Institute of Product Leadership
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Need for Product Leaders in this era of the complex business ecosystem and how are their salaries scaled?

In the year 2019, a majority of the managers have used metrics in order to make decisions. Product managers require to report up the chain to keep progress revolving their goals. Since product managers are able to communicate via data-driven roadmaps today, the new metric matter has been completely redefined. Companies are known to define this metric and further determine is a particular feature can make the cut or not. According to research, 34% of product managers have stated that their primary product is interdependent on its business-oriented metric. The presence of readily available Data and machine learning is currently driving the industry. This enables organizers and analysts to calculate their business metrics continuously. Due to this many hypotheses can be disproven or proven within a matter of time. Truly there lies no excuse in replying on a hunch while making vast business decisions, therefore the presence of metrics becomes crucial. This data also allows many organizations to adopt OKRs. This feature ensures better insights to your stakeholders. Here, each product is made to be measurable by tracking their preexisting objectives and results.

Project Management

Specialization and Growth of specific roles of products

Product management was once listed in the domain of generalists. One needs to excel at everything, acquitting to their range of portfolio of responsibilities. However, with the maturing rate of the profession, much importance is established, inculcating the increase in discrete roles. The major factor why companies have project management teams is solely to enhance their specialized roles. In today’s time, the presence of technical product managers is extremely common among larger organizations as a sustaining unit of product management. The rise of product ops has birthed a new variety of product managers, who are dedicated to this area of business. Although there still lays many arguments and debates on how a technical manager must act.  One repetitive question that crosses each one’s mind is:

How much is a typical product manager's salary?

Well, this can be easily answered. The two most popular ways to find out how many projects managers earn are:

  • Tapping into online websites to find out current salaries of project management.
  •  Finding out job postings related to this field.

These two ways can be further elaborated into the following: Speaking of online websites, Glassdoor proves to be an excellent source of salary information. A lot can be inferred and learned from this site. Moreover, you can also find out the work environment of your company of choice using Glassdoor.
One thing to keep in mind before checking this website out is to make it specific t your experience and your location. For example, In San Francisco, an average project manager earns $140K per year. However, this varies with your experience level. A more experienced employee would get a higher salary than an inexperienced one. It thus varies from $100K to $120K a year for beginners. Senior managers can expect a figure ranging from $167K to $194K. In addition to experience, your location also plays a huge role in the salary process
For example, A project manager job listing in Dallas may offer $105K but in Pittsburgh, one might expect $89K for the same. It is important to keep in mind that a director may receive the highest salary on account of his professional expertise. Apart from Glassdoor, Indeed is also a credible website used for knowing salary and job postings.

On a similar note, the size of the organization also plays a huge role in negotiating the deciding salaries of a project manager. Large corporations will pay more as compared to smaller corporations. Thus, while browsing it is important to remember the type and size of the company as well.
Beyond current salary, one can also refer to LinkedIn to figure what’s being advertised currently in the job listings. Whilst every posting does not inculcate the salary range most listings do. Even though the range is provided the maximum and minimum amount of what the employers are ready to pay would also be given. This feature also helps in building company profiles. As the market is extremely diverse, the listing found on these sites can better or worse depending on economic conditions in a country’s timeline.

3 prominent tips for negotiating the salary of a project manager

  • Depend on data
    A well-deserved data manager would never flaunt his claims without the data to back it up. It is advised to back all your claims and impress the employer with your analytic and technical skills. These tremendously depend on data sources, your experience, the company’s size and what you have to offer.
  • Use tangible results to back up the negotiations
    A good resume speaks for itself. However, salary negotiations are an excellent way to revisit these previous accomplishments, expertise, and successes. Yes, they can hire a project manager for $90K, but will the quality be worth the product? Elaborate on your skills, show them your results and brighten their product performance.
  • Demonstration of your soft skills
    Having technical analytical skills is extremely important. However, it does not overshadow the use of displaying soft sills. Bring this to the table; mentions of soft skills in combination with your hard skills can be the cherry on top of your negotiation.
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