Wondering if a career in product management is right for you? Consider factors like your work style, where you want to live, and the demand for this role in various industries, then explore the skills and training you could acquire to earn a lucrative salary in product management.

Key Insights

  • Product managers are in high demand across many industries and can earn over $100,000 a year on average.
  • A successful product manager manages a specific product's design, development, and appeal to customers, requiring a strong combination of business, design, and tech skills.
  • Product managers are known as the "CEO of the product" and are often considered for promotion to CEO positions in large companies due to the level of responsibility and leadership required.
  • Product managers need to be excellent communicators, often spending around 90% of their time communicating with various stakeholders.
  • Having an eye for design is crucial for product managers, as they are responsible for a product's usability and user experience.
  • While there is no set educational path for becoming a product manager, skills are prioritized over formal education in this field, making certificate programs in relevant areas more highly sought after than degrees.

Is Product Management Right For Me?

Although it’s subjective, it’s important to try and answer the title question within the first few sentences. Discuss the factors that a person would want to consider before committing to a career in Product Management. For instance, does the schedule of a Product Manager work with the student’s work style? Are there ample job opportunities in the cities where the student would consider applying for work?

Product Managers and people with product management skills are in high demand across industries. Training in product management could lead to earning a lucrative salary, with the average annual income for a Product Manager at more than $100,000 a year. 

However, this doesn’t mean that product management is the right career path for you. There are other factors to consider, such as what kind of work you enjoy doing and which core skill sets you bring to the table. 

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. 

Are You a Leader?

For these sections, pull out distinguishing features of work in Product Management that someone considering a career in that area will want to be compatible with and committed to. You can look at the articles on “Product Manager Job Description” and “Daily Life of a Product Manager,” as well as Noble Desktop’s main article on the Product Manager. 

For instance, Data Analysts need to be very comfortable with math and statistics, whereas Video Editors do not (or not to the same extent). Social Media Marketing Specialists need to be comfortable writing copy and likely working with clients in a way that Software Engineers do not need to be. Machine Learning Engineers require considerably more education than Data Analysts. Each section should be two paragraphs, 6-10 sentences total.

Change each header to a concise few words describing the consideration. Some examples for a Web Designer might include “Coding Creativity,” “Creating Accessibility,” and “Working on Teams.”

Product Managers are known as “the CEO of the product.” It is a role that includes a lot of diverse responsibilities and demands extremely strong leadership skills. You’ll be the person every team goes to when there is an issue. You’ll be the person that stakeholders blame when there are problems with the product. Becoming a Product Manager is only right for you if you can handle the pressure of juggling a lot of responsibility. 

The amount of responsibility required of a Product Manager has made it a common “CEO pipeline” position. Global management consultant firm McKinsey & Company reports that Product Managers have become popular picks for promotion to CEOs. The current CEOs of Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and PepsiCo all started at those organizations as Product Managers. If you’re good at handling a lot of responsibility, then product management might be the right career for you. 

Are You a Good Communicator?

Above all else, Product Managers must be excellent communicators. If you become a Product Manager, then you should expect to spend most of your time communicating. Professional Product Managers report that around 90 percent of their time is spent communicating. If you enjoy writing and speaking to communicate ideas, then product management could be the right career for you. 

Here are a few examples of the kind of communicating that Product Managers are expected to do on a regular basis: taking notes in meetings, answering IM conversations and questions, drafting and answering emails, creating documents and presentations, and using spreadsheets to track tasks, budgets, and data. 

Do You Have an Eye for Design?

How a customer interacts with a product is all about design. Product Managers need an excellent eye for design because they’re ultimately responsible for a product’s usability. Design is one of the core skill sets of a Product Manager, along with coding and project management. You won’t just be responsible for a product’s release and marketability. You will also be responsible for the user’s experience of the product.

User-driven design is concerned with designing products that are easy and enjoyable to use. It is typically divided into two categories: user experience design (UX) and user interface design (UI). UX design is focused on how a user experiences a product. User interface design is focused on how a user interacts with a product. As a Product Manager, you’ll need to have experience conducting user tests and incorporating user feedback into the design process. 

Do You Like Solving Problems?

No product goes to market without experiencing some setbacks. Managing problems is a critical part of managing products. If you like putting out fires and finding creative solutions to problems, then product management might be the right career for you. 

One of the key roles that a Product Manager plays is as a problem solver. The Product Manager will be the ultimate point of contact for any issues and delays. They will be expected to resolve issues with vendors and teams, maintain priorities and deadlines during issues and setbacks, maintain awareness of customer issues, and find creative solutions to development, marketing, and usability issues. 

Do You Like Having Variety in Your Work?

Many working Product Managers report that one of their favorite things about the job is that no two workdays are exactly the same. If you’re someone who prefers having a daily routine, then you won’t enjoy the daily life of a Product Manager. However, if you’re someone who thrives on chaos and change, then becoming a Product Manager might be right for you. 

You’ll also want to be a people person: Product Managers are expected to interact with a lot of different people. You’ll be in constant communication with your product’s cross-functional teams, including development and marketing, but also with customers, vendors, upper management, and stakeholders. You’ll be 

Do I Need a Degree to Become a Product Manager?

Product management is growing fast, but it is still a relatively new career field. There is no set educational path to becoming a Product Manager like there is for a Lawyer or Doctor. To become a Product Manager, you’ll need the right skills. Product management is a skill-based field, meaning that skills are prioritized over formal education. Industry reports indicate that certificates and certifications are more highly sought than degrees. 

The most common degrees held by Product Managers are in business, management, information technology, and computer science. Bachelor’s degree programs in product management are not very common. However, there is a small list of colleges and schools that offer undergraduate degrees in Product Management, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Texas at Austin, and Carnegie Mellon. The Fashion Institute at the State University of New York (SUNY) offers a Bachelor’s degree in product management for the fashion industry. 

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. 

Key Takeaways