PRODUCT MANAGEMENT insights - Strategie Produit...write their own queries for analytics. Alpha -...
Transcript of PRODUCT MANAGEMENT insights - Strategie Produit...write their own queries for analytics. Alpha -...
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
2017
insights
Alpha - 2017 Product Management Insights 2
INTRO
Companies across every industry now recognize the value of
product management as a discipline and are investing heavily
in its practitioners. As product managers gain influence within
their organizations, best practices and stakeholder relations
have emerged as two important areas of focus.
We began our annual insights report in 2015, but in product
management years, that was forever ago. At the time, product
management was an ill-defined role not yet embraced across
industries and company sizes. Beyond re-evaluating what
product managers do on a daily basis, we’ll now explore their
perceptions of different stakeholders, internal capabilities,
challenges, and opportunities. Throughout the report, you will
find data that contradicts widely believed assumptions about
the discipline, as well as a number of compelling insights that
can help your organization build better products.
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The 2017 Product Management Insights survey was conducted
by Alpha between August and October of 2016. The objective
of this annual survey is to ‘take the pulse’ of the industry and
provide a holistic perspective of evolving product management
and development practices. We collected data about a range of
topics, from technical proficiencies to relationships with key
stakeholders to available resources for continuing education.
More than 150 US-based digital product managers completed
this survey.
SURVEY METHODOLOGY:
COMPANY SIZE
Every year, we look at the makeup of the modern day product
manager. Despite significant changes in behavior, demographic
information of our survey respondents held virtually constant
from 2016.
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> 10,000 employees 15%
5,001-10,000 employees 10%
1,001-5,000 employees 13%
501-1,000 employees 11%
< 500 employees 51%
INDUSTRY
ABOUT OUR RESPONDENTS
Alpha - 2017 Product Management Insights
51%Technology
Healthcare 10%
Finance 11%
Non-profit 4%
Consumer Products 4%
Professional Services 5%
Media 5%
Education 4%
Manufacturing 3%
Leisure 3%
Energy & Utilities 1%
While product management has been embraced by various industries and companies of different sizes, it is still most prevalent in smaller technology companies.
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GENDER EDUCATION
DIGITAL PRODUCT MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE
5%
16+ years
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
4-6 years
29%
7-9 years
8%
10-12 years
9%
13-15 years
4%
1-3 years
46%
5%Prefer not to say
28%Female
66%
1%Others
Male46%Undergraduate
49%Graduate
3%PhD
2%High School
Even beyond our 2016 report, the trend is for companies to hire (or promote) more and more product managers without experience in the role. There have been some prominent articles published in the last year advocating for this strategy.
Again, product managers are an impressively educated group, with one in two having completed a graduate degree.
Despite initiatives to spur diversity in hiring and promoting, the gender ratio of our respondents has remained consistent from 2015.
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8%Other
2%Project Manager
6%Designer
8%Support
13%Started career as PM
15%Sales
17%Account Management
18%Operations
24%Marketing
24%Software / Developer
27%Business / Analyst
ROLE(S) HELD PREVIOUS TO BECOMING A PRODUCT MANAGER
There is a common sentiment in the industry that the 'typical' product management career path begins in software development. Our respondents put that notion to rest. There is simply no typical career path into product management, as product managers are just as likely to have marketing experience as they are to have software experience.
5%Finance
5%UX
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TECHNICAL PROFICIENCIES
I write code currently as part of my role
I am fluent in programming but don’t currently code in my role
I don’t know that much about coding
I can dabble in code but generally don’t
I don’t know how to program but I understand it conceptually
40%7%
27%
15%
11%
The debate about whether product managers need to be technical is
virtually over. Few write code as part of their roles, instead focusing
on non-technical activities, like roadmapping and crafting user
stories. That being said, many product managers are familiar with
programming from a conceptual standpoint, and many write their
own queries for analytics.
From last year's survey, we saw an increase in respondents who don't know how to code and a decrease in respondents who are fluent. That goes to show that coding proficiency is simply not one of the main factors in product management hiring.
TECHNICAL APTITUDE
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RESPONSIBLE FOR FOLLOWING ACTIVITIES
Managing development team
50%Customerinterviews
59%Writing
user stories
71%
Setting roadmap
76%
Revenue targets
26%
P&L
23%
Hiring
26%
Prototyping
40%
A/B testing
41%
DATA SCIENCE APTITUDE
The most prevalent responsibilities for product managers relate to deciding what to build, while roughly a quarter are responsible for revenue targets or P&L.
Although coding isn't a common skill for product managers, more than 40% occasionally write their own queries for analytics.
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18% 43%
33% 6%I don’t typically use analytics or business intelligence in my role
I sometimes depend on internal/externalcapabilities and sometimes write my own queries (SQL, Python, Google Analytics, etc.) to generate data
I exclusively depend on an internal/external research capability to get me the information I need
I don't rely on any other capabilities to generate
data, and write all queries myself
PERCEPTIONS ABOUT TIME ALLOCATION
TIME ALLOCATION
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We asked respondents a series of questions to better understand
where their time is most valued and efficiently allocated. For the most
part, product managers believe that they are not spending enough
time doing important activities, while spending too much time
navigating internal politics.
Meeting with internal stakeholders
Average: 5.58
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1%3%
9%4%
9%
22%17%
20%
15%
The data is primarily clustered around the center, as meeting with internal stakeholdersis one of the few activities product managers feel they do to the perfect extent.
Way too much timePerfect amount of timeNot nearly enough time
987654321
Legend
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Talking to customers
Crafting our product roadmap
While definitely skewed left, many product managers believe they spend adequate time crafting their product roadmaps.
