While traditional product management is a fantastic career path, it’s important to consider alternative career options to ensure you’re choosing a role that best fits your interests and skillset. In this article, we’ll talk about all the different roles that fall under the umbrella of product management (spoiler alert—there’s a lot).
What Is a Product Manager?
So, what exactly is a product manager? A product manager (PM for short) helps manage the entire life cycle of a firm’s product, from inception to execution. PMs are becoming in increasingly high demand as business becomes more reliant on technology, meaning the compensation and benefits for PMs are extremely competitive.
If you’re interested in entering the field or are a current PM hoping to expand your horizons, it’s also a good idea to consider PM-adjacent roles. There’s lots of positions out there that are similar to product management, but a bit more industry-focused, involving slightly different responsibilities.
Product Manager Job Description
Product managers are often described as “mini-CEOs”, meaning they oversee all day-to-day operations required to build and sell a product. The role is uniquely interdisciplinary and multifaceted—it often involves working with engineering, marketing, sales, and design teams, meaning that a PM needs to be a jack of all trades. Product managers are typically assigned to a singular product within a company. They have a customer-centric mindset, meaning they are focused on improving the user’s experience with the product. To dig deeper into the specifics of traditional PM roles, check out our full write-up on product management.
Jobs Related To A Product Manager
If you’ve done a quick Google search on product management roles, you may feel a bit overwhelmed by the wide variety of available positions. Here are a few of the PM-adjacent roles you may come by:
Product Owner
First up, we have product owners. These guys have a more high-level view than traditional product managers, steering the product vision and overall product development process. Product owners define priorities and manage tasks in order to ensure that PM teams follow the most efficient production plan possible.
Technical Product Manager
Technical product managers are one of the more common PM-adjacent roles on this list. Technical PMs manage highly technical products and typically have a background in computer science or software engineering.
Product Marketing Manager
A product marketing manager’s (PPM) job is to develop and implement marketing strategies for a particular product or product line. They essentially act as the “voice” of the product in the market, controlling its positioning and branding to ensure its value proposition is communicated. The role of a PPM is, of course, more marketing-focused than that of a regular PM, and involves a deeper understanding of market dynamics rather than technical product knowledge.
Group Product Manager
This one’s pretty self-explanatory—a group product manager (GPM) manages a group of products or a product line rather than just one specific product. GPM is a senior position, so it requires more experience than a traditional entry-level product management role. GPMs facilitate communication between entry/mid-level and senior PMs.
Head of Product
“Head of Product” is extremely similar to “Director of Product”, to the point where these two titles are often used interchangeably. Head of Product is a senior position which involves overseeing all product lines within a company, and is regarded slightly higher than Director of Product. They often represent executive leadership and are in charge of overall product strategy.
Product Specialist
While a product manager’s job is to develop a product’s features with designers and engineers, a product specialist’s focus is sales and marketing. Product specialists are absolute experts in a particular product—as a result, the role requires extremely deep product knowledge. They act as the bridge between various teams (like design, marketing, product management, etc.), and their main responsibilities include market research and competitor analysis.
Program Manager
Program managers help coordinate a group of related projects in an organization, ensuring that they align with the company’s overarching goal and mission. Note that a program manager is different from a project manager, who only supervises individual projects.
Product Development Manager
A product development manager (PDM) focuses on solution delivery, meaning they help prototype and design their assigned product. The primary difference between a PM and a PDM is the perspectives that they have in the product development process. Product development managers build and refine products; product managers steer product strategy and define user needs.
Product Manager Related Job Salaries
As we previously mentioned, product managers earn a competitive salary. The same can be said about product management-related positions. Below is a list of jobs related to product management and their respective average salaries; however, it is important to note that compensation varies depending on your company, seniority, industry, and location.
- Product Owner: $110,000
- Technical Product Manager: $159,000
- Product Marketing Manager: $140,000
- Group Product Manager: $192,000
- Head of Product: $205,000
- Product Specialist: $119,000
- Program Manager: $124,000
- Product Development Manager: $130,000
If you're interested in more salary data, check out our Consulting Salaries Report, showing what hundreds of firms are paying!
Conclusion
Let’s be clear—any PM or PM-adjacent role presents a fantastic opportunity for growth and success. What matters is that you choose the career path that best suits your personal strengths and interests. Each of these product management-adjacent roles will likely have slightly different job requirements and interview processes, so make sure you read up on the job description before applying. For professional guidance through the product management interview process, book a 1:1 session with a Management Consulted expert coach today!
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