Everything You Need to Write a Product Manager Job Description

Whether you’ve hit an initial growth spurt and are looking for your first product manager or you’re building out a dedicated team, it’s crucial that you have the right people in place to lead product development. 

Product managers play a major role in making or breaking product releases, so the designated individual or individuals must be able to set long-term growth goals, roadmap the product life cycle, pitch and prioritize features and set and analyze metrics that can help develop and course correct products throughout their life cycle.

As with any role, to attract the right people, you need to write a job description that resonates with top talent, which brings us here today.

If you know where to start your research, feel free to click the links below to jump ahead. Otherwise, read on.

 

Table of Contents

• What Does a Product Manager Do?
• Five Product Manager Job Description Examples
• Product Manager Job Description Template
• Product Manager Salary Information

 

What Does A Product Manager Do?

Product managers are similar to project managers in that they are responsible for coordinating multiple teams to meet deadlines and ensure quality results. Unlike most project managers, however, product managers play a pivotal strategic role.

Simply put, product managers are tasked with guiding product development throughout the lifecycle, from initial concept to release and maintenance. While the exact nature of the role will vary by company, most product managers have several core responsibilities:

Product Ideation

Good ideas can come from just about anywhere, and product managers are responsible for finding and acting on them. From analyzing current market trends and competitor offerings to interviewing internal stakeholders and customers, product managers are tasked with identifying and developing ideas that will eventually become new products or features. As such, the product manager must have a deep understanding of user needs, business objectives and available resources.

Product Development

It takes a village to build a great product, and the product manager is the mayor. She must liaise with multiple teams within the business, most often software engineers, UX designers, sales, marketing and senior leadership. Every team plays a valuable role in product development, and it’s the job of the product manager to ensure that all those moving pieces are headed in the same direction.

Feature Management

Scope creep can derail even the best laid plans, so product managers must be vigilant in prioritizing features that will provide the most value to both end users and the business and eliminating anything that won’t pay long-term dividends. This often involves moderating disagreements, which can require significant managerial experience.  

Product Release

Actually building the product is just the first step. Next comes the release, and this is where having a great product manager on your side can make all the difference. This is another area where the product manager must collaborate with a host of teams. From the technical requirements involved with actually launching the product to coordinating with sales and marketing, an efficient and organized release is crucial to product success.

For smaller companies, a product manager does not generally become a designated role until the business faces significant pain points with scaling product development and implementing a cohesive vision.

Often times, it makes the most sense to hire internally for this role because it can be difficult to find someone externally who has the experience needed to grow your specific product.

 

 

Five Product Manager Job Description Examples

We’ve gathered five great product manager job descriptions examples from our seven online communities. While these are examples of real job postings, we’ve redacted some information to protect the privacy of the companies that posted them.

Keep in mind that we’ve created a generalized product manager job description template below the examples to further help you write the most effective product manager job description.

 

Product Manager Job Description: Example 1

We are looking for an experienced, hands-on Product Manager who can help us define our product vision and lead its execution. In this role you will lead the design and implementation of systems and products that maximize the program’s impact and optimize their operations. These systems will use advanced data analytics, predictive modeling, and business logic to deliver optimal pricing & inventory management recommendations.

You will combine strategic and business thinking, analytical thinking, analytical and technical knowledge to generate insights, turn them into system design and see them through implementation. You will ensure smooth execution, analysis, and optimization of global pricing and inventory management initiatives. Additionally, you will have exposure and visibility to senior executives and cross-functional leaders.

Responsibilities:

• You will manage the short and long-term roadmap for all pricing, revenue, and inventory management applications.
• Work closely with key internal partners, including software engineering, data science, and strategy to guide prioritization and make sure that product development is focused and impactful.
• Solicit ideas and feedback, gather requirements, write specs, craft wireframes and workflows, and coordinate cross-functionally.
• You will translate business needs into requirement specifications for integration with cross-functional systems.
• Partner with other [redacted] to streamline system integrations and improve existing business processes.
• You will drive strategic product decisions via evaluation of a meticulous retrospective and prospective analysis of product and revenue performance.
• Educate [redacted] members on new functionality and scheduled features.

Requirements:

• BA/BS in Engineering or Economics/Physics/Psychology/Math (MS is a plus).
• 3+ years of product management or product marketing experience at a consumer or enterprise technology company.
• Someone with product design, software development, or interaction design experience.
• Data first philosophy but can also make decisions in ambiguous situations
• Additional experience in [redacted].
• Ability to initiate and drive projects to completion with autonomy.
• Ability to clearly and concisely communicate with technical and non-technical partners across all levels of the organization.
• Experience with JIRA, Confluence, Google Suite (Sheets, Docs, Slides).
• Familiarity with SQL, Python, is a plus.

