Daily Life of a Product Manager

If you’re interested in becoming a Product Manager, then you’re probably curious about what that would look like. You probably want to know more about the day-to-day tasks and workflows used by Product Managers before committing to it as a career path. 

Product management is a creative and diverse career. However, on a day-to-day level, Product Managers spend the majority of their time communicating. The major day-to-day tasks of a Product Manager can be broken up into four categories: communicating, analyzing, decision-making, and documentation. 

What is a Product Manager?

A Product Manager manages a specific product, including physical products, software programs, and other digital products. Product Managers are often called the “CEO of a product,” and manage its design, development, and appeal to customers. 

Product Managers need a strong combination of business skills, design skills, and tech skills. 

Because Product Managers oversee all the parts of a product, they are required to have three core skill sets: coding, user-driven design, and project management. Product Managers often work with development teams, marketing teams, design teams, stakeholders, and users to ensure the success of a product. 

Product Managers provide the “what” and “why” behind a business’s products, using research and user-driven design principles. 

Product Manager Specializations

There are different job titles for different types of Product Managers. Most of the job titles reflect seniority or specialization. For example, an Associate Product Manager is a new Product Manager with limited professional experience. 

Associate Product Manager

If you’re new to product management, you’ll want to pay special attention to this title. Acquiring an Associate Product Manager position can be a great way to launch a new career in product management. An Associate Product Manager (APM) is an entry-level job position and title. You might think of this as an assistant-like position since an Associate Product Manager assists a more senior Product Manager. Typically, an APM will perform smaller tasks delegated by the primary Product Manager. 

Product Owner

Product Owner jobs most commonly happen at companies that use an Agile framework to develop products. Agile teams often have both a Product Manager and a Product Owner, with both reporting to the same manager. You might think that the distinction between these roles is that a Product Manager handles the product duties outside the company, such as marketing and user research. Whereas a Product Owner handles the product management within a company, such as supporting the development team and monitoring the product backlog. 

Group Product Manager

A Group Product Manager is responsible for a product group, such as a software suite. For example, a Product Manager might manage Microsoft Excel, but a Group Product Manager manages the entire Microsoft Office Suite. This is typically the most senior product management position outside of executive positions. You will need significant experience as a Product Manager before applying for this role. 

Technical Product Manager

A Technical Product Manager is someone with a strong technical background. Remember that the three core skill sets for a Product Manager are coding, design, and project management. A Technical Product Manager will be most skilled and experienced in coding. They still need skills in design and project management, but they manage the development and technical aspects of the product. 

Product Marketing Manager

A Product Marketing Manager combines product development, marketing, and sales. They are responsible for a product’s reputation and marketing strategy. Just as a Product Manager creates a product roadmap, a Product Marketing Manager creates a marketing roadmap for the product and is responsible for bringing it to life. 

Starting Your Day

Most Product Managers begin their day by reviewing their task list and schedule for the upcoming day. Some might review items from the previous day as well, such as customer tickets and status updates from teams. 

Communicating

Product Managers spend most of their time communicating. They are often called the “CEO of the product,” but you could also call them the “chief communicator of the product.” Product Managers do a lot of communicating through meetings, instant messaging, emails, presentations, and phone calls. 

One regular task for most Product Managers is the core team meeting. This is typically led and organized by the Product Manager and held once or twice a week. Many Product Managers hold one early in the week to set goals and later in the week to receive updates. A representative from each product team should attend, such as development, sales, marketing, and support. 

Some other meetings that may take up some of your daily time include monthly meetings with the support and sales teams, sprint sessions with the development team, weekly marketing meeting, and impromptu meetings to address sudden or unexpected issues. 

Analyzing

Product Managers must advocate for the product’s user. In order to do this, they need to know what the user thinks. They can do this by coordinating with the support team and also by directly interviewing current users. 

