Demand for skilled product managers is skyrocketing as companies navigate a rapidly evolving digital landscape. In today’s data-driven job market, innovation and user-centric solutions are crucial for success. Product management plays a critical role in delivering both by integrating business strategy, customer needs and technical development to ensure that products offer real value.
With the rise of AI, data-driven decision making and agile methodologies, product managers are more essential than ever in driving business growth and maintaining competitive advantage. This article outlines typical career trajectories in product management and explains how practical experience combined with an advanced degree — like the Master of Science in Information Management (MSIM) degree offered by the University of Washington — can help you advance your career.
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Product management career paths
Product management is the strategic process of guiding a product from conception to market. This expertise is crucial to business growth; it ensures that a company’s products are valuable, viable and feasible so businesses don’t waste time and resources on products that won’t resonate with their target audience.
What does a product manager do?
A product manager identifies the customer needs and business objectives a product or feature will meet, articulates the vision for success and guides a team in making that vision a reality.
Key responsibilities of product managers include:
- Vision and strategy: Defining product goals aligned with business objectives
- Market research: Analyzing customer needs, competitors and industry trends
- Roadmap planning: Prioritizing features and planning development timelines
- Cross-functional collaboration: Working with engineering, design, marketing and sales teams to turn the product vision into reality
- Product development oversight: Managing the product development process, including defining features, prioritizing requirements, and overseeing testing and launch
- Performance tracking: Monitoring product performance post-launch, using metrics and customer feedback to identify areas for improvement
Product management career levels
Product management careers typically progress through different levels of seniority that reflect increasing responsibilities and influence within an organization.
- Entry-level roles: Entry-level roles target recent graduates or those new to product management. Typical job titles include associate product manager or junior product manager. These roles are focused on supporting senior product managers, assisting in product development and project coordination, and conducting market research.
- Mid-level roles: Mid-level product management roles generally require candidates to have two to five years of work experience (or an equivalent credential, such as the MSIM degree from UW). Job titles for mid-level professionals include product manager, digital product manager and technical product manager. Professionals in these roles usually manage a specific product or feature; their responsibilities include defining the product vision and roadmap, conducting and interpreting market research, coordinating product launches and collaborating with cross-functional teams.
- Senior roles: Senior product management roles typically require candidates to have over five years of experience. Senior product managers lead larger product areas, manage and mentor a team of product managers, contribute to strategic planning, manage partner and stakeholder relationships, oversee budgets and lead data-driven decision making. They work on complex projects and drive strategic decisions.
- Executive-level roles: Executive roles typically require extensive experience (10 years or more). Job titles at this level include product director, vice president of product and chief product officer. These professionals oversee all product management activities within an organization, set the company’s overall product strategy and manage senior product managers.
To advance your career and qualify for senior positions, you will need a combination of specialized knowledge, practical skills and experience, and strategic thinking and decision-making expertise.
Common obstacles in advancing product management careers
Many factors influence a person’s progress in their product management career. Some are within their control, while others — like the global economy and the number of job openings at a specific company — are not. Awareness of potential roadblocks in your career trajectory is the first step to overcoming them. Here are the most common challenges currently slowing candidates’ career growth:
- Lack of technical skills: Rapid technological changes are impacting the product management field. Companies are increasingly looking for tech-savvy product managers with experience in data-driven decision making. Product managers with up-to-date tech skills are more attractive to employers than those without.
- Lack of strategic leadership skills: Junior and mid-level roles often emphasize technical skills. However, senior roles emphasize leadership, cross-functional management and strategic oversight. Some product managers struggle to advance to leadership positions because they have not developed the relevant skill set.
- Need for continuous learning: The fast-paced nature of technology and the constantly changing marketplace require product managers to update their skills continuously. Those who fail to keep up with industry trends may be at a disadvantage when seeking advancement.
The role of education in overcoming barriers
Advanced education is a powerful tool to help candidates break into the product management field or accelerate their existing product-focused careers. Master’s degree programs (like the MSIM from the UW) develop the skills needed for a successful product management career and provide hands-on experience through project-based learning opportunities.
The UW MSIM degree program offers a specialization in Program/Product Management and Consulting (PPMC), which equips students to lead teams and drive efficiency and growth through strategic initiatives. Courses in this specialization cover Enterprise Information Systems Analysis and Design, Program Management and Consulting Practices, and Product/Project Management.
Coursework, which includes opportunities for practica and a Capstone project, enables UW students to gain hands-on practice applying product management techniques to real-world challenges. They should emerge from the program with a portfolio of experience and an interview-ready understanding of PPMC skills, which include such future-proof competencies as collaborative skills, information management expertise and technical understanding.
“The projects and assignments in the PPMC track are designed to simulate real-world PPMC scenarios,” explains alum Kenny Garrison. “This type of immersive learning with direct feedback from experts in the field was an extremely rewarding experience that really provides students with tangible and actionable insights they can take directly to the organizations they are working for.”
The PPMC specialization also prepares graduates for lifelong success by:
- Building interpersonal skills alongside technical expertise: Successful product managers need robust core professional skills, including effective communication, strategic thinking and problem-solving. The PPMC curriculum hones these skills.
- Promoting continuous skills development: A UW MSIM prepares students for a lifetime of learning by teaching foundational proficiencies and principles upon which to build. Students develop a big-picture perspective that extends beyond specific skills, enabling them to more easily and successfully assimilate future learning.
- Facilitating the development of a professional network: Connecting with others in the industry is essential to success. A robust professional network can help you discover new job opportunities and seek mentorship when required. UW students have numerous opportunities to connect with industry leaders and alumni to build their professional networks. UW students and recent alumni also have access to career services to help them find a suitable job after graduation.
Real-world examples: How UW MSIM empowers product professionals
The UW’s MSIM delivers industry-relevant skills, hands-on experience, and the opportunity to learn from peers in similar and different industries.
Alum Barrett Rodgers, a technical program manager at Tableau Software, notes that the program “really helped me in my job [by focusing on] the process of finding out what people’s actual problems they’re dealing with are; not just what they tell you their problems are. It’s the process of sitting down with someone, watching them do their work, and picking up on where they’re having difficulties.”
Using the capstone to build practical skills
The MSIM program Capstone project is an ideal testing ground for new and developing product managers to practice what they have learned. Students are encouraged to work toward solving a real-world challenge through their capstones.
For example, a group of students with robust skills in product management, software engineering and data science used their Capstone to develop ClearView Assist, a technology that uses generative AI to help visually impaired people navigate cluttered websites. Microsoft sponsored this project, which was overseen by Microsoft Product Manager Kartik Sawhney, enabling students to draw on his experience to enhance their learning.
Moving up in product management
Success in the product management field requires a combination of technical and leadership skills. Senior product managers must be able to lead a team, work on complex projects, and develop strategies to help an organization meet its objectives. To prepare for career advancement, focus on gaining in-depth industry knowledge and practical product management experience.
Earning a graduate degree, like the MSIM from the University of Washington with a specialization in PPCM, can prepare you to excel in a product management career by combining education with hands-on experience. Visit the UW MSIM PPCM specialization page to learn more about the program, or contact an enrollment advisor to discuss the residential and online modality options.