 

Product Manager Job Description: Example 2

[redacted] is seeking an experienced Product Manager for the growth of its [redacted] Team. The successful candidate will be responsible for bringing new product lines to customers in an engaging and functional way, while collaborating with other product stakeholders. The Product Manager will work creatively and pragmatically to write out product user stories that will be key in the product development process. Knowledge of the product development lifecycle is vital to this role. If you understand the [redacted] market and the [redacted] tools that are being used in that space, we are interested in speaking with you.

About You:

You have a proven track record of taking ownership and delivering results in a fast-paced, dynamic environment. Your excellent interpersonal, presentation, written and verbal communication, problem-solving, and organizational skills contribute to your continued success in this role as you demonstrate your remarkable Agile/Scrum coaching competency. You maximize customer value and business impact by ensuring the team is focused on shipping the right product to users. Your day to day will include but not be limited to the following.

Responsibilities:

• Collect and prioritize product data by conducting customer interviews
• Gather and analyze data on competing products to determine where to compete effectively and present recommendations to the Head of Product
• Plan product roll outs with clear guidelines and documentation supporting product releases
• Oversee the product line’s life cycle and anticipate any problems and communicate those to the team and organization/customer if needed
• Manage product metrics that will be clearly defined with new product lines
• Oversee the planning and delivery of product releases across multiple teams
• Bring new products to market by analyzing proposed product requirements and product development programs; preparing return-on-investment analyses; establishing time schedules with Engineering Team and Head of Product
• Provide information for management by preparing short-term and long-term product feature documents and metrics
• Connect and raise awareness around your team’s product through active and ongoing communication with key cross-functional stakeholders to ensure alignment

Qualifications:

• BA or BS undergraduate degree
• 3+ years of product management experience
• Significant experience working for a [redacted] company
• Proven track record in launching new products/services
• Solid project management experience within an Agile framework
• Demonstrated success in handling end-to-end product lifecycle and ability to drive product planning, development, and launch

 

Product Manager Job Description: Example 3

Reporting to our VP of Product, you will own the execution of our product roadmap and discovery process, and solve interesting problems. As our Product Owner, you'll be responsible for setting the development roadmap for product enhancements and executing on that roadmap. You will develop and drive business requirements. You'll work with product managers to translate market trends, customer needs, and competitive intelligence into innovative deliverables that solve customer problems, and evangelize those innovations internally and externally.

As our Product Owner, you'll be responsible for:

• Translate a product vision and strategy into tactical plans
• Define, measure and improve key product metrics
• Align cross-functional stakeholders across the organization, from Sales and Operations to Marketing and Executives
• Rigorously leverage data and analytics to drive decisions, features and design
• Collaborate with Leadership, Engineering, Marketing, Finance and Accounting on new and ongoing initiatives
• Work with Customer Success to ingest customer feedback and develop future improvements
• Present recommendations and accompanying analyses to leadership
• Wear many hats and potentially work on a variety of other PM projects

So what kind of person are we looking for in this role? We have a pretty unique culture here at [redacted], and the person who will be successful in this role will be:

• Results-Driven: Must have a proven record of driving results in high-growth companies and must have an inner drive to succeed
• Work Independently and with a Team: Some people work best individually and some as part of a team. The ideal candidate is a chameleon who can succeed both on their own and work within a team-oriented, collaborative environment.
• Time Management Guru: The Product Owner role is one that will pull you in multiple directions and you must be able to prioritize and manage your time. The ideal candidate will naturally be able to differentiate urgent, important, and urgently important tasks.

Requirements:

• 3-5 years of product management background with success stories, preferably in [redacted].
• Ability to build alignment around the product roadmap. You should have an assertive, direct communication style with a flair for inspiring and motivating others.
• Experience leading substantial aspects of product management. That means identifying opportunities, defining a product roadmap, creating business cases, driving execution activities, and measuring results.
• Experience translating objectives into specific tactical plans. You’ll need to define, measure, and improve key product metrics.

 

Product Manager Job Description: Example 4

The Why

At [redacted], individuals fully own their roles and are charged with meaningfully driving results. We work fast and continuously optimize our products to reach [redacted].

We recently expanded our product offering [redacted]. Now, we’re looking for an experienced Product Manager (PM) to grow the product in ways that differentiate us from the competition and drive value for our users. When we say ‘grow the product’, we’re talking 5x [redacted]! We’ve built an eager and smart team to support our [redacted] product, and we know this will be an exciting opportunity for someone to own the strategic direction of our next big endeavor.

The Role

• The PM role is an ideal opportunity for someone who is ready to own the strategy and vision for [redacted] with huge growth goals.
• To engage and collaborate with smart people from across the organization to create and implement the product roadmap, while also communicating progress to all stakeholders and senior leadership.
• Accountability of this role includes the autonomy to define the “what” of our [redacted] product by understanding the competition, users and company abilities and constraints.
• Manage our growing product team according to our company values. This includes monthly one-on-one meetings, setting professional development goals and ensuring overall quality performance toward achieving product goals.

