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What is a business product manager and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025
3 min read
Quoted experts
Andrew Spicer,
Sachin Tuli

The business product manager is responsible for the strategy, roadmap, and feature definition for the product or product line. He/She evaluates product ideas and decides if the ideas are worth pursuing. He/She oversees the product strategy and the steps that will get the product through each step.

Also, he/she helps the engineering team understand the course the product will take. Likewise, he/she assists the sales and marketing team in communicating the product's vision to customers and industry analysts. Additionally, a product manager works with cross-functional teams to deliver the product.

The minimum educational requirement for this job is a bachelor's degree. However, some organizations prefer candidates with a master's degree. To succeed in this role, you need marketing, technical, problem-solving, analytical, time management, and interpersonal skills. Business product managers earn a whopping sum of $115,322 in a year. Their salary can be as high as $183,000, and the lowest being $73,000.

What general advice would you give to a business product manager?

Andrew Spicer

Associate Professor, Website

Resiliency is a particularly important skill for international business and career progression. Resiliency – the ability to recover quickly in the face of obstacles and failures – has always been a critical part of successful international assignments. The only constant of working abroad is that there will be miscommunication and mistakes. Successful international business careers depend on the ability to learn from these inevitable setbacks to improve over time. The constant change in the global business environment also leads to the demand for resiliency among international business specialists. An important role for those with a global mindset is to help companies adapt to the massive disruption to the global business environment for international trade and investment presently taking place across the world.
ScoreBusiness Product ManagerUS Average
Salary
8.2

Avg. Salary $123,607

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 35.88%

male 64.12%

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

Business product manager career paths

Key steps to become a business product manager

  1. Explore business product manager education requirements

    Most common business product manager degrees

    Bachelor's

    73.7 %

    Master's

    18.4 %

    Associate

    5.0 %
  2. Start to develop specific business product manager skills

    SkillsPercentages
    Product Management14.10%
    Project Management7.12%
    Market Research5.43%
    Market Trends4.98%
    User Stories4.83%
  3. Complete relevant business product manager training and internships

    Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New business 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 a business product manager based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real business product manager resumes.
  4. Research business 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.
    • Create promotional programs, point of sales materials and aggressive go-to-market strategies that significantly increase sell thru revenue and ROI.
    • Utilize SQL to support data-driven analysis and decision processes to inform project prioritization, assess feature effectiveness, and troubleshoot issues.
    • Perform extensive data analysis including financial forecasting, production planning, promotional ROI modeling and syndicate data review to drive recommendations.
  5. Apply for business product manager jobs

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

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

How did you land your first business product manager job

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Average business product manager salary

The average business product manager salary in the United States is $123,607 per year or $59 per hour. Business product manager salaries range between $88,000 and $173,000 per year.

Average business product manager salary
$123,607 Yearly
$59.43 hourly

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How do business product managers rate their job?

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Business product manager reviews

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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


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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


profile
A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2019
Pros

B2B Communication and Building Relationships, Product\Strategy Development and Implementation, Solving Problems


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Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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