Average: 4.14
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5% 6%
29%
0%3%5%7%
28%
18%
Average: 3.48
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11%
19%
26%
0%3%3%
7%12%
20%
Respondents predominantly believe that they do not spend nearly enough timetalking to customers.
Navigating internal politics
According to respondents, significant time is wasted navigating internal politics.
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1% 0%
10%13%
10%
24%
13%
19%
10%
Average: 6.07
9
4
98764 5321
7%
18%
4%0%
8%7%
32%
14%11%
Writing user stories
Average: 4.63
Average: 4.63
1%
Running product experiments
Average: 3.2
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19%
29%
15%
0%1%3%
11%
17%
5%
Keeping up with best practices / techniques
Interestingly, despite the vast increase in product management content, respondents continue to feel that they do not spend enough time keeping up with best practices.
87654321
3%3%
10%13%
27%26%
11%7%
0%
Similar to crafting product roadmaps, product managers largely believe theyspend enough time writing user stories.
Of all activities we asked about, respondents believe they spend too little time running product experiments.
CROSS-FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITIES
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Beyond activities they partake in themselves, product managers are
responsible for coordinating cross-functional teams and stakeholders
with competing objectives. We asked them a series of questions
to better understand how they perceive the value of these different
teams and capabilities.
PERCEIVED VALUE OF CAPABILITIES
Extremely valuableAdequately valuableNot at all valuable
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Legend
Market research team or vendor
Average: 4.45
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16%
2%
9%9%7%
19%19%
10%9%
Product managers are all over the place with regard to the valueof their market research team or vendor. Nearly 10% believe they are receiving
extreme value while the same percentage believe they are getting no value at all.
Alpha - 2017 Product Management Insights
Design team or vendor
Average: 5.64
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5%
12%
22%
13%
8%11%
16%13%
3%
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13%
23%
17%14%14%
8%4%5%
2%
Engineering team or vendor
Average: 6.47
987654321
7%9%5%
9%
24%
12%
18%
9%8%
Innovation department or vendor
Average: 4.67
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Similar to market research, product managers are split on the value they are getting out of their innovation departments and vendors.
By a significant margin, respondents are quite happy with their engineering teams and vendors.
Although many respondents do not believe they are getting adequate value from their design team or vendor, the majority believe they are getting more than enough.
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ACHIEVING SUCCESS
BIGGEST WISH FOR THE COMING YEAR
BIGGEST CHALLENGE OF THE PAST YEAR
Beyond activities they partake in themselves, product managers are
responsible for coordinating cross-functional teams and stakeholders
with competing objectives. We asked them a series of questions
to better understand how they perceive the value of these different
teams and capabilities.
Gen
erat
ing
acti
onab
le c
ust
omer
insi
ghts
3% 5%
Oth
er5%10%11%
28%
39%
Inte
rnal
pol
itic
s
Lac
k of
res
ourc
es
Mee
tin
g d
ead
lin
es
Col
lab
orat
ing
wit
h R
&D
Hir
ing
the
righ
t p
eop
le
Although last year strangely saw a salary increase rise to the top wish for the coming year, more resources returns to the top of the list.
Breaking a two year tradition, a lack of resources narrowly beats internal politics as the biggest challenge respondents face.
Cle
arer
pro
du
ct r
oad
map
/ st
rate
gy
33%
19%18%
Sala
ry in
crea
se
Mor
e re
sou
rces
13%
Res
olve
inte
rnal
con
flic
ts
12%
Mor
e ac
tion
able
cu
stom
er f
eed
bac
k
5%
Oth
er
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SOURCES FOR PRODUCT AND FEATURE IDEAS
VVBy far, product managers rely on direct customer feedback for sourcing new productand feature ideas. Yet one in two still deal with executive orders.
8%
13%
14%
26%
51%
53%
53%
64%
80%
Other
Crowdsourcing tools
External consultants
Company idea submission forms
Executive order
Competitor’s products
Sales team
Team brainstorming
Direct customer feedback
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VV
3%4%4%5%5%
21%
Other
7%3%3%3%
We don’t useany tools forqualitativefeedback
51% 8%14%15%23%
TOOLS FOR GENERATING QUALITATIVE FEEDBACK FROM CUSTOMERS
In our final section, we take a look at the proliferation of tools,
technologies, and channels for product management success.
TOOLS & TECHNOLOGIES
TOOLS FOR GENERATING QUANTITATIVE FEEDBACK FROM CUSTOMERS
OtherWe don’t use any tools
for quantitative feedback
49% 14%17% 7%
3% 3%4%4%5%
2% 11% 16%2%
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TOOLS FOR PROTOTYPING
We don’t use anyprototyping
toolsOther
19%3% 28%30%35%
3%
19%
14%
15%
3% 13%2%3%
43%
TOOLS FOR INTERNAL COMMUNICATION
7%7%8%14%24%56%
Email Other
77%
Aha!12%
Trello31%
Google Docs /Microsoft Office
63%
TOOLS FOR ROADMAPPING
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We don’t use any roadmapping tools1%Other6%
JIRA3%Roadmunk5%
ProdPad5%
Asana7%
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CHANNELS TO ACCESS AND LEARN BEST PRACTICES
43%Company / Industry blogs
10%Fortune
11%The Next Web
13%The New York Times
19%Wall Street Journal
22%Wired
25%Forbes
28%Fast Company
33%Product Hunt
34%Harvard Business Review
37%Mind The Product
39%Medium
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NEWSLETTERS SUBSCRIBED TO
PODCASTS LISTENED TO
2%5%11%12%
48%
18%16%
11% 9%
5%
7%
11%
12%
13%
14%
16%
17%
24%
24%Product Manager HQ
The Innovator
Bringing the Donuts
Product Design Weekly
Intercom Newsletter
Prioritised
UX Booth
Hack Design
Product Buff
Product Psychology
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