What does a business product manager do?
A business product manager is primarily in charge of overseeing a company's product and service development procedures, ensuring quality and marketability. Their responsibilities typically revolve around gathering and analyzing data to understand and identify product requirements, coordinating with the engineering and quality control teams, determining the marketing opportunities, managing the roadmaps, and developing strategies to meet the consumers' needs. Furthermore, as a business product manager, it is essential to lead and encourage the workforce to reach goals, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations.
Business product manager responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real business product manager resumes:
- 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.
Business product manager skills and personality traits
We calculated that 14% of Business Product Managers are proficient in Product Management, Project Management, and Market Research. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Communication skills, and Creativity.
We break down the percentage of Business Product Managers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Product Management, 14%
Combine demonstrated product management leadership experience with strong hands-on technical background.
- Project Management, 7%
Led team of 20+ developers, architects, analysts using agile project management to create talent solutions.
- Market Research, 5%
Managed primary market research and developed strategic plan to incorporate newly acquired cloud distribution technology into Office lineup.
- Market Trends, 5%
Monitored and analyzed product portfolio performance, market trends and competition.
- User Stories, 5%
Socialized diagrams, mockups, and user stories to negotiate cost-effective solutions.
- Emerging Technologies, 5%
Conducted customer executive presentations on emerging technologies in Storage Networking as well as spoke at user conferences.
Most business product managers use their skills in "product management," "project management," and "market research" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential business product manager responsibilities here:
Analytical skills. One of the key soft skills for a business product manager to have is analytical skills. You can see how this relates to what business product managers do because "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must be able to analyze industry trends to determine the most promising strategies for their organization." Additionally, a business product manager resume shows how business product managers use analytical skills: "used a pareto analysis technique to trim the ampex magnetic tape division product line from 1600 items to 480. "
Communication skills. Many business product manager duties rely on communication skills. "managers must be able to communicate effectively with a broad-based team made up of other managers or staff members during the advertising, promotions, and marketing process," so a business product manager will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways business product manager responsibilities rely on communication skills: "guided marketing communications and it departments regarding annual update of fiber optic product brochure and product line pages on cel.com. "
Creativity. This is an important skill for business product managers to perform their duties. For an example of how business product manager responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must be able to generate new and imaginative ideas." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a business product manager: "developed industry reputation for creative and profitable product management and marketing, which helped launch a successful consulting career. ".
Interpersonal skills. business product manager responsibilities often require "interpersonal skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "managers must deal with a range of people in different roles, both inside and outside the organization." This resume example shows what business product managers do with interpersonal skills on a typical day: "possess strong analytical, communication and interpersonal skills. "
Organizational skills. A commonly-found skill in business product manager job descriptions, "organizational skills" is essential to what business product managers do. Business product manager responsibilities rely on this skill because "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must manage their time and budget efficiently while directing and motivating staff members." You can also see how business product manager duties rely on organizational skills in this resume example: "direct organizational release readiness by leading a cross-functional release team that includes sales, services, marketing, engineering and qa"
The three companies that hire the most business product managers are:
Compare different business product managers
Business product manager vs. Product lead
A product lead is responsible for monitoring the development of new products and services of an organization, starting from brand conceptualization to official market release and distribution. Product leads identify effective product management by conducting data analysis and evaluating market statistics of customer demands. They coordinate with the clients on their specifications and requirements, including the budget limit and timely deliverables. A product lead manages the brand promotion on media platforms, creating content that adheres to the target audience.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a business product manager are more likely to require skills like "market trends," "competitive analysis," "product sales," and "bi." On the other hand, a job as a product lead requires skills like "architecture," "digital marketing," "product lifecycle management," and "user experience." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
On average, product leads reach similar levels of education than business product managers. Product leads are 0.8% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.5% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Business product manager vs. Business development and marketing manager
The business development and marketing manager is in charge of overseeing a company's marketing programs and projects. They primarily manage and coordinate teams, set goals and guidelines, organize budgets and timelines, conceptualize plans, and develop strategies to optimize operations. They may also liaise with clients and suppliers, streamline marketing materials, and train staff. Furthermore, as a manager, it is essential to lead and encourage the workforce to reach goals, all while enforcing the company's policies and regulations.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real business product manager resumes. While business product manager responsibilities can utilize skills like "product management," "user stories," "emerging technologies," and "product strategy," business development and marketing managers use skills like "digital marketing," "crm," "integrated marketing," and "strategic partnerships."
Business development and marketing managers earn similar levels of education than business product managers in general. They're 2.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.5% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Business product manager vs. Product development manager
A product development manager spearheads the development of new products within a company. Most of the time, their responsibilities revolve around conducting marketing research and analysis to determine consumers' needs, coordinating with the product development team to come up with new ideas, proposing business plans to the executives, and creating prototypes. A product development manager must also present a cost analysis, produce progress reports, and address inquiries and concerns. Furthermore, as a manager, it is essential to lead and encourage the staff, all while adhering to the company's policies and regulations.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from business product manager resumes include skills like "user stories," "emerging technologies," "market analysis," and "cloud," whereas a product development manager is more likely to list skills in "customer service," "java," "scrum," and "strong project management. "
When it comes to education, product development managers tend to earn similar degree levels compared to business product managers. In fact, they're 4.5% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 1.2% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Business product manager vs. Product management director
A Product Management Director is responsible for a business product planning as well as execution throughout the life cycle of the business. They create the product strategy and requirements, develop and execute tactical plans, and maintain product and market knowledge.
Types of business product manager
Updated January 8, 2025
