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Product Manager (PM)

Mr. Creer — Sat, 25 Jul 2020 05:06:29 +0000

Product Manager (PM)

Product Managers (PMs) are in charge of generating product ideas and coordinating with all the teams necessary to create and deploy that product.

While software engineers are specialists at creating software products and salespeople are specialists at selling products, the Product Manager is the middle piece that sees these products through from the moment the idea is generated to the moment the product is launched (and closely monitors performance after the launch).

To accomplish this, PMs responsibilities include:

Understanding business priorities
Brainstorm projects that can make progress toward those goals
Setting measurable goals and timelines for tasks that their teams can complete
Manage and direct the building of a product
Strategize how to launch the product
Measure and analyze how the product performs/is received by the public

While there are PMs that work in many industries, we focus on the ones at tech companies (day to day responsibilities are not much different though). Keep on reading below to understand Product Management within minutes.

What Do Product Managers Do?

As a PM your goals are to:

Create and oversee the creation of products that will help solve problems of the company and its customers, users, and/or target audience.
Identify roadblocks that may arise and try to prevent them from slowing down or hindering any potential progress (with respect to product development and/or the launch of the product).

Product Manager Real-Life Analogy

To help understand what the purpose or value-add of a PM is, we compare a PM to an orchestra conductor (inspired by Ale Carlos):

An orchestra conductor usually does not know how to play every instrument, but they have a large team of individuals who are experts at their specific instrument. The conductor’s job is to:

Decide what will be played by the orchestra
Give high-level instructions to the musicians
Manage how you want the piece to be played
Set the pace of the piece being played, etc.

The conductor doesn’t tell the clarinetist how to play clarinet, but they give them expectations and the clarinetist needs to meet those standards. If the conductor’s instructions are unclear, or the way they manage the orchestra is poor, the performance falls apart.

Product Management Project Example:

Product Manager Example

Hypothetical project for a PM at an online food order/delivery company:

Define the company goal – Increase user order rate. Need to ask, what makes a user order?
Find a pattern or potential insight – For example, users who had many restaurants available, when they open the app, were more likely to order
Questions might arise that need to be answered – How do you onboard more restaurants? Perhaps focus on large enterprises that own dozens or hundreds of restaurants nationwide.
Find a potential solution – Might work with McDonald’s (for example) to create sales and marketing incentives for them on your platform. For example, maybe McDonald’s wants you to display their menu with the most expensive items at the top because that will cause users to spend more.
Work with the Sales/Business Development team(s) – Direct them on how to pitch/reach out to McDonald’s.
Product Design and Development – After coordinating with the McDonalds team to integrate their requirements/desires, you need to design the user experience for the McDonalds selection (in this case, how to make the menu look on the app).
Create the product – Build the product, test to make sure it works, fix bugs, and repeat until it is ready to publicly launch. This is done by working closely with software engineers, who develop the actual product.
Launch in pilot-market (1-2 cities/few locations) – Closely follow this launch and detect bugs, fix any problems, and measure the impact of the product (Impact might be: are we increasing user order rate? Did the change cause any unexpected issues?, etc).
Scale the product: to various cities, if all goes well. during the pilot-market launch.

What does the Product Manager do during this process?

Besides being a problem solver and a good “team manager”, a large part of being a Product Manager is strong communication skills. This includes asking a lot of the right questions and listening closely when different teams answer your questions. Understanding the bigger picture and connecting the dots between various team members is essential to creating a product and launching it effectively and efficiently.

What is the difference between Product Management (PM) and Product Marketing Management (PMM)?

Simply put, PM’s are responsible for the creation and development of the product and PMMs are responsible for the customer. It is the job of the PM to understand the vision of a product and how to guide the software and product team to create that product as best as possible. While their main focuses may differ, PMs and PMMs work very closely together to make sure each area of the business is functioning in the best way possible.