The Ideal Candidate

• Bachelor’s degree is required.
• Previous experience as a Product Manager at a [redacted], with demonstrated success. We need someone who can hit the ground running, so examples of strategic thinking and effective communication to senior leadership are essential.
• Previous experience mentoring and leading a team. We believe in the well-being of our team, so capable leaders are extremely important.
• Ability and tendency to balance the value of qualitative and quantitative data. We value data as much as the next tech company, but you’re here for a reason, as is our entire intelligent team, so we always weigh both.
• Ability to own the entire UX. We work externally with multiple partners to ensure an excellent user experience, as well as with our internal teams. Relationship management, ability to work effectively with external teams, and overall accountability are crucial.
• Prior [redacted] experience. 
• Ability to prioritize initiatives and communicate clearly across the organization. At [redacted], we always have a lot going on, and we rely on our teams to have the skills to navigate the best way to accomplish our goals.

 

Product Manager Job Description: Example 5

[redacted] is seeking a Product Manager to help guide the progress of our new product. 

We're excited to interview candidates who love product management, are creative problem solvers, look for ways to be efficient around every corner, love beautiful design, and care about user-experience driven design. 

This role has a potential promotional pathway to head of product, managing a team of designers and engineers.

What You’ll Do

• Strategize & research around customer needs to develop feature lists, user stories, and the product roadmap.
• Define, deliver, and roll out products that help [redacted] ambassadors, brand clients, and the internal team.
• Help execute the vision of the CEO and translate business needs into beautiful, usable products.
• Oversee the visual design and user-experience of [redacted].
• Deeply understand competitive landscape and market trends.
• Oversee product-related project management between our Product Designer, Engineering Team, COO, and CEO.
• Set and track metrics/KPIs and communicate them to leadership and internal team.
• Assist in the go-to-market strategy and rollouts of all products.

Who You Are

• 3+ years of agile Product Management experience.
• 2+ years of previous consumer-facing product experience required.
• MBA a plus, but not required.
• Intimate [redacted] knowledge a major plus.
• Experience in working with products for [redacted] demographics.
• Comfortable using project management tools like a Gantt chart or Excel.
• Software experience with: Sketch, Adobe, XCode, Illustrator, and other design tools required.
• You should be comfortable and have skills around developer management, and navigating engineering team dynamics.
• Data-oriented for decision making and supporting arguments.

 

Product Manager Job Description Template

While the previous examples are unique to the companies that posted them, several traits and common denominators do jump out.

With this information in hand, we’ve compiled a product manager job description template for you to use and tailor to your specific needs. Again, this is a job description template, so make sure to customize it to reflect your unique company, culture and mission. We've left several fields blank for you to input the exact experience and skills you're looking for.

 

Company Bio

[Use this section to provide a high level overview of your company, culture, perks and benefits, career development opportunities and anything else that will get candidates excited about your company.]

Responsibilities

• Build a thorough product roadmap that prioritizes certain features and takes into consideration the entire product lifecycle, the contributing team members and accounts for potential resource limitations.
• Organize, execute and document detailed product releases across multiple teams, including [insert relevant teams].
• Provide feedback and recommendations with metrics to back your decisions and present findings to key stakeholders and executives.
• Gather insights on product success and user experience by interviewing customers, tracking market trends and analyzing competing products.
• Set long-term growth goals and analyze and relay product-related metrics and revenue performance to key stakeholders.
• Clearly communicate product objectives to internal teams with varying levels of technical and non-technical knowledge.
• Coordinate with internal teams, including software engineers, data, operations, sales, marketing, customer success, finance and senior leadership.
• Mentor the product team by hiring, training and mentoring new team members, establishing professional development goals and ensuring deadlines are met.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, economics, physics, psychology, math or related field.
• X years of product manager or product marketing experience
• X years experience with [insert your product management software], and designer software, like [insert software your company uses].
• Exceptional track record of launching products/services and managing their success on an end-to-end product lifecycle.
• Excellent written, verbal, interpersonal and presentation skills with adaptable teaching styles.
• Strong metric goal setting and analysis with the ability to translate results to stakeholders and confidently recommend actionable product growth initiatives.
• Experience in [insert industry] is a plus

 

Product Manager Salary Information

Hopefully these examples and template have helped you become more confident in writing a product manager job description. Before we close out and send you on your way,  there’s one final part of the job description that you really can’t leave out; the salary information.

To help you determine an appropriate salary range that will be in line with candidate expectations, we’ve gathered the average salary information for product managers in seven of the country’s top employment markets. Each bullet links to our local compensation analysis tool in case you want to research further.

• Austin, TX: $111,136
• Boston, MA: $117,905
• Chicago, IL: $107,396
• Colorado: $106,063
• Los Angeles, CA: $116,319
• New York, NY: $125,441
• Seattle, WA: $131,200

Cross Market Average Salary for Product Managers: $116,494