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What does a digital product manager do?

Updated January 8, 2025
8 min read
Quoted expert
Dr. Esther Swilley
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.

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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. "

Most common digital product manager skills

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Compare different digital product managers

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.

We looked at the average digital product manager salary and compared it with the wages of a web manager. Generally speaking, web managers are paid $15,431 lower than digital product managers per year.While their salaries may differ, the common ground between digital product managers and web managers are a few of the skills required in each roleacirc;euro;trade;s responsibilities. In both careers, employee duties involve skills like digital marketing, user experience, and project management.

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.

Product director positions earn higher pay than digital product manager roles. They earn a $50,783 higher salary than digital product managers per year.Only some things about these jobs are the same. Take their skills, for example. Digital product managers and product directors both require similar skills like "product management," "digital marketing," and "user experience" to carry out their responsibilities.

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?

Dr. Esther SwilleyDr. Esther Swilley LinkedIn profile

Marketing Department Head, Associate Professor, L.L. McAninch Chair of Business Administration, Kansas State University

Mobile technology was the trend for the last ten years, but now we need home-based technology. What is going to make "my space" a better "office space." This will also include mobile, as people set up offices in their homes, their kids/parents' homes, and in their vacation homes. Folding monitors, hot spots, of course, as well as more powerful machines that can handle each family member at the same time. It will also mean more cloud usage - both personal and professional use.

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.

An average product lead eans a higher salary compared to the average salary of digital product managers. The difference in salaries amounts to product leads earning a $20,701 higher average salary than digital product managers.By looking over several digital product managers and product leads resumes, we found that both roles require similar skills in their day-to-day duties, such as "product management," "digital marketing," and "user experience." But beyond that, the careers look very different.

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.

Brand managers tend to earn a lower pay than digital product managers by an average of $338 per year.While both digital product managers and brand managers complete day-to-day tasks using similar skills like digital marketing, market research, and project management, the two careers vary in some skills.Each job also requires different skills to carry out their responsibilities. A digital product manager uses "product management," "user experience," "digital transformation," and "user stories." Brand managers are more likely to have duties that require skills in "brand management," "brand marketing," "powerpoint," and "integrated marketing. "The manufacturing industry tends to pay the highest salaries for brand managers, with average annual pay of $99,130. Comparatively, the highest digital product manager annual salary comes from the technology industry.brand managers reach similar levels of education compared to digital product managers, in general. The difference is that they're 1.7% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.5% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Types of digital product manager

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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