What does a digital product manager do?

It is the key role of digital product managers to develop new online products or services. They handle the company's existing products and determine strategies to improve the products through market data. It is their duty to articulate their business value to better understand the creation of the new product. A background and knowledge in digital technology is a requirement. They should develop skills in communication, marketing, delegation, analytics, business management, and market research.
Digital product manager responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real digital product manager resumes:
- Collect, manage and CSS, basic report data.
- Supervise and independently manage video content for high traffic YouTube and SEO rankings.
- Lead the Spanish site to triple digit growth in bottom line profit YOY.
- Manage ROI, vision, and backlog prioritization as product owner in agile/scrum environment.
- Manage the strategic evolution of online support from consumer (B2C) to enterprise (B2B).
- Manage information architecture for iOS mobile applications.
- Track and store program documents in Sharepoint.
- Protoyp and perform UX design and acceptance testing.
- Spearhead UX strategy, art direction, and visual/UI design.
- Define KPIs to measure the success of the mobile games business.
- Introduce a delightful UI, a smooth UX and a very personalize experience.
- Conduct user acceptance testing (UAT) and post-implementation validation for most projects.
- Revamp subscription UI pages base on customer feedback receive from the customer focus groups organize for the project.
- Create project pages on confluence that can be easily access by other cross functional teams and higher management.
- Conduct effective meetings and provide clear and concise project communication via SharePoint, meeting minutes and project presentations.
Digital product manager skills and personality traits
We calculated that 8% of Digital Product Managers are proficient in Product Management, Digital Marketing, and User Experience. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Communication skills, and Creativity.
We break down the percentage of Digital Product Managers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Product Management, 8%
Advanced through positions of increased responsibility in product support and product management based on consistently exceeding goals and expectations.
- Digital Marketing, 5%
Worked to identify unique digital marketing solutions for our advertisers through product and market analysis.
- User Experience, 5%
Involved in Digital Business Transformation of Company from traditional methods to a customer focused user experience based web and mobile presence.
- Digital Transformation, 4%
Consulted on multiple change initiatives, including digital transformation for business development.
- User Stories, 4%
Collaborate with UX to develop user personas and user stories.
- Market Research, 4%
Coordinated market research activities, maintained competitor information, and managed product/service development and pricing strategy.
Common skills that a digital product manager uses to do their job include "product management," "digital marketing," and "user experience." You can find details on the most important digital product manager responsibilities below.
Analytical skills. The most essential soft skill for a digital product manager to carry out their responsibilities is analytical skills. This skill is important for the role because "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must be able to analyze industry trends to determine the most promising strategies for their organization." Additionally, a digital product manager resume shows how their duties depend on analytical skills: "understand and analyze user needs through user meetings and studies, market research, and data analysis. "
Communication skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling digital product manager duties is communication skills. The role rewards competence in this skill because "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." According to a digital product manager resume, here's how digital product managers can utilize communication skills in their job responsibilities: "directed the seo, website, & live chat digital products for entercom communication's radio clients. "
Creativity. This is an important skill for digital product managers to perform their duties. For an example of how digital 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 digital product manager: "orchestrated technical, creative, affiliate, and sales support aspects of product development and market launch. ".
Organizational skills. A big part of what digital product managers do relies on "organizational skills." You can see how essential it is to digital product manager responsibilities because "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must manage their time and budget efficiently while directing and motivating staff members." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical digital product manager tasks: "provided organizational leadership including change management, training, and refinement of the project management structure and activities within the organization. "
The three companies that hire the most digital product managers are:
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Digital product manager vs. Web manager
Web Managers are responsible for managing websites for organizations. Their duties include managing website upgrades, testing for website performance, implement a strategy to increase web traffic and subscribers, troubleshooting website issues, and responding to security breaches. They create content audits as well as ensuring the website has brand strategy alignment. A Web Manager ensures website compliance with all regulations and keeps abreast of the best practice of the industry. They must possess good problem-solving skills and knowledge in search engine optimization.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between digital product managers and web manager. For instance, digital product manager responsibilities require skills such as "product management," "digital transformation," "user stories," and "market research." Whereas a web manager is skilled in "google analytics," "web content," "emerging technologies," and "web design." This is part of what separates the two careers.
Web managers tend to reach lower levels of education than digital product managers. In fact, web managers are 8.7% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Digital product manager vs. Product director
The duties of a product director depend on one's place or industry of employment. Typically, their responsibilities revolve around overseeing the product development operations to ensure smooth flow and efficiency, devise strategies to improve processes, gather relevant data such as sales and customer feedback, and coordinate with different departments in developing new products and services. Furthermore, as a director, it is essential to lead and encourage departments to meet goals, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations, including its mission and vision.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, digital product manager responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "digital transformation," "user stories," "business stakeholders," and "acceptance criteria." Meanwhile, a product director has duties that require skills in areas such as "product design," "software development," "product line," and "saas." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Product directors earn a higher average salary than digital product managers. But product directors earn the highest pay in the internet industry, with an average salary of $155,810. Additionally, digital product managers earn the highest salaries in the technology with average pay of $111,819 annually.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Product directors tend to reach similar levels of education than digital product managers. In fact, they're 0.9% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for digital product managers in the next 3-5 years?
Marketing Department Head, Associate Professor, L.L. McAninch Chair of Business Administration, Kansas State University
Digital 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.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, digital product managers are more likely to have skills like "digital transformation," "business stakeholders," "acceptance criteria," and "product vision." But a product lead is more likely to have skills like "architecture," "lifecycle management," "cloud," and "product design."
Product leads make a very good living in the hospitality industry with an average annual salary of $129,039. On the other hand, digital product managers are paid the highest salary in the technology industry, with average annual pay of $111,819.product leads typically earn similar educational levels compared to digital product managers. Specifically, they're 0.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.4% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Digital product manager vs. Brand manager
A brand manager is an individual responsible for adapting a brand strategy that targets the potential market for a company's product while maintaining its integrity. Brand managers assist in developing products while managing budgets for the advertising and promotion of their new products. They usually work under the supervision of marketing managers or chief marketing officers (CMOs) to implement and execute their marketing initiatives. Brand managers also provide an analysis of sales forecasts and create reports on product sales.
Types of digital product manager
Updated January 8, 2025











