Product Manager: Profession Features and Responsibilities

Product Manager is a fairly new and very promising profession, which is popular among young people. Special interest in it is experienced by specialists working in the field of business, technology, logistics and PR.

Translated from English, the phrase product manager means "product manager." In this way, a product manager is a person who is engaged in the promotion of any products on the market, from material assets to IT technologies. Such a specialist is not only responsible for creating something new, but also monitors market trends, analyzes the changes taking place on it, determines pricing, plans product promotion, and also forms a number of requirements for it.

In other words, the role of a person in this profession directly depends on what the company does and what the nature of the product it produces is. Thus, the work of the product manager of a shoe factory will be fundamentally different from the activities of a specialist in the field of high technology, however, the ultimate goal of their work is the promotion and promotion of a service, product or IT development without direct sales, as other specialists are involved in this. but Some companies, in their desire to save money, put on their product managers not only the promotion of the product, but also its layout - merchandising.

This is fundamentally wrong, since the field of professional activity of these unique specialists lies in a slightly different plane and requires much greater intellectual, analytical and economic skills, knowledge and skills than putting things in order on store shelves. An experienced product manager is fluent in such professions as economist, technologist, PR manager, designer, analyst, marketer and even logistician., and is considered one of the most important and irreplaceable specialists in any enterprise.

Considering the profession of a product manager, one cannot but mention its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of this specialty include decent pay and high demand on the labor market, the fascination of the product management process, the possibility of career and professional growth, the "elite" profession and impressive bonuses in case of success of a product or service on the market.

Among the minuses can be noted the need for interaction with a very large circle of peoplethat requires the manager high stress tolerance and sociability, work in conditions of serious competition, leadership pressure, irregular working hours and frequent stressful situations that inevitably arise when communicating with people.

The profession of product manager is becoming more and more popular in the labor market, which is associated with the development of production, expansion of existing enterprises and rapidly growing competition. No serious company today can do without a competent specialist in the field of product management, therefore, his work is highly appreciated.

Professionals in the field of promoting information technologies are in special demand, which is associated with the expansion of this sector and the emergence of new, fairly strong players in this field. However, in the manufacturing industry it is quite difficult to manage without a manager, which is why such specialists will never remain without work.

The first specialized education in the specialty "Product Manager" is currently lacking, and most professionals have a diploma in the fields of "Economics", "Marketing" and "Management".

An example of professional training for product managers is the retraining program called “Product Management of a Technological Product”, which is offered by the NRU Higher School of Economics. Applicants must have a bachelor’s diploma in one of the economic or marketing specialties and be prepared to pay a considerable amount for advanced training.

In addition to the Higher School of Economics, you can get a specialty as a product manager at numerous specialized courses that are conducted on the basis of business schools, and you can also independently familiarize yourself with thematic manuals and educational literature that are widely available on the Internet.

Upon completion of training, the student acquires the ability to work out the concept of the final product, develop a model for its financing and the ability to choose metrics and analysis. Besides, the courses will surely teach you how to conduct quality testing of customer development, develop a product roadmap and maintain your own professional blog.

Among the key product management skills acquired during the training process are the ability to build an adequate picture of the world and the situation in the markets, build a teamwork process, mastery of the basics of statistical accounting and the ability to look at the product of your company through the eyes of the consumer.

A certified product manager can develop a product concept and strategy, monitor the work of competitors and analyze their successes and failures, plan the development and promotion of their product on the market relative to similar products from other manufacturers, and also effectively interact with people involved in the process of promoting a product, service or IT technology - developers, manufacturers, salesmen and marketers. An important skill is the ability to work on a computer and knowledge of various versions of 1C.

Despite the fact that the profession of a product manager is interesting and highly paid, not everyone can become a competent specialist in this field. A potential applicant for this position should have a number of valuable qualities necessary for fruitful and effective work. A person should easily converge with people, have excellent organizational skills, be a good speaker, and have creative thinking. Important points are the presence of an analytical mindset, friendship with arithmetic, initiative, stress tolerance, high responsibility and fluency in English.

Product manager must have pronounced leadership qualities, be flexible, but at the same time persistent, to be able to unite people in a team and inspire them to work productively, to hear someone else's opinion, to find tools to solve problems and to convey their point of view to others in an understandable concise form. In addition, he must be able to adapt to the circumstances, be prepared for business trips and irregular working hours.

The work of a product manager presupposes the existence of a number of professional duties, on the conscientious fulfillment of which the final result of the entire production cycle for the manufacture and promotion of a material or intellectual product depends. These include:

• designing a strategy for creating a product or service;
• drawing up a roadmap taking into account the features of the product and market conditions;
• a thorough analysis of the situation of competitors and the industry as a whole;
• preparation of long-term and short-term production plans and quality control at each stage of production;
• planning of key performance indicators - KPI and preparation of product presentations;
• motivated pricing taking into account the cost of a similar product manufactured by competitors;
• in-depth analysis of consumer demand and the study of customer opinions on this product;
• negotiations with customers and control over the sale of goods and services;
• quick changes to the production cycle in case of product deficiencies;
• development and implementation of a concept to increase sales and popularization of a product, as well as the development of a system of benefits and discounts;
• interaction with all participants in the production and sale of products, as well as product certification in state bodies;
• making suggestions to the company’s management on creating new products, expanding the existing assortment and forecasting sales;
• Publications about this product in your own blog with answers to consumer questions;
• Active attendance of marketing seminars, exhibitions and conferences related to logistics and management.

When applying for a product manager position in a company, it is recommended that you follow a certain algorithm and structure your activities as much as possible. This is necessary so that not a single life cycle of the product falls outside the field of view of the specialist, and adjustments at one or another stage of his advancement are made on time. It should be remembered that the responsibility of the product manager for the product begins at an early stage of its conceptual development. The task of the specialist at this stage is to monitor market trends and make proposals to increase the uniqueness of the product against the background of competitors' products.

Further, the product manager closely monitors the production and, if necessary, makes adjustments. After the product is ready, the specialist proceeds to the most complex and responsible work - marketing. He connects designers, marketers and PR managers to the work, coordinates their work and presents the products to investors. After the product enters the market, the manager closely monitors the change in its position relative to similar products, evaluating the effectiveness of the work of marketers.

If the product manager does his job with all responsibility and does it professionally enough, then over time they may be offered the promotion of a more expensive product or become a member of a large-scale project. The salary of young specialists varies from 30 to 70 thousand rubles, depending on the region and the nature of the products being promoted., while an employee with 3 years of experience earns about 120 thousand. More experienced employees are highly valued by management and have a monthly income of about 250 thousand rubles.