Technical Product Manager Job Description Sample, Duties, and Responsibilities
This post provides detailed information on the job description of a technical product manager, detailing the key duties, tasks, and responsibilities they commonly perform.
It also highlights the major requirements individuals are expected to meet to be hired for the role.
What Does a Technical Product Manager Do?
To effectively carry out the job description of a technical product manager requires a person with the knowledge to pinpoint market needs and to meet those needs via a company’s products.
While the exact duties technical product managers perform may be different depending on the company they work for, their responsibilities remain the same in any industry.
According to ProductPlan, technical product managers are usually former engineers or people with computer science majors who bring a strong technical background to the job. They are involved more with the technical part of the product and work closely with engineering, networking, development, and infrastructure teams.
The technical product manager job description includes duties such as identifying customer needs, implementing the latest technology to improve products, and developing strategies to meet customer demands.
It also involves working with other departments as well as monitoring the progress of new products.
Perhaps, the greatest part of being a technical product manager is to find out what customers’ needs are.
Since customers would ultimately determine the success of a company’s products, it’s imperative to obtain customers input.
In order to know exactly what customers are looking for, the product manager might participate in trade shows, embark on surveys, or contact existing customers directly.
Doing this is vital to a company’s long term growth and the success of a business.
Once a technical product manager knows what the customer needs, it’s his/her job to develop ways to meet those needs.
This is the time he/she will brainstorm on ways to make new products capable of meeting the demands of the yearning public.
For instance, if he/she works in a computer software company, he/she might tweak a software program already in use so that it functions more appropriately and easier to use.
These changes can help to develop and grow a company’s customer base, as well as to keep the company competitive within its industry.
Another vital function of this position is the ability to implement the latest technology in the creation of products.
The rapid progress of technology means that staying on top of technological advancement is highly important for optimizing product creation.
Consequently, a manager for technical products might spend time in researching new technological trends so as to figure out how to incorporate them into their products and company at large.
In the course of incorporating new technologies into their products, the person in this position is expected to be willing to experiment with new ideas, and at the same time be creative.
Besides the qualities mentioned above, an individual working in this position must always work with other departments within their company.
He/she might also hold meetings with other personnel periodically and presents his/her strategies, findings, and projected goals for product improvement.
Considering that this position entails providing a great deal of leadership, it is important that the person holding it must possess leadership skills and confidence.
You can advance your technical product manager career by belonging to a professional association such as the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA).
The PDMA offers the New Product Development (NPD) Professional Certification, which is globally recognized and helps product development and management professionals to make important connections in their careers.
Technical Product Manager Job Description Sample
The sample job description below shows a list of important duties, tasks, and responsibilities that make up the daily work activities of most technical product managers:
- Suggest workable solutions to development teams with consideration for product contract, positioning, and market requirements
- Monitor and analyze market trends
- Studying competitors’ services and products
- Explore new ways of improving existing services and products as a way of increasing profitability
- Provide product training, relevant clinical papers, printed and electronic promotional material and the necessary technical expertise to sales team to enable them sell the product
- Identify and present creative and innovative product solutions
- Interface with development leads to make sure that product requirements are understood
- Coordinate product releases with the marketing, sales, development and service teams
- Answer product related inquiries
Technical Product Manager Resume Preparation
The preparation of a resume for seeking the job of technical product manager can be aided by using the job description example given above in making the work experience section of the resume.
Requirements – Knowledge, Abilities, and Skills for the Post of Technical Product Manager
Below are some skills, abilities, and knowledge which technical product managers working in a software company are expected to possess:
- 3+ years’ knowledge and experience in setting up complex networks, especially within a Cisco environment
- Must be knowledgeable in network monitoring technology
- Ability to travel occasionally
- Fluent English.
Technical Product Manager Employment
The number of technical product managers in employment in the United States is over 22,310, according to survey data on Zippia.
Men make up 75.8% of the entire number of employed technical product managers while women make up 24.2%, with 39 years as average age.
Employment by Industry
Also, according to Zippia, the industries that employ the highest number of technical product managers include:
Technical Product Manager Employment by Industry
INDUSTRY | EMPLOYMENT |
Technology | 6,024 |
Fortune 500 | 3,793 |
Finance | 1,562 |
Start-up | 1,562 |
Manufacturing | 1,339 |
Employment by State
The States that employ the highest number of technical product managers in the United States include California and Texas, with 11,079 and 6,117 employments respectively.
Technical Product Manager Salary
The average salary of a technical product manager in the United States is $120,052 per year, according to data on Zippia.
However, SalaryDotCom gives the average salary of technical product manager as $126,030.
Salary by States
The States that pay the highest salaries to technical product managers include California and Washington, with average salaries of $131,440 and $125,622 respectively.