A 360 Overview of Product Management practice in india

PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
SURVEY
2018

ABOUT THE SURVEY

The annual Product Management Survey 2018 was conducted by the Institute
of Product Leadership between October 1st, 2017 and January 28th, 2018. This
survey is conducted annually to understand the state of product management
in terms of roles and responsibilities, compensation, cross-functional
collaboration between product management and other verticals in
organizations and expectations of senior management and other divisions
from product managers. Over 300 people participated in this year’s survey.
PM Survey 2018: Highlights
95%
of the CEOs feel that

13 it is difficult to find good

Product Management
is the average years talent in India.
of work experience
for a
Product Manager.

equality
There are no

80% significant differences

in the way men and women
are compensated as
Product managers plan
Product Managers.
to move out of the
existing companies.
26% want to
start their own ventures
in the next 5 years.
56%
of Product Managers
surveyed have an
MBA degree or are
pursuing one.
About 86% of the
respondents have attended
some type of formal Product Management training.

top 3
aspirations
of Product Managers
include
1 Crore
resolving internal INR being the highest,
conflicts, the average salary
getting a pay hike of product managers
and building a with an average
personal brand. 2.5 years of
experience,
is 30 lacs INR.

Page 2
RESPONDENT PROFILE:DEMOGRAPHICS

others
30%
technology
42%

healthcare 5%
6%
17%
Internet Commerce

Technology Services
Others MNC HQ abroad

Product MNC with HQ in India 13%

57%
6%

Funded early stage startup in India 8%

INDUSTRIES 1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2

16%
IT Services

Head of Product Management

Product Management Team Lead

C-Level Executive 4% COMPANIES

7% 5% Product Manager
26%
Other 12%

12% 18%
Product Owner
16% R&D Professional

Project Manager

JOB TITLES

Page 3
PROFILing THE PRODUCT MANAGER: DEMOGRAPHICS

44+ yrs
30-34 yrs
5%
40-44 yrs
17%
AGE 39%

35-39 yrs 39%

LOCATION
60% Bengaluru
combine as
‘others’ 17% Pune
8% Hyderabad
15% Others

Stock options

Sign-up bonus

Appraisal is the only way of

getting an increment

No variables

0 20 40 60 80 100

COMPENSATION STRUCTURE

Page 4
 PROFILing THE PRODUCT MANAGER: INDUSTRY

INDUSTRIES NATURE OF THE

ORGANIZATION
others

24%

52%
healthcare 4%
8%
technology
e-commerce
12% 7%
technology services Work at Startups
71% (up by 1% from last year)

56%
Product Managers
work at MNCs

have an MBA or are persuing

one, while
18% are leveraging MOOCs.

JOB TITLES
Other

Product Owners
13%
27%
eg. Group Product Manager, Sr. Product Manager

eg. Technical Product Manager, Assistant Product

Manager, Associate Product Manager

eg. Sr. Director, Director of Product Management

60%
Product Managers

Page 5
 REPORTING PATTERN

Which FUNCTION DO
THEY REPORT ITO?
REPORTING FUNCTION Location
India Abroad

Engineering
12% 2%

REPORTING FUNCTION
Manager

Product
Head 30% 35%
*includes only PMs reporting into the
engineering or product function

REPORTING PATTERN PRIOR JOB TITLE

Marketing/Sales/
Customer Support Engineering/QA Lead
Other
Product Management
18% Manager abroad 9%
33% Business Analyst
CEO/Founder 12% 49%
8% UX/UI
1%
Engineering
Manager
11% 18%
Project/Program
2% 28% Manager
Engineering
Manager abroad
Product Management 11%
Manager India Product Owner

highlights:
Reporting Function: Most report to Product Heads. Those reporting to engineering function
mainly report to Indian Heads
Prior Experience: 49% come from Engineering/QA background
Who gets the Product Manager’s attention? Engineering team accounts for 39% of the time
that PMs spend on stakeholders.
While most Product Managers come from an engineering or QA background, a good number
also get into product management from the project/business analysis background, which
accounts for 30% of previous titles held by current product managers.
t
Page 6
 WHERE NEXT?

WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF 5 YEARS HENCE?