Typical Product Manager Hierarchy:

While this varies from company to company, a typical hierarchy looks as follows:

Junior/Associate PM
Product Manager
Senior PM
Product Lead/Lead PM
Product Director/Group PM
VP of Product/Product Lead
Chief Product Officer (CPO)

5 Different Types of Product Managers

An interesting aspect of being a Product Manager is that people with very different skillsets can be just as successful in different ways. There are many different types of PMs and their specific day to day tasks depends on their skillset/background and/or the type of company they work at. While this is not the only way to bucket PMs, here are some examples of Product Managers:

Technical PMs – Require some computer science/programming background. Work closely with the software/development teams.
Analytical PM – Similar to the Technical PM but more data-focused, might work with the data science team or conduct data science analysis to drive business/product decisions.
Non-technical PMs – More consumer-facing, and design focused
Platform PMs – Might build internal tools (a platform is some “infrastructure” you build products on).
Business to Business (B2B) PMs – Build products that are sold/provided to enterprise/business clients rather than “customers”.

Tools & Processes Product Managers Use

Scrum/Sprints – A process/framework that helps teams work together effectively and quickly. Finite goals are set to be reached over a predetermined timeframe.
Lean startup – A process/methodology intended to shorten the time it takes to develop product/business ideas and more quickly identify if the idea has a viable business model (is it profitable, realistic to implement, etc).
Calendar – As a PM you will be responsible for many product processes at once. Being organized and meeting with various teams will be essential to your success.
Email – Used to communicate with your team members throughout projects
Docs – Used to record and take notes of potential ideas and current ideas. Also important for recording feedback you receive so you can relay the feedback to other team members in meetings, etc.

What types of skills, mentality, etc. are necessary to be a successful Product Manager?

Entrepreneurial – PMs ultimately are responsible for creating products that help the company solve its or its customers’ problem(s). It’s very important to have an understanding of the bigger picture and the business side of things.
Listening – Being a good listener is essential as a PM because, at the end of the day, your job is to be a team manager. You need to listen to feedback and respond to that feedback appropriately.
Organized – As a manager, it is essential you stay organized and properly keep track of the various products you are in charge of.
Creative – PMs are problem solvers, and often this calls for creative solutions. Whether it be creative Product ideas, creative designs, creative ways to fix issues that arise, etc.

What are some challenges of being a Product Manager?

While being a PM has many benefits, it also has some challenges:

As a PM you have a lot of responsibility. While this is often seen as a positive, it can be very stressful at times to know that you are responsible for the outcome of a project/product.
Sometimes the questions/problems you need to solve are very ambiguous and confusing. It can be very difficult and require a lot of creativity and teamwork.
You are a manager of people, which sometimes calls for demanding results. This can be a difficult thing to do/can be uncomfortable at times.
Sometimes, the PM might not have much authority at a firm. Might have to get efforts approved by higher-ups first. Can be difficult managing a project if you do not have enough authority to call your shots (for ex. it can slow things down)

What are some benefits of being a Product Manager?

You set your own schedule
You are in charge and responsible for a product/project’s outcome, which can be very empowering
A lot of industries/companies have PMs or value PM’s skillset/experience, so you will have a lot of job opportunities
Broad exposure to many teams, from Software, to marketing, etc.
Rewarding to see a project through from start to finish
Learn a lot about different things as you work on various products/projects.
Are often given a lot of responsibility and authority as a manager of several products.

Typical Salary?

Total entry-level compensation for a PM, on average, falls between 70k-180k. This includes a base salary + an equity bonus and/or a cash bonus.

According to Indeed, the average PM makes around $110k.

Should I become a Product Manager?

Product Managers gain very broad exposure to many different areas from software development, marketing, design, business, etc. This experience provides product managers with many exit opportunities, including working your way up the PM seniority ladder, switching to another company in a manager role, working at a startup, creating your own company, Consulting, Venture Capital, or any entrepreneurial role.

The combination of great work-life balance, high compensation, and creative/exciting work makes Product Management a very popular career. If you are interested in being deeply involved (and in many ways in charge) of the product development process, you should consider looking into Product Management.

Relevant Forum Discussions

Want To Further Discuss Product Management?

