Software Product Manager Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

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.

Software product managers can enhance their careers by belonging to some professional organizations, including the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA), the Association of International Product Marketing and Management (AIPMM), and the International Software Product Management Association, ISPMA.

These associations provide certifications and connections that can help boost their career development.

Software Product Manager Job Description Sample/Example/Template

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 Employment

The number of employed software product managers in the United States is more than 26,210 according to survey data on Zippia, .

The data also shows that the average age of software product managers to be 39 years, while 75.4% of them consist of men and 24.6% women.

Employment by Industries

The industries with the most employment for software product managers, according to the Zippia data, include:

Software Product Manager: Industries with Highest Employments. Data from Zippia

Employment by States

The Zippia data also gives the States that employ the largest number of software product managers to include California and Texas, with 8,060 and 3,282 employments respectively.

Software Product Manager Salary

According to data on Zippia, software product managers earn average salary of $110,785 per year in the United States.

The States that pay the highest salaries to software product managers in the United States include:

Software Product Manager: States with Highest Salaries. Data from Zippia