PRODUCT MANAGEMENT insights - Strategie Produit...write their own queries for analytics. Alpha - 2017 Product Management Insights 18% 43% 33% 6% I don’t typically use analytics or

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.


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.

4

> 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.

4


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.


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


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

8

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.


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


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

987654321

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


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

987654321

5% 6%

29%

0%3%5%7%

28%

18%

Average: 3.48

987654321

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.

987654321

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


987654321

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


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

987654321

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

987654321

5%

12%

22%

13%

8%11%

16%13%

3%

987654321

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

13

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.


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


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


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%


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


We don’t use any roadmapping tools1%Other6%

JIRA3%Roadmunk5%

ProdPad5%

Asana7%


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


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

http://alphahq.com/demo

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