product

2017
 

Product Management and

Product Marketing survey
Each year Product Focus runs a survey on product management and product marketing in
technology industries.

The survey looks at the role, salaries and day-to-day activities of those currently working in
product management and product marketing. It also asks about the issues they face.

1,279 people from 613 companies took part in this year’s survey. They were mainly from the
UK (46%) and other European countries (44%). And of those that responded 20% were Head
of, Director or VP.

All the responses for this report were gathered in January 2017.

Remember the survey results are the industry norm, not best practice. You can find out
about best practice by subscribing to our Product Management Journal or attending one of
our training courses.

Please note: we use the term product manager to refer to product managers and product
marketers.

To learn more, click here to get our Free Product Management Journal - download all 14
high-quality journals and join more than 11,500 other product managers.

© Product Focus 2017

Snapshot
We’ve analysed hundreds of written comments to identify the 7 most common issues for product managers.

Common issues
• The Product Management function is under-resourced to deliver on its commitments to the business.

• Strategy and planning are sacrificed because of fire-fighting, administration and operational demands.

• Roles and responsibilities are not clear to the team or the wider business.

• Product managers are seen as responsible for their product but don’t have the authority or time to deliver.

• Senior management don’t understand or value product management.

• Any and every issue involving the product is thrown at product managers to resolve.

• Businesses try to do too much too fast, spreading resources so thinly that many initiatives fail.

£56 k
The average salary paid
50%
Of companies use Agile
44%
Of product managers in
to Product Managers and alone but 42% use both companies that use Agile
Senior Product Managers Agile and Waterfall are also a Scrum Product
Owner

64%
The percentage of Product
Managers who’ve been
trained has increased by 5%
this year
73%
Of respondents work on
3
The average number of
software, 58% on services years spent in their current
and 24% have responsibility role
for hardware products

34%
Of product management
73%
The most frequently used
47%
The amount of time spent
departments reporting to people-performance on unplanned
board level measure is Management by ‘fire-fighting’ activities
Objectives

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Salary

£56k
€ £ (in thousands)
142 120
118 100
95 80
The average base salary paid 71 60
to Product Managers and
Senior Product Managers 48 40
(excl juniors and heads etc) 24 20
0 0
Junior Product Senior Head
product manager product Director or VP
manager manager

Salaries in the UK are 13% higher Lowest quartile 3rd quartile

than in mainland Europe for 2nd quartile Highest quartile
entry level Product Managers and
10% higher for heads of product
management.

Full package

£4k €

95

71
£ (in thousands)
118 100

80

60
Benefits add £4,150 to the
48 40
packages of the average
PM, £9,370 to the most 24 20
senior staff 0 0
Junior Product Senior Head,
product manager product Director
manager manager or VP

Package value
70% receive a bonus as part of their
package.

18% get some shares, 21% a

company car and half get private
health insurance.

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Reporting
18%

34%
31%
16%
Product management
(reporting to board level
34%
Development
13%
Commercial, sales
40%
Of Product Management Marketing
departments report to the 16%
Others
board, reflecting the value 21%
of the role
29% Reporting line

21% of product teams report

into development which remains
the most frequent reporting
line problem cited by product
managers.

Development approach
Waterfall 9% 8%
14%

+5% Both 41% 44%

42%

The increase in the

+2% +3%
number of companies
doing pure Agile since
2015 50%
45% 47%
Agile

42% of companies use a mix

of both Agile and Waterfall e.g.
2015 2016 2017
water-scrum-fall.

44% of product managers in

companies using Scrum are the
Product Owner.

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Training

64% No
training
49% 45%
36%

of product managers have

had product management
64%
training Training 51% 55%
received

2014 2016 2017

18% of respondents choosing

a training provider believe the
option to become certified is
essential whilst 3 in 5 take this
option into consideration.

