What does a product lead do?
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 responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real product lead resumes:
- Manage multiple teams of designers, information architects, and UI developers across various projects for desktop, mobile and tablets.
- Design, manage, and implement internationalization QA process for radiology software in the European office.
- Manage horizontal UX prototyping resource needs, implementing effective collaborative expectations and cross-product timeline allocation strategies.
- Lead UX designer for multiple scrum teams.
- Develop the first versions of cloud base web services APIs to integrate enterprise applications as well as 3rd party applications.
- Used a combination of extreme programming, scrum, traditional waterfall processes to establish a multi-location, engineering and support operation.
- Determine appropriate architecture, and other technical solutions, and make relevant recommendations to clients and departments.
- Provide team leadership in addition to individually contributing to the cohesiveness of the architecture development as a whole.
- Utilize SQL to support data-driven analysis and decision processes to inform project prioritization, assess feature effectiveness, and troubleshoot issues.
- Develop server side database API using JDBC.
- Architect, design and implement a database application layer and business object layer to be used by the applications and API.
- Perform extensive data analysis including financial forecasting, production planning, promotional ROI modeling and syndicate data review to drive recommendations.
Product lead skills and personality traits
We calculated that 9% of Product Leads are proficient in Product Management, Project Management, and Architecture. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Communication skills, and Creativity.
We break down the percentage of Product Leads that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Product Management, 9%
Provided strategic analysis and recommendations to Rational executive leadership and product management teams.
- Project Management, 6%
Mentored business team members on project management principles and phases, early issue/risk identification and mitigation, communication and follow-up.
- Architecture, 5%
Provided team leadership in addition to individually contributing to the cohesiveness of the architecture development as a whole.
- Digital Marketing, 5%
Facilitated and developed materials and strategies for public relations, media placement, digital marketing, social media and consumer education.
- Lifecycle Management, 4%
Manage strategic planning, project idea generation, product development, project prioritization and product lifecycle management of several products concurrently.
- Cloud, 4%
Aided in the information gathering and development of EPICOR's new Cloud Distributed Services design documents.
Most product leads use their skills in "product management," "project management," and "architecture" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential product lead responsibilities here:
Analytical skills. One of the key soft skills for a product lead to have is analytical skills. You can see how this relates to what product leads 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 product lead resume shows how product leads use analytical skills: "developed the interface using java, jdk 1.4 and used sql server as a backend data. "
Communication skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling product lead 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 product lead resume, here's how product leads can utilize communication skills in their job responsibilities: "led the communication and product design collaboration with global employees * performed maintenance of company intranet and department files. "
Creativity. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of product leads is creativity. This skill is critical to many everyday product lead 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: "experienced in all areas of route sales, including merchandising, promotion, inventory, delivery, and customer service. "
Interpersonal skills. For certain product lead responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "interpersonal skills." The day-to-day duties of a product lead rely on this skill, as "managers must deal with a range of people in different roles, both inside and outside the organization." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what product leads do: "possess strong analytical, communication and interpersonal skills. "
Organizational skills. Another crucial skill for a product lead to carry out their responsibilities is "organizational skills." A big part of what product leads 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 product lead duties can be seen in an example from a product lead resume snippet: "co-chaired a multi-organizational team to improve installation and technical support for new cloud technology. "
The three companies that hire the most product leads are:
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Compare different product leads
Product lead vs. Marketing manager
Marketing managers are experienced employees who oversee the marketing department of the organization. They manage activities such as marketing campaigns, social media postings, company branding, and other strategic marketing activities. They provide strategic direction and come up with departmental goals. They also provide proper training for employees in the department to ensure that they have a deep understanding of its marketing tools. Marketing managers should be creative, should have good interpersonal skills, and should be flexible.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, product lead responsibilities require skills like "product management," "architecture," "lifecycle management," and "cloud." Meanwhile a typical marketing manager has skills in areas such as "marketing campaigns," "integrated marketing," "email marketing," and "b2b marketing." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Marketing managers tend to make the most money working in the technology industry, where they earn an average salary of $115,553. In contrast, product leads make the biggest average salary, $129,039, in the hospitality industry.marketing managers tend to reach lower levels of education than product leads. In fact, marketing managers are 6.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.8% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Product lead vs. Vice president, product management
A vice president of product management is responsible for handling the overall operational decisions of product deliverables, creating strategic procedures for product marketing strategy, and ensuring that the outputs provide the highest customer satisfaction. The vice president of product management monitors the department's budget, allocating adequate resources to every team to support operational promotions and research on current market trends. They also adjust product management approaches to meet the company's goals and objectives and identify opportunities to increase revenues and profitability.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, product lead responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "architecture," "continuous improvement," "customer service," and "strong analytical." Meanwhile, a vice president, product management has duties that require skills in areas such as "analytics," "product vision," "digital transformation," and "product lifecycle." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
On average, vice presidents, product management earn a higher salary than product leads. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, vice presidents, product management earn the most pay in the start-up industry with an average salary of $176,856. Whereas product leads have higher pay in the hospitality industry, with an average salary of $129,039.In general, vice presidents, product management achieve higher levels of education than product leads. They're 6.4% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.8% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Product lead vs. Vice president product development
A vice president for product development is responsible for leading the product development team in the execution of development activities to enhance the product's brand image in the market and achieve the sales performance target. Vice presidents for product development monitor the product development techniques from the conceptualization to the final execution and market release. They also handle the budget and resource allocation to support product development operations, ensuring that the outputs meet the quality standards and timetables.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, product leads are more likely to have skills like "digital marketing," "lifecycle management," "emerging technologies," and "continuous improvement." But a vice president product development is more likely to have skills like "analytics," "software development," "contract negotiations," and "human centered design."
Vice presidents product development earn the best pay in the technology industry, where they command an average salary of $164,622. Product leads earn the highest pay from the hospitality industry, with an average salary of $129,039.Most vice presidents product development achieve a similar degree level compared to product leads. For example, they're 1.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 1.5% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Product lead vs. Director of product development
A Director of Product Development supervises and implements product development policies, initiatives, and objectives. They conduct market research to determine consumer needs and identify competitors.
Types of product lead
Updated January 8, 2025