PM Job & Interview Prep

Common Careers Before & After Product Management

Related Careers:

Product Marketing Manager (PMM)

Software Engineering

Venture Capital

Think we are missing important information? Had trouble understanding some sections of this page? Anything else you are still wondering about? Please let us know on the feedback page!

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Software Engineering

Mr. Creer — Fri, 24 Jul 2020 10:47:48 +0000

Software Engineering

Software Engineers are computer science professionals who use their knowledge of programming/coding and engineering principles to create a software product. A software product can mean a:

Website
Phone/web application,
Video game,
Social network platform
Chat room
Database, etc.

There are many types of software engineers, and depending on where you work, you might:

Work on different types of projects
Use different programming languages
Work in slightly different team-environments, etc.

Keep on reading below to understand Software Engineering within minutes.

What Do Software Engineers Do?

The goal of a software engineer is to create or improve a software product in the best, most efficient way possible for its users. There are many ways that a software engineer accomplishes this goal.

Some examples are:

Make changes to a software product based on user feedback.
Design, develop, and test an application or system (the thing that makes the application work, but is more “behind the scenes”).
Collaborate with team members like product managers, designers, other software engineers to create/improve software products.
Draw diagrams and models that help software engineers write the code for the system or application. Essentially create an outline before you write it out.
Take close note of the system or application in order to help those responsible for future maintenance.
Fix bugs in code that comes up.

Entry-level Software Engineer Project Walkthrough:

Entry-Level Software Project Example

As an entry-level software engineer, you are assigned a project from your tech lead or manager.
The type of project varies and depends on the needs of the team.
Each member of the team is in charge of certain parts of the software the team is developing.
Whether the task is implementing a new feature, dealing with client support, or fixing a bug, your task is expected to be completed by its deadline.
You discuss the design specifications (aka an outline of how the software should work) with your product manager and/or senior team members to make sure it meets the goals, requirements, and needs.
After this is complete and the team is on the same page, you develop the software/write the code (usually about 70% of your time is spent writing code for a specific project).
Once the main part of the software is finished, you test it and have other engineers review your code.
After passing all the necessary tests, the software is put to use in the real world.

How do Software Engineers Create A Product?

Much like any software project, you:

Draw out a high-level/basic design for the project and some sample cases. These sample cases might include plugging in hypothetical values you might expect to see, to get an idea of how the program runs.
Then you spend some time developing an initial version that passes the high-level tests of your program (tests that are basic/obvious criteria for your program).
After that you build out further features and fix bugs based on tests, until you have a pretty complete project.
Finally you test it in a “Quality Assurance” (QA) type environment to make sure your software works on real inputs and is ready for release.

Software Engineers Across Various Industries:

There are software engineers in almost every industry because technological needs generate demand for people who can create software.

What exactly is the difference between a software engineer at a major tech firm versus a finance firm versus an autonomous vehicle manufacturer, etc?

Obviously the types of projects these individuals work on are different, but the day to day lives is not actually too different. Some differences however might include:

Might need to know different programming languages to more easily help them accomplish their unique tasks.
May have slightly different design processes they follow to prepare them to tackle the specific problems they solve regularly.
- For example, someone who works at a Trading firm, and needs to ensure they receive the correct data needed to make good trades, codes very different programs than someone whose job is to create a vehicle to drive safely on the roads.

What exactly does it mean to use different programming languages?

A programming language is a way that a software engineer/developer can make the computer do what it wants.
Some programming languages are better suited for different tasks
- Ex. if someone wants to do a data analysis project (where they try to make sense of a large data set, and come to some conclusion based on this data) they might prefer to use python which makes doing such projects easier.
- Ex. If someone wants to create a game, C++ is a programming language they often use because it is very fast and is good for more complex projects (both of which are needed when making a video game!).

While most people do not start as superstars at solving any software problems, in any industry, the learning curve is steep.