Promotion within the existing company Start own venture

26%
20%

54%

Promotion in a new Company

CAREER ASPIRATIONS

Start my own venture

Build my personal brand

outside of organization

Be seen as CEO of the product

Reskill/upskill to new areas

Build/grow my team

Get a pay hike

Spend more time to define

product strategy/roadmap
Resolve internal conflicts better

Be more customer centric

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

High Medium Low

Page 7
 PRODUCT MANAGERS RATE THEMSELVES

INTERLOCKINg DATA SCIENCE

Exclusively depend on
data scientist/analyst

Do my analysis
on my own

Sometimes depend on data

scientist/analyst

Don’t use
Data Science

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

INTERLOCKING WITH EXECUTIVES Expert

Intermediate
Ability to build consensus
towards solving a problem
Novice

Ability to synthesize and make

strategic use of data

Ability to challenge and

question executive decisions

Ability to sell your ideas to peers

and executives
0 10 20 30 40 50 60

</>
CODING DATA SCIENCE influencing
24.5% code as part of 16% do their data About 42% consider their ability
their daily job analysis themselves to influence senior management
decisions as high

Page 8
 A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A PRODUCT MANAGER
Based on Institute of product leadership’s pm framework™

STRATEGIC PLANNING activities

High
Buy/Build/Partner
Medium

Market Sizing
Low

Business Plan

Pricing/Monetization

Industry Trends

Strategic Roadmap

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Market research activities

Competitive Analysis

Prototyping

Customer Insighting

Design Thinking

Win/Loss Analysis

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Page 9
 PRODUCT PLANNING ACTIVITIES

Release Planning

Engineering Support

UX Designing

Roadmap Decisions

Feature Prioritization

Defining Requirements

0 20 40 60 80 100

PRODUCT mARKETING/SALES ENABLEMENT

Sales Training High

Thought Leadership Medium

Channel Marketing
Low
Product Launch

Positioning

Customer Acquisition

Digital Marketing

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Page 10
 THE CEO/CXO’S TAKE
ON PRODUCT MANAGEMENT Agree Neutral Disagree

For PMs, being Inbound (helping with

Engineering) is more important than
being Outbound (Sales help)

PMs should have an MBA degree

Hiring Product Managers

in India is hard

Product Management is a very

crucial role in my organization

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

RATING SKILLS FOR PRODUCT MANAGERS

Customer Centricity (e.g. Voice of
Customer, Value Proposition Design) #1

Domain Skills (Deep Understanding

of the industry/domain) #2

Leadership Skills (e.g.Communications,

Influence, Conflict Management) #3

Product Development
Process/Methodologies #3

Finance Skills (e.g. Monetization,

Pricing, Forecast) #4

highlights:
About 80% CEOs/CXOs feel that product management is a crucial role in their organization.
Customer Centricity is the top ranked skill for a Product Manager followed by Domain
Expertise.
Data Science in Product Teams: Still early days
71% CEO/CxOs feel that Leadership Skills are critical for Product Managers

Page 11
ABOUT THE INSTITUTE
Institute of Product Leadership was born in conjunction with the Executive Product
Industry Council (EPIC), a group of elite product leaders who currently drive product
innovation from India in global companies. The EPIC board, along with the Board of
Academics and Research (BAR), distinguished Executive Coaches and Faculty, provide
advice on the productizing of new technologies and ideas, devise programs that
enable technology leaders to graduate from being code-centric to customer-centric
and also help the engineering centers in Asia nurture the next generation of product
leaders.

Founded in 2012, the Institute of Product Leadership is India’s first B-School for
technology managers, focusing exclusively on Product Leadership with the aim of
transforming technology executives into future product managers and industry
leaders.

https://www.productleadership.com
ABOUT THE INSTITUTE
Institute of Product Leadership was born in conjunction with the Executive
Product Industry Council (EPIC), a group of elite product leaders who currently
drive product innovation from India in global companies. The EPIC board, along
with the Board of Academics and Research (BAR), distinguished Executive
Coaches and Faculty, provide advice on the productizing of new technologies
and ideas, devise programs that enable technology leaders to graduate from
being code-centric to customer-centric and also help the engineering centers in
Asia nurture the next generation of product leaders.

Founded in 2012, the Institute of Product Leadership is India’s first B-School for
technology managers, focusing exclusively on Product Leadership with the aim
of transforming technology executives into future product managers and
industry leaders.

https://www.productleadership.com