product manager

Some tasks of a product manager include:

• setting the product vision and strategy: as a product manager, you determine the direction of the product and its vision. Your job is to articulate the vision of a product to ensure the team understands it. You lay out the investment areas and prioritize them to achieve product goals. The role also involves creating a product roadmap and timeline that visualizes the product's delivery.
• evaluating ideas: as a product manager, you curate ideas and prioritize those that deliver value to customers. You run the company's idea management process and determine the ideas to be developed by the design team. After reviewing them, you communicate their status to the respective customers, partners and stakeholders.
• prioritizing features: during idea conceptions, many features are suggested for a product, and it is your job to rank them. You prioritize the features by ranking them against strategic goals and initiatives. Sometimes, the process involves making difficult trade-offs based on the value the new features add to a product. When prioritizing, defining the product's feature requirements and desired user experience is important.
• creating a product roadmap: as a product manager, you develop a roadmap visualizing the product development process. The roadmap also defines how the product achieves business objectives and keeps work on track. You create different roadmaps for the executive and engineering teams.
• analyzing and reporting work progress: as a product manager, it is important to focus on results. You oversee and monitor the progress of the product development stages. You also ensure the production team is efficient and maintains the production timeline. During production, you ensure the company doesn't suffer any capacity issues and that the team has the necessary raw materials. After production, you monitor the testing processes.

A product manager works in a diverse setting, depending on the industry and the products they produce. For instance, you regularly visit production floors in the manufacturing industry to ensure everything runs as expected. In pharmaceutical and technical companies, you also work with teams on the production floors. However, software product managers work on products that don't require work in a climate-controlled facility. Aside from supervising production, you attend meetings with stakeholders and complete administrative functions. Hence, you also work from an office. The role may involve travelling if the company has offsite production facilities. Sometimes, you attend conferences and tradeshows in your industry. Working remotely or from home is possible, but you show up regularly to supervise on-site projects.

As a product manager, you work in the production department of a company and interact with various professionals to accomplish your duties. For instance, you work with project managers, production supervisors and business systems analysts. You also work with HR managers, mechanical engineers and warehouse associates. 

The work schedule of a product manager follows regular business hours, regardless of the industry or sector. Unless attending a client meeting or trying to meet deadlines, product managers rarely work evenings. Sometimes, you work weekends to assist the design or production teams. Product managers may also work outside typical office hours, particularly if the company has offices located in other time zones.

Most companies employ product managers in full-time positions. Part-time and temporary contracts are rare. However, you can secure a temporary position if you manage one aspect of a larger product.

Most product managers start as part of the product team, focusing on one aspect of the production before moving to senior roles. In an entry-level role, you oversee a small product team and will move into a senior product manager role, which involves monitoring the entire production department. Most product managers progress to executive positions, such as the vice president of product, chief technology officer, chief marketing officer or chief operating officer.

Working with Randstad offers you a range of benefits.

• always a contact person you can fall back on and ask for help from
• many training opportunities
• a range of jobs in your area

As a product manager, you receive an average salary of $147,927 per year. With experience, the earnings increase to over $197,641 annually. The earnings fluctuate based on qualifications and experience. That's why junior product managers receive a lower salary compared to senior product managers.

Your job is to identify customer needs and use the requirements to create high-quality products. You decide on the product specifications and ingredients to improve functionality.

Product management is not a regulated career in Canada. However, you require post-secondary credentials like a degree or diploma in the relevant field. You also need extensive experience in the relevant industry.

A product manager is responsible for developing the concept for a product and overseeing its development. A project manager focuses on coordinating and supervising projects.

Some companies require product managers to have technical expertise in the production process. However, a product manager can guide the product team without having a technical background.

Finding a job near you as a product manager is easy. Search our job offers. Have you found what you're looking for? Then submit your application using the ‘Apply’ button top right on the page. No jobs available right now? Send us your resume and we'll pass it on to a recruiter who will contact you if an opportunity opens up for you.