So, when deciding which industry you’d like to create software in, it is a good idea to keep in mind the following:

Do I know the necessary tools to solve the problems they solve daily? If not, how difficult is it for me to learn them?
Am I interested in the type of problems they are solving?
How similar are the technological problems this industry is solving compared with other industries? Are the requisite skills/experiences transferable to another industry?

Typical Software Hierarchy:

Usually, software engineers can take one of two career paths: move into a management role, or keep being entirely technical and code. Since management positions aren’t for everyone, many people prefer to stay on the technical path. Keep in mind, the below hierarchies (and specific titles) may vary depending on the company you work at.

An example of a technical software career path might look something like this:

Intern
Junior Software Developer
Software Developer/Engineer
Senior Software Engineer
Principal Software Engineer
Software Architect
Senior Software Architect
Chief Architect
CTO

Alternatively, for those engineers interested in a more leadership-oriented role, the career path might look like this:

Intern
Junior Software Developer
Software Developer/Engineer
Team Lead/Tech Lead
Engineering Manager/Project Manager
Senior Engineering Manager
Director of Engineering
VP of Engineering ¹

What types of Software Engineers are out there?

There are software engineers in pretty much every industry. They could create the software products at Tech Companies, Finance Companies, etc. There are many ways to categorize software engineers, but one way is to differentiate between Front-End and Back-End:

Front-End Software Engineers – broadly speaking, creates software products for everything involved in what the user sees, including design.
Back-End Software Engineers – broadly speaking, creates software products for everything that makes the website or application work, update, or change. This typically refers to everything the user can’t see such as the databases and the servers.

Tools Software Engineers might use

Programming Languages – For coding. Most common for entry-level are C++, Python, Java
Command-Line in Terminal/Linux – Ways to use the command line to execute processes on your computer more quickly and efficiently. You can navigate through files, download apps, etc. with just one command instead of going through the whole multi-click process otherwise
Jira – Allows teams to mark issues/bugs, rank them in terms of urgency, and mark when complete. It also allows for more organized projects and tracking of an individual’s responsibilities. Ultimately, it consolidates a lot of information into one place for the entire team to see.
Git – When a developer works on a project he/she is constantly making changes to the program. Git allows you to constantly track those changes, and share them with the team. Additionally, it makes collaboration easier for software/programming projects.

Necessary Skills For Successful Software Engineers:

Programming Skills: most common for entry-level are C++, Java, and Python.
Understanding of operating systems (OS) and networks
Communication and teamwork skills because you work through problems/projects with Product Managers and/or other software engineers
Intellectually curious, because the learning curve for software never stops. There is always more you can learn from your peers.
Quick learner – oftentimes companies do not expect their new hires to know everything, however, learning quickly and getting the job done is essential
Ability to focus and be diligent – much (if not the grand majority) of the job involves putting your head down, and getting a program or project completed on time.

What are some challenges of Software Engineering?

While there are many benefits of working in Software, there are also some challenges:

At least 70% of your job is spent programming. While some find this very exciting and positive, some might find this repetitive and boring. So it is important that you are passionate about programming and solving those types of problems.
When things go wrong and there are bugs you need to fix, it is often frustrating to struggle through these types of problems (especially if they need correcting in a short amount of time).
While compensation and work-life balance in software are very good, sometimes it is easy to get too comfortable and you’ll find yourself in the same position for a long time. Although people certainly move up the seniority ladder, or switch to other firms and are promoted that way, it is possible to get stuck at a specific salary and level on the food chain.

What are some benefits of working in Software Engineering?

Software Engineering/Development is one of the most highly coveted careers in the world. People like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates were software superstars and changed the world with their products. Some benefits include:

Well compensated and often have great company benefits
Get to be on the ground, directly experiencing the rapidly growing and changing technology industry.
Have the opportunity to work with brilliant people and can learn a lot from working through interesting and exciting projects with your coworkers.
Usually a collaborative atmosphere because many people work together to complete a single project

Typical Software Engineer Salary?

The average entry-level base salary is usually 100-140k. Total compensation depends on where you work and how experienced you are. However, on average, total compensation is typically between 100-225k (which usually includes a stock/equity bonus in the company you work for). Compensation steadily increases over the years as you gain more experience and get promoted, but the rate in which your compensation increases is highly variable depending on where you work and your seniority level at your firm.