For example, a Product Manager might set aside time to create a questionnaire and then locate users to interview. Then, they’ll have to set aside some time to conduct these user interviews and research. Performing ongoing user research and reviews is an important part of being a Product Manager. Managers need to be diligent when scheduling since in-house concerns could be distracting.

Making Decisions

Product Managers are leaders and decision-makers. They’ll need to take the information they learned in meetings and from customers and make the best decisions for the product. A lot of this will directly relate to prioritization. For example, stakeholders or upper management might have a different priority than the development team. It’s up to the Product Manager to make the best decision for the product and be able to communicate effectively about that decision to all parties. 

You could also say that this is the “data category” of the job since most Product Managers use data to make decisions. Understanding Python and/or SQL can be very handy in this part of the job since they allow you to peruse and analyze large amounts of data quickly. Having data on hand will help not only make decisions but communicate why you’re making them.

Documentation

One of the most important parts of a Product Manager’s job is documentation. From notes about meetings to the product roadmap, Product Managers need to create a solid trail of documentation. 

One of the most important tasks in this category is the product roadmap. Product Managers need to regularly review and update the roadmap to reflect the product’s current status. You may also spend time writing blogs, creating presentations, writing white papers, and updating task and resource management lists. 

After Work

To be competitive, you’ll need to do some additional reading, research, and professional development. You’ll need to stay abreast of any innovations or trends that might affect your product. You’ll also want to pursue professional development opportunities to continue advancing in your product management career. 

Learn the Skills to Become a Product Manager at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop offers business, design, and coding classes live online and in-person classes at their state-of-the-art campus in Midtown Manhattan. Training at Noble Desktop offers aspiring Product Managers a huge head start since they specialize in the three core job skills: coding, user-driven design, and project management. 

All of Noble Desktop’s courses are taught by expert instructors, have guaranteed small class sizes, and feature a “free retake” option, meaning you can “retake” any course for free for up to one year to continue developing your skills. Noble Desktop uses a unique approach to career training: their expert instructors teach a “micro-lecture” and then immediately guide students through applying what they’ve learned through real-world, hands-on projects. This unique approach guarantees that you’ll learn the skills you need to launch a new career as a Product Manager. 

Hiring managers report that certificates and certifications move a resume to the top of the pile. Noble Desktop offers certificate programs in the three core skill sets: software engineering, user-driven design (UX), and project management. Earning certificates in these core skill sets can help you launch a new career as a Product Manager. 

Noble Desktop’s Software Engineering Certificate provides the technical experience needed by a Product Manager. This certificate program is divided into two parts: front end development (what you see) and back end development (how it works). In the first part, expert instructors guide students through coding in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. In the second part, expert instructors guide students through the fundamentals of coding in Python, Django, and querying with SQL. Professional Product Managers often recommend learning SQL as an additional skill. This certificate program will give you a head start. Graduates earn a New York State Licensed Certificate in Software Engineering, which is shareable on LinkedIn. 

Product Managers are advocates for the user: they know how to use research and data to make sure the product meets the user’s needs. To do this, you’ll need skills in user experience (UX) design. Noble Desktop’s UX & UI Design Certificate provides comprehensive training in user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design. Students are guided through hands-on, real-world projects to learn user-driven design principles, user research, product prototype building, creating product case studies, and visual designs. This certificate program also trains students in using Figma and Sketch for design and prototyping. Graduates earn a New York State Licensed Certificate in UX & UI design, which is verifiable and shareable on Linkedin. 

Project management is a very hot career path on its own and one of the core skill sets of becoming a Product Manager. You might think of a Product Manager as handling the “what” and “why” and project management as handling the “how” and “when.” Noble Desktop’s Project Management Bootcamp project management courses are taught by PMP-certified Project Managers. Students are guided through real-world projects to develop skills in the Project Life Cycle, project management terminology, project selection and scheduling, resource management, risk management, and Agile Frameworks. 

If you’d like to read more about becoming a Product Manager, you might check out this Product Management Learn Hub. Combining these certificates on your resume is a fantastic way to launch a new career as a Product Manager.