Each industry and job will have to decide what level of education they’re looking for, if they want it to be in a specific industry, and if they’re willing to compromise in this area.

Experience Requirements for a Product Manager

Because this job entails managing a product and often people, some management experience is necessary. Hiring someone without any experience in management is very rare.

Similarly, it’s rare to see someone who hasn’t had any marketing experience in their background. That means that a marketing manager could look like the best hiring option regarding previous professional experience.

Product managers tend to fall within five major industry categories. It’s very common for one particular industry to be looking for someone who has skills and experience in that industry. The main product manager industry segments are:

• Retail

• Technology

• Finance

• Manufacturing

• Health care

A product or company can fall into more than one of those categories. Let’s say a health care company that provides high-tech diagnostic equipment. They might want a product manager who has worked in health care, or perhaps they think that having someone who has tech experience is more important.

Maybe they’re looking for both. The industry plays a big role in the experience requirements for this position.

Product Manager Sample Job Description

All right, so you’ve learned a bit more about the position. Hopefully, you’ve studied your needs a bit more and decided what you’d like your new employee to have as their skills, qualifications, education, and experience. The next step is pulling that together in a compelling job description for a product manager.

This sample gives you an idea of what one should look like, but yours may vary.

Author

Kristin Kizer

Kristin Kizer is an award-winning writer, television and documentary producer, and content specialist who has worked on a wide variety of written, broadcast, and electronic publications. A former writer/producer for The Discovery Channel, she is now a freelance writer and delighted to be sharing her talents and time with the wonderful Zippia audience.