According to PayScale, the average Software Engineer makes about $110k.

Should I go into Software Engineering?

If you enjoy solving programming problems, want to use very transferable skills (like programming), and/or want to receive exposure to the rapidly expanding tech industry, you should consider looking into Software. It is an exciting career, that is well compensated, and has a great work-life balance. While the exit opportunities are not particularly broad in software engineering, you can lateral to pretty much any software related role (and those exist in almost every industry); there is always a demand for technologically skilled people. Additionally, becoming an expert in creating software products can prove extremely valuable down the line.

Relevant Forum Discussions

Want To Further Discuss Software?

Software Job & Interview Prep

Common Careers Before & After Software Engineering

Related Careers:

Product Manager (PM)

Trading

Data Analyst

Think we are missing important information? Had trouble understanding some sections of this page? Anything else you are still wondering about? Please let us know on the feedback page!

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Data Analyst

Mr. Creer — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 06:57:38 +0000

Data Analyst

A Data Analyst is someone who uses data to help find and make insights to help the company be more successful. These analysts collect information/data about specific topics and then interpret, analyze, and present the findings in detailed reports (usually a visually-friendly, less-technical report for non-data analysts to look at). ¹

What Does a Data Analyst Do?

A Data Analyst’s responsibilities and role will vary depending on the industry, type of company and department in which they work. Typically they provide information that enables companies to define things such as:

products to be offered to customers according to their needs
marketing strategies to adopt, or
improvements to be made to manufacturing and production processes.

In today’s world if you’re looking to make use of your data, you usually need a Data Analyst to help make sense of it.²

Examples of Data Analyst Responsibilities:

Designing and maintaining data systems and databases; this includes fixing coding errors and other data-related problems.
Mining data from primary and secondary sources, then reorganizing said data in a format that can be easily read by either human or machine.
Using statistical tools to interpret data sets, paying particular attention to trends and patterns that could be valuable for diagnostic and predictive analytics efforts.
Demonstrating the significance of their work in the context of local, national, and global trends that impact both their organization and industry.
Preparing reports for executive leadership that effectively communicate trends, patterns, and predictions using relevant data .
Collaborating with programmers, engineers, and organizational leaders to identify opportunities for process improvements, recommend system modifications, and develop policies for data governance.
Creating appropriate documentation that allows stakeholders to understand the steps of the data analysis process and duplicate or replicate the analysis if necessary.³

Data Analyst Project Example:

Below is an example of a data analytics project from a data analyst at a financial services company.

Goal: Analyze the impact of the new 2018 Tax law on tax refunds and tax payments owed.

How to do it: Use data on consumer transactions (data on people’s spending) to find insights into how tax refunds and tax payments changed due to the new law.

What is the difference between Data Analysts and Data Scientists?

A data analyst is often not responsible for creating the algorithms used for actually collecting and managing the usually massive datasets. Rather than creating their own data projects, data analysts often find themselves tackling specific business tasks using existing tools, systems, and data sets. However, both roles aim to use information to answer questions and solve problems for the benefit of their business/industry.⁴

What types of Data Analyst Jobs are out there?

Any company that uses data to make decisions/insights will have a place for Data Analysts. Some popular industries include: Finance, Tech, Healthcare, and Consumer Retail.

Some examples of different job titles that are considered Data Analysts (depending on the company and team):

Business analyst – Analyzes business specific data.
Management reporting – Reports data analytics to management on business functions.
Compensation and benefits analyst – Usually part of a human resources department that analyzes employee compensation and benefits data.
Budget analyst – Analyzes and reports on the company’s budget.
Insurance underwriting analyst: analyzes individual, company, and industry data for decisions on insurance plans.
Actuary – Analyzes mortality, accident, sickness, disability, and retirement rates to create probability tables, risk forecasting, and liability planning for insurance companies.
Sales analytics – Focuses on sales data that helps to support and improve the sales process.
Web analytics – Analyzes a specific web page, topic focus, or website to monitor and improve different relevant metrics.
Fraud analytics – Monitors and analyzes fraud data.
Social media data analyst – social media and growing tech companies rely on data to build, monitor, and advance the technology of social media platforms.
Machine learning analyst – machine learning is a concept that involves programming and feeding machines data so that they learn to make insights (it is a subset of artificial intelligence). ⁵

