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What is a product manager lead and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025
4 min read
Quoted expert
Sachin Tuli

The product manager lead is responsible for developing the product roadmap and communicating the plans and strategies to stakeholders across the company. Primarily, you are responsible for new products within the company or an organization. You are responsible for planning and executing products throughout their lifecycle, which may include prioritizing products and customer requirements, gathering, and defining the product vision. Your role includes creating products that support the company's plans and strategies.

For a successful accomplishment of products, you must define product strategy and roadmap. You are expected to deliver MRDs and PRDs with prioritized features and corresponding jurisdiction. About this, you must work closely with external third parties to access licensing opportunities and partnerships for the sponsorship of products. Your job is also to make a pilot program and run beta with early-stage products and samples. As a product manager lead, you must act as a leader within that capacity.

To become a good product manager lead, you need excellent leadership skills, proven ability to influence, strong organization skills, the capacity to work under pressure, and outstanding teamwork skills. As a product manager lead, you will earn $149,000 on average every year. The minimum education qualification is a bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Business, or other related fields.

What's a day at work look like for a product manager lead?

Sachin TuliSachin Tuli LinkedIn profile

Director, International Business Major, Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The pandemic accelerated ongoing shifts with work-from-anywhere and use of remote meeting technologies. With mass adoption at all levels, these trends are likely to persist to some degree across fields and industries. There will likely be less travel for a number of years, but concurrently we may see more cross-team and cross-national collaboration and coordination. From an international business perspective, firms do plan to continue their globalization efforts and we know that graduates themselves increasingly seek potential global opportunities and mobility when choosing which organizations to work for.
ScoreProduct Manager LeadUS Average
Salary
8.6

Avg. Salary $138,531

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level
7.5

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity
3.1
Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.23%

Asian 8.15%

Black or African American 3.04%

Hispanic or Latino 8.67%

Unknown 5.32%

White 74.58%

Gender

female 30.64%

male 69.36%

Age - 38
Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38
Stress level
7.5

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level
9.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance
3.5

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Product manager lead career paths

Key steps to become a product manager lead

  1. Explore product manager lead education requirements

    Most common product manager lead degrees

    Bachelor's

    67.8 %

    Master's

    22.4 %

    Associate

    5.5 %
  2. Start to develop specific product manager lead skills

    SkillsPercentages
    Architecture8.31%
    QA8.14%
    Product Management7.91%
    Product Strategy6.99%
    Regression6.00%
  3. Complete relevant product manager lead training and internships

    Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New product managers lead learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a product manager lead based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real product manager lead resumes.
  4. Research product manager lead duties and responsibilities

    • Manage horizontal UX prototyping resource needs, implementing effective collaborative expectations and cross-product timeline allocation strategies.
    • Work alongside a team of 24 frontend and backend engineers, designers and QA engineers.
    • Develop overall market and product requirements for WiMAX smart antenna base stations, customer premise equipment and wireless management infrastructure.
    • Used source codes for tracking programs against marketing costs for ROI analysis.
  5. Get product manager lead experience

    Generally, it takes 8-10 years to become a product manager lead. The most common roles before becoming a product manager lead include product manager, senior product manager team lead and software engineer.
  6. Prepare your product manager lead resume

    When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your product manager lead resume.

    You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a product manager lead resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

    Choose from 10+ customizable product manager lead resume templates

    Build a professional product manager lead resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your product manager lead resume.
    Product Manager Lead Resume
    Product