Commercial objectives

50%
6%
15% If fell short or far short of
its objectives
18%
It met its objectives
It exceeded or far exceeded
its objectives
of product managed, by It's too early to tell
21% 40%
those with fewer than It has no objectives
3 years experience, fell
short of their goals
Did your product meet its
commercial objectives?

The majority of commercially

failing products, 56%, were
managed by untrained people.
But, experience counts. 78% of
products managed by PMs with
more than 3 years experience
were successful.

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Time

47%
The amount of time
spent on unplanned ‘fire-

Pla
fighting’ activities
-fighting

nned activitie
Fire 47% 53%

s
g ing
icin er ers
Pr Planned vs un-planned h

ot v
Co
13% 17%
Pro

My
ed se es

duct feature

responsibil
rvic

52% 56%

ship
35%
27%

ner
iat

ity
ow
s
oc

s ey
As Gr

Market attractiveness Activity ownership

d/
elle
anc hold
E C on
m
er

ail
Oth

14%
On

28% 30%
-time deliver

51%
ery

35%
deliv

26% 16%
ne

te

y
a
ho

Me P
e ti n
gs

Work and communications Project delivery

Pre-launch
launch

45% 55%
Post-

Stage of lifecycle

www.productfocus.com 5 world class product management training

On your mind
“Product management “We have insufficient “We don’t have enough
is misunderstood and information and analysis to budget and resources
unappreciated in my inform decisions: products to deliver what we have
company; it’s not taken are defined without any committed to”
seriously” market research”

“Priorities are constantly “I spend too much time on “There is too much fire-
being changed by tasks that are not related fighting which distracts
marauding executives to Product Management, us from important work,
making knee jerk often being treated as so we often fall behind
reactions” golden pre-sales” with innovating new
products”

“Product Management “There is no real definition “There is no company

is not empowered or of what we are responsible strategy and vision to
trusted, I don’t actually for; many different roles guide our priorities; we
feel like I have any are identified as product are not working towards a
control of my product” management” common goal”

“It’s complicated! Getting the attention of the CEO is challenging, but not as hard as being treated like a service
or tool for the rest of the business to abuse. As an industry we do not have clarification of the value good product
people add; so whilst it is good that many industries now acknowledge the need for product management, the
dilution of the value, thru people assuming that PM is easy or a given, is intrinsically damaging. In short - 20
years in the job, I know what value I add, my board know what I bring to the table, my products
deliver 50% of our overall revenue. Yet I interview too many people who just don’t know or
understand what “proper product management” is about. They don’t know their products,
market, opportunity. They have no idea about launch activities, they don’t understand risk
vs benefit, prioritisation, personas. They think that product management is responding
purely to customer demands or worse, project management. And that is demoralising
because there are companies paying good money for “product managers” that just
are not. It devalues our profession.“

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 product

focus

About Product Focus

Product Focus helps businesses and individuals deliver world class product management.

We teach the skills and tools to excel in product management and product marketing.

Our focus is on businesses that have technology-based products.

We work with some of the world’s leading companies and the feedback we get is invariably
excellent. Our experience, journal and industry survey make us leaders in our field.

Find out more about our training, register for our free journal and access other free resources on our
site.

www.productfocus.com 7 world class product management training

Stop fire-fighting
...and deliver world class product management
Public training courses
On-site private training
Reviews and assessments
Leadership forum
To learn more, click here to get our Free Product Management Journal - download all 14
high-quality journals and join more than 11,500 other product managers.
www.productfocus.com
Build the skills, tools and confidence to excel in your role.
Attend a 3-day public course with industry peers in locations across
Europe.
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speaking the same language.
We come to you, so you save travel costs and make the most of your
time together.
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management in your business.
Answer questions such as how should we measure performance,
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A one-day exclusive workshop for senior executives to meet, discuss
and learn how to lead a high-performance product management
function.
The forum provides an oasis away from daily distractions to
focus on the strategic issues of leading and improving product
management.
+44 (0) 207 099 5567 Feb 2017