Some general examples of tools a Data Analyst uses:

An essential aspect of data analytics is using computer programming to collect and then derive insights from data. Below are some common data analysis programming languages/tools.

SQL
Excel/Spreadsheets
Tableau
Python
R
Matlab
Machine Learning
SAS

What types of skills are necessary to be a successful Data Analyst?

Analytical skills – Data analysts work with large amounts of data and need to analyze it to find conclusions.
Communication skills – Data analysts present their findings, and translate the data into understandable documents or reports. They need to communicate complex ideas into easily understood terms.
Critical thinking – Data analysts must look at the numbers, trends, and data and form meaningful conclusions.
Attention to detail – Use of incorrect and sloppy data causes incorrect and sloppy results.
Math skills – In order to make sense of and come to insightful mathematically driven conclusions.
Technical skills/tools – There are many technical skills and computer programs that a data analyst must have in order to be proficient.⁶

What are some challenges of working in Data Analytics?

Work can be tiring – especially more tedious parts of a project like collecting and cleaning data
Will often spend time looking through data to test a hypothesis that ends up being false
Easy to make mistakes – when managing massive amounts of data and trying to come to a conclusion, there are many places where you can make a minor error that alters the entire end result.

What are some benefits of working in Data Analytics?

It’s a hot field right now – there is a lot of demand for people that are good with data nowadays.
High compensation
Available in almost every industry – can get exposure and be involved in a field that excites you.
Challenging yet rewarding work – can spend a long time working through a project, but it is rewarding to create a final, organized, visual presentation of your findings.

Typical Salary?

Below are average data analyst salaries:

Entry-level data analysts – $80-85k
Senior data analysts – $115k-$145k⁷

Should I become a Data Analyst?

If you enjoy problem solving, and using data to answer complex questions, you should consider a career in data analytics. It is a great way to build strong programming and math skills, while answering exciting, often impactful questions for a company.

The field of data science is rapidly evolving, and getting in while it’s hot is a great opportunity not only to make money but also to work on projects that will shape the future.

Related Careers

Relevant Forum Discussions

Want To Further Discuss Data Analytics?

Trading

Software Engineering

Quantitative Research (Quant)

Think we are missing important information? Had trouble understanding some sections of this page? Anything else you are still wondering about? Please let us know on the feedback page!

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Product Marketing Manager (PMM)

Mr. Creer — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 05:52:08 +0000

Product Marketing Manager (PMM)

A Product Marketing Manager (PMM) is responsible for taking a company’s product(s) to market. What does this mean? In essence, PMMs act as the “storytellers” for their firm; How might they do this?

Identify their target audience, aka the type of people who are most likely to use their product
Figure out how the company’s product(s) can solve their target audiences’ problem(s) and/or meet their desire(s)
Be able to tell a story to their target audience in an effective and captivating way.

Keep on reading below to understand Product Marketing Management within minutes.

PMMs often time work at tech companies (however, not always). So, below is a diagram (inspired by rocketblocks) to help you visualize how the different roles at a tech company might fit in and work together:

What is the goal of a Product Marketing Manager?

To create demand for your company’s product(s) through effective marketing and messaging to your target audience. What does this mean?

Marketing is what a company does to sell/advertise themselves. Some examples of marketing are

Billboards you see on the road
Advertisements on top of taxi cabs
Advertisements you see online, etc.

Through a very brief storytelling process, the company wishes to attract potential customers or users. However, this can be a very difficult task, and PMMs are in charge of the strategy behind these processes/tactics.

