Software Product Managers develop new features to enhance the functionality of existing products.
This post provides detailed information on the software product manager job description, including the duties, tasks, and responsibilities of the role.
What Does a Software Product Manager Do?
The software product manager job description involves assessing customer needs, as well as performing market research and analyses and suggesting new features to develop for existing products.
The responsibility also covers identifying new software products that will be acceptable to customers.
The role of this position also includes creating software product management across company’s existing business units. This starts from developing new products for the company and increasing the profitability of existing products.
The software product manager is charged with the task of building products from already existing ideas and also helping to develop new ideas based on their contact with customers, prospects, as well as industry experience.
His/her duties also include finding innovative solutions for the broader market, and must enjoy spending time with customers so as to understand their challenges.
The manager responsible for software products in a company will work with engineering colleagues to define the requirements of the product to be released.
Their role also includes working with marketing communications to define the marketing strategies to use, helping them understand the key benefits, target customer and product positioning.
Software product managers also serve as the external and internal link for the company’s product offering, occasionally working with key customers and sales channel.
To be effective on this job, the manager must be technical savvy and possess a unique blend of business knowledge and skills; a big-picture vision, as well as the passion to make that vision a reality.
The individual must also have a strong software background, especially in the cloud integration/middleware space and the on premise; and must be able to share ideas cum information with other departments in the company.
The sample software product manager job description shown below highlights major duties, tasks, and responsibilities that they usually carry out:
Move company to software systems business model from hardware
Identify opportunities, build product vision and understand market needs, roadmap and strategy
Work with technology team to produce world-class products driven by technology visionaries, domain experts, and customers
Own product specifications, requirements, and release plans
Research customer and user needs, write user stories, partner with user experience team for rapid prototyping, and work with engineering department to develop marketable products
Participate in user conferences and customer facing situations as a product expert
Collect and synthesize inputs from engineering, sales, business units, vertical marketing group and the market to lead business and products direction
Partner with cross functional teams to ensure quality product output, timeliness, and market requirements
Be the Company’s Product Evangelist
Analyze growth rate, SAM, TAM, SWOT, market penetration and competitive analysis for the products
Maintain changes in tactics and marketing strategy, take cognizance of competitive activities and general trends that could affect sales of products
Propose product strategy changes as a result of competitive changes in the marketplace
Optimize and manage market share, long-term competitiveness cum ROI of the product line
Monitor product profit margins
Recommend optimum distribution channel strategies
Team up with design engineers and visit customers to propose product solution
Develop sales tools with marketing communications group, vertical marketing group and business Units
Contribute to and create other marketing communications strategies
Support and deliver product collateral for applications teams and field sales
Preparing a resume for the software product manager job:
To create a resume for the position of manager of software products, information from the job description example given above can be used in making the employment history part of the resume.
Software Product Manager Requirements: Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities for Career Success
The following is a list of vital requirements; including knowledge, skills, and abilities an aspiring software product manager should have to be considered for the job:
Minimum of 3 years’ experience in software product management
Experience with the methodology of software development
Pragmatic Marketing certified is a plus
Proficient computer skills, Lotus Notes etc.
Strong communications skills
Ability to represent products at a professional level
High integrity
Solid work ethic
Ability to work independently
Ability to manage multiple projects
Software Product Manager Salary
The average salary of a software product manager in the U.S. is $112,266 a year.
The top paying cities are Palo Alto, CA, $147,228; Trenton, NJ, $118,258; New York, NY, $115,897; Philadelphia, PA, $113,916; and Springfield, MA, $110,633 per year.
In the United States, there are currently over 24,798 software product managers working.
Women make up 24.6% of all software product managers, while men make up 75.4%.
An employed software product manager is 38 years old on average.
White (72.0%) is the most common ethnicity among software product managers, followed by Hispanic or Latino (11.5%), Asian (9.5%), and Black or African American (4.2%). Women were projected to earn 96% of what men would earn in 2021.
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