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What does a principal product manager do?

Updated January 8, 2025
8 min read

The duties of a principal product manager depend on one's place or industry of employment. Typically, their responsibilities revolve around overseeing the organization's product roadmap, devising strategies for optimal operations and services, and managing production and marketing communications. They must also coordinate with different research scientists and engineers to develop systems and networks that will increase profitability and assist in meeting consumers' needs. Furthermore, as a manager, it is essential to lead and encourage teams, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations.

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Principal product manager responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real principal product manager resumes:

  • Lead an initiative to train technical writers on writing QA tests for documentation examples.
  • Lead SaaS application visibility and performance monitoring in hybrid enterprise to accelerate adoption of cloud.
  • Analyze complex business cases to determine product feasibility, prioritization and project ROI.
  • Define strategic direction and KPIs, make recommendations to leadership and execute on approve direction.
  • Develop product marketing positioning with business team, forecasting, competitive positioning and analyzing ROI.
  • Utilize SQL to support data-driven analysis and decision processes to inform project prioritization, assess feature effectiveness, and troubleshoot issues.
  • Utilize SQL to support data-driven analysis and decision processes to inform project prioritization, assess feature effectiveness, and troubleshoot issues.

Principal product manager skills and personality traits

We calculated that 11% of Principal Product Managers are proficient in Product Management, QA, and Product Development. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Communication skills, and Creativity.

We break down the percentage of Principal Product Managers that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Product Management, 11%

    Created all internal Product Management processes while also collaborating with Development on both Waterfall and Agile delivery models.

  • QA, 11%

    Work with the Development and QA team to ensure that the specification matches the end product delivery.

  • Product Development, 10%

    Identified new areas for product development by analyzing customer requirements, market paradigms, behaviors and competitive gaps.

  • Regression, 9%

    Provide early forecasting regarding quarterly sales using regression analysis and exponential smoothing, and proprietary forecasting techniques.

  • User Stories, 4%

    Create and validate detailed product requirements and user stories before ensuring cross functional understanding.

  • Saas, 4%

    Conceptualized and actively creating Social Media Manager, a SaaS solution delivering social media monitoring and engagement capabilities.

"product management," "qa," and "product development" are among the most common skills that principal product managers use at work. You can find even more principal product manager responsibilities below, including:

Analytical skills. One of the key soft skills for a principal product manager to have is analytical skills. You can see how this relates to what principal 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 principal product manager resume shows how principal product managers use analytical skills: "led an offshore team for delivery of data visualization needs while etl and reporting needs were delivered onsite. "

Communication skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling principal 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 principal product manager resume, here's how principal product managers can utilize communication skills in their job responsibilities: "developed java client code to utilize the new communication protocol. "

Creativity. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of principal product managers is creativity. This skill is critical to many everyday principal product manager duties, as "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must be able to generate new and imaginative ideas." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "drive product strategy and direction that aligns with customer expectations and creatively leverages engineering resources. "

Interpersonal skills. A big part of what principal product managers do relies on "interpersonal skills." You can see how essential it is to principal product manager responsibilities because "managers must deal with a range of people in different roles, both inside and outside the organization." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical principal product manager tasks: "possess strong analytical, communication and interpersonal skills. "

Organizational skills. Another crucial skill for a principal product manager to carry out their responsibilities is "organizational skills." A big part of what principal product managers relies on this skill, since "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must manage their time and budget efficiently while directing and motivating staff members." How this skill relates to principal product manager duties can be seen in an example from a principal product manager resume snippet: "improved organizational structure by recruiting highly skilled personnel, creating product management team within company. "

See the full list of principal product manager skills

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Compare different principal product managers

Principal 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.

If we compare the average principal product manager annual salary with that of a web manager, we find that web managers typically earn a $63,247 lower salary than principal product managers make annually.Even though principal product managers and web managers are distinct careers, a few of the skills required for both jobs are similar. For example, both careers require qa, digital marketing, and project management in the day-to-day roles and responsibilities.

These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a principal product manager are more likely to require skills like "product management," "product development," "regression," and "user stories." On the other hand, a job as a web manager requires skills like "wordpress," "html css," "google analytics," and "html." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.

On average, web managers reach lower levels of education than principal product managers. Web managers are 14.1% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 1.3% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Principal 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.

Product lead positions earn lower pay than principal product manager roles. They earn a $27,115 lower salary than principal product managers per year.Only some things about these jobs are the same. Take their skills, for example. Principal product managers and product leads both require similar skills like "product management," "qa," and "product development" to carry out their responsibilities.

In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, principal product manager responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "kpis," "product vision," "virtualization," and "gtm." Meanwhile, a product lead has duties that require skills in areas such as "architecture," "cloud," "product design," and "product lifecycle management." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.

Product leads earn a lower average salary than principal product managers. But product leads earn the highest pay in the hospitality industry, with an average salary of $129,039. Additionally, principal product managers earn the highest salaries in the start-up with average pay of $160,426 annually.In general, product leads achieve similar levels of education than principal product managers. They're 4.6% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 1.3% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Principal 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.

On average scale, product directors bring in higher salaries than principal product managers. In fact, they earn a $2,967 higher salary per year.principal product managers and product directors both have job responsibilities that require similar skill sets. These similarities include skills such as "product management," "qa," and "product development," but they differ when it comes to other required skills.

The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, principal product managers are more likely to have skills like "regression," "user stories," "virtualization," and "confluence." But a product director is more likely to have skills like "product design," "software development," "scrum," and "value proposition."

Product directors earn the highest salary when working in the internet industry, where they receive an average salary of $155,810. Comparatively, principal product managers have the highest earning potential in the start-up industry, with an average salary of $160,426.Most product directors achieve a similar degree level compared to principal product managers. For example, they're 4.5% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Principal product manager vs. Market manager

A marketing manager is an executive who manages a brand or product's promotion positioning. Marketing managers analyze the trends in the industry and the demand for certain products and services. Typically, they attract more customers to purchase products and/or services and raise brand awareness through marketing campaigns. They research, identify, examine, and evaluate product demand. Also, they review advertising materials like print ads to boost the marketing strategy of the company and strengthen its campaign.

Market managers tend to earn a lower pay than principal product managers by an average of $57,885 per year.While their salaries may vary, principal product managers and market managers both use similar skills to perform their duties. Resumes from both professions include skills like "product development," "project management," and "market research. "Each job also requires different skills to carry out their responsibilities. A principal product manager uses "product management," "qa," "regression," and "user stories." Market managers are more likely to have duties that require skills in "strong analytical," "excellent interpersonal," "human resources," and "strong time management. "The manufacturing industry tends to pay the highest salaries for market managers, with average annual pay of $85,133. Comparatively, the highest principal product manager annual salary comes from the start-up industry.In general, market managers hold lower degree levels compared to principal product managers. Market managers are 12.9% less likely to earn their Master's Degree and 1.4% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Types of principal 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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