Types of Marketing goals

A PMM typically has three different (broad) marketing goals, with respect to getting more people to use their product/service. Marketing with the intention of:

Getting new users who never used the product before (aka Customer/User Acquisition)
Keeping the current users loyal to you, and preventing them from stopping using your product/service (aka Retention)
Attracting users back to your product/service after they already know about you and/or stopped using your product/service (aka Retargeting/Remarketing).

How is Product Marketing Management different than regular Marketing?

While they are not technically “different”, a PMM at a tech company can have a rather different experience than someone in Marketing at a non-tech company. The short answer is, Product Marketing Management can be thought of as a subset of Marketing. The difference is, a PMM must have a more in depth understanding of the product/service they market compared to a typical “marketing” role. They need to not only understand how it works, but why it is different/better than its competitors. One way to think about it is this:

A tech product (such as a smartphone) is like a building that is always under construction. Meaning, it is never really complete and it is always constantly improving, upgrading, and developing. So a PMM will constantly be coming back to the same products after the initial launch/release of the product. Having an understanding of each product and how they have grown to address the customers’ needs can be pivotal to the success of a product marketing strategy.

PMMs work closely with both the sales team, to make sure the sales team is equipped with proper marketing strategy, and with the product teams (those that develop the product). This middle-man experience gives PMMs a bit more responsibility and exposure to other areas of the business.

PMM Project Example

Product Marketing Manager Example

Here is an extended hypothetical example of work a PMM might do throughout the life of a product. Here we decide to split it into 3 “life-cycles”. (1)Pre-Launch (2)Growth (3) Mature Product Marketing:

Pre-Launch

A brand-new product is created by the product team (Product Managers and Software/Hardware Engineers). Since it is brand-new, it has not been released to the public yet.

PMMs work closely with the product team to understand the product, who the target audience for that product is, and how to explain its value through an effective marketing strategy.
Once PMMs are ready to market their product, they will plan how to best do that and relay the plan/information to the Sales team. It is the PMMs job to equip the Sales team with the strongest marketing strategy possible, to help sell the product.
What are some things the PMMs might decide when trying to “bring the product to market”? They’ll work closely with engineers and Public Relations (PR)/Sales teams to decide on the pricing, the target audience, the product placement (aka where/how they will advertise the product), and how they will convey that the product is valuable to potential customers.
PMMs will constantly be getting/analyzing feedback from customers/users (from their research and from collaboration with the Sales team who works directly with customers) on the product, and will relay that information to the Product team along the way.
PMMs will closely follow the popularity of the particular service/product and will track the response from the press/its customers to determine the success of a given product.

Growth Phase

After the product is launched, the goal is to continue to grow the user base.

Much like the pre-launch (and every other phase) PMMs will work closely with both the sales and product teams.
The product team might go to the PMM with a development they made, or an additional feature/functionality their product now has. It is the PMM’s job to translate this new development into increased customer adoption/acquisition (gain more customers/users).
Alternatively, the Sales team might relay the feedback they received from customers. It is the PMMs job to take the feedback from “the market” (or the target audience plus those that use the product). Ultimately, the goal is to convey the pros/cons of the existing product to the product team, so that they make necessary changes.
Again, once these processes happen, it is the PMMs job to design the marketing strategy. This marketing strategy might look slightly different than the pre-launch one because the product has already been around for a little bit. Now it is about selling the story of how the product is improved and can address the target audiences’ needs even better than before.

Mature Product Marketing

Product Marketing for a mature product refers to trying to sell a product that has been around for a while. At this point, there might be increased competition, and the goal is to try to keep the product fresh, cutting edge, and remind users/customers that your product is still the best.

This process is essentially the same as the growth phase. However, the main difference is that the marketing strategy is more geared toward retaining customers, and working with the product team to keep the product in the best form possible.
At this stage, there might be many competitors, who have a virtually similar product. The distinguishing factor comes down to which company tells the most captivating story, and listens the most closely to the customers’ needs; the winner of this will be the one with the most customer loyalty and will end up on top.

Besides frequent communication with various teams, PMMs always have weekly calls to monitor the products they are in charge of. Additionally they have various tools to track various metrics they need to analyze to measure the success of any product launch, etc.

What are some metrics a Product Marketing Manager might analyze?

Some examples might include:

Web traffic – the number of people that visit a website
Email clicks – the amount of people that clicked links within the body of an email.
Bounce Rate – the percentage of visitors who navigate away after viewing only one page of your site.
Conversion Rate – number of conversions aka the number of people that pay for your product or service divided by the number of visitors to your site.
Retention Rate – Percentage of customers that return to do business with your company
Churn Rate – Percentage of customers that do NOT return to do business with your company
Views/Downloads – number of people that see your content

What is the difference between a Product Marketing Manager and a Product Manager (PM)?

Simply put, PM’s are responsible for the creation and development of the product and PMMs are responsible for the customer. It is the job of the PMM to understand the customers’ needs and to make sure the product is appropriately addressing those needs. While their main focuses differ, PMMs and PMs work very closely together to make sure each area of the business is functioning in the best way possible.

What types of Product Marketing Manager Jobs are out there?

Some specific areas a PMM might work in might include:

Digital – Tech-focused PMM, might spend a bit more time with the product teams than other PMMs to thoroughly understand how it works and how to best market it.
Adoption – Focused on getting customers to adopt a NEW product for the first time.
Engagement – Focused on how to increase customer usage or engagement with your product or service
Advocacy – Focused on getting your current customers to talk highly of your products/brand (think product reviews on Amazon. These can highly influence how your product/service sells).

Some general examples of tools/methodologies a Product Marketing Manager might use

Spreadsheets – to track progress/success of various products
Documents – to detail progress/success of product and design Marketing strategy
Powerpoint – to communicate with Sales and Product teams how the Marketing Strategy might look.
Office tools – in constant communication with various teams to help craft proper strategy. Email, office messaging (google hangouts, slack, etc.)

What types of skills, mentality, etc. are necessary to be a successful Product Marketing Manager?

Economics, Marketing, Social Science majors (not required but similar skillsets needed)
Passion for tech and helping customers through the buying journey
Creativity, to help design and develop a winning marketing strategy
Analytical – need to be able to tie a product to how it will directly generate revenue for the company
Multi-task & strategic manager, important to be able to juggle many tasks because you will often be asked to work with people from different teams constantly. If both someone on the tech team and someone on the sales team needs your time, you need to prioritize appropriately and ultimately get everything done well.

What are some challenges of being a Product Marketing Manager?

One main challenge of being a PMM is, oftentimes, your work experience can be dependent on the Product Manager of a specific product/service you are trying to Market. If the PM is a poor communicator and/or is not a great team member, it can make your ability to appropriately take the product/development to market much more difficult.

What are some benefits of being a Product Marketing Manager?

There are many benefits to being a PMM. Some include:

Have a great work-life balance – ~50 hours/week on average.
Get exposure to many areas of the business – work closely with both product teams and sales teams.
Well compensated.

Additionally, for someone that might not have a particularly tech-focused background, a PMM role allows one to have direct access to some very important processes in the tech world.

Typical Salary?

While salaries vary based on your experience and your company a typical entry-level PMM base salary on average is between 80k-140k and an additional stock bonus ~50k. Total yearly compensation, on average can be around 100-160k.

According PayScale, the average PMM makes around $105k.

Should I become a Product Marketing Manager?

Being a PMM can be a very exciting career path. It pays well, and provides a very comfortable work-life balance. It is a great way for those without extremely tech-y backgrounds to be exposed to very important parts of the “technology” production process. By collaborating with product teams and sales teams, PMMs get very broad exposure to many parts of the tech business. If you think solving marketing problems are interesting and/or want to be part of the exciting, continuously growing tech industry, you should consider looking more deeply into PMM opportunities.

Relevant Forum Discussions

Want To Further Discuss Product Marketing?

Common Careers Before & After Being a Product Marketing Manager

Related Careers:

Product Manager (PM)

Software Engineering

Venture Capital

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