How To Become An Assistant Product Manager: What It Is and Career Path

What is an assistant product manager and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Patrick Lindsay

Assistant product managers assist departmental heads in conducting the daily sales operations of the company. They oversee product planning, testing, pricing, and preparation of product guides. They also help with developing and implementing different strategies to drive the product and analyze market trends and competing brands. The results of these analyses are used to recommend improvements to the research and development team. Furthermore, they identify new markets, including potential customers and vendors for the product. Assistant product managers develop and plan different promotional materials and campaigns. Besides that, they monitor the distribution and sales of products.

Candidates for this job must have a bachelor's degree in marketing or business administration with relevant work experience. You must possess organization, attention to detail, negotiation, presentation, analytical, multitasking, and communication skills. You must be an expert in forecasting future trends in the market. Assistant product managers earn about $62,993 in a year. This varies from $42,000 and $96,000.

What's a day at work look like for an assistant product manager?

Patrick Lindsay

Assistant Lecturer, Miami University

Sales is a good job out of college. Regardless of the company, the industry, the marketplace or geography, being in the customer interface is not only the best and quickest way to learn about a business but also to learn about business. They are exposed to the impact from and on all stakeholders. They learn about what a value proposition really is and the importance of Trust. They observe and learn the importance of relationships. And they grasp the importance of why over what and how. Finally, sales experience and success is almost universally transferable. Once a grad has a year to three developing competencies, skills and confidence, they can pursue virtually any other product or service in almost any company. They can pursue a next job in sales but also other areas like marketing, customer service, human resources, training, recruiting, et cetera. Employers are not emphasizing industry knowledge or experience like they once did. And many companies, from small local the largest global companies in their industries, insist their new college hires begin in sales (aka account management, business development, client acquisition).

Now, with the proper training (could be a major/minor but doesn't have to be if the graduate has developed a particular skill set) there are many available jobs for graduates that are technology-related. These are "good job" from a compensation and stability perspective. And any position with a global tech firm is a golden ticket.

ScoreAssistant Product ManagerUS Average

Salary

5.3

Avg. Salary $67,764

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.5

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.23%

Asian 8.15%

Black or African American 3.04%

Hispanic or Latino 8.67%

Unknown 5.32%

White 74.58%

Gender

female 56.93%

male 43.07%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress level

7.5

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.5

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an assistant product manager

Explore assistant product manager education requirements

Most common assistant product manager degrees

Bachelor's

75.8 %

Master's

13.3 %

Associate

7.6 %

Start to develop specific assistant product manager skills

Skills	Percentages
Product Development	15.12%
PowerPoint	8.46%
Market Research	7.47%
Product Management	6.98%
R	5.59%

Complete relevant assistant product manager training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New assistant product managers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an assistant product manager based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real assistant product manager resumes.

Research assistant product manager duties and responsibilities

Lead cross-functional team in pioneering the application/game download ecosystem with the implementation of Java games and generating significant new revenue stream.
Provide design feedback during development and QA project cycles.
Calculate ROI of campaigns base on sales of products/services relate to campaign.
Conduct all on site QA and product reviews throughout Asia from concept to production.

Apply for assistant product manager jobs

Now it's time to start searching for an assistant product manager job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do assistant product managers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Assistant product manager reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2023

Pros

Solve tough problems, work on agile teams, outlet for creativity,

Cons

high expectations, constantly evolving technology, broad range of topics to learn (product management specifics, industry, technology, software development methods

A zippia user wrote a review on Sep 2022

Cons

Super tight deadlines.

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2020

Pros

Its not a specific job, As a product manager your job responsibilities cover many different areas and that's what i love about it.

Cons

all other teams think that they are doing a task for you instead of thinking that they are part of a team on a project

What is an assistant product manager and how to become one

What's a day at work look like for an assistant product manager?

Assistant product manager career paths

Key steps to become an assistant product manager

Explore assistant product manager education requirements

Most common assistant product manager degrees

Start to develop specific assistant product manager skills

Complete relevant assistant product manager training and internships

Research assistant product manager duties and responsibilities

Apply for assistant product manager jobs

How did you land your first assistant product manager job

Average assistant product manager salary

How do assistant product managers rate their job?

Assistant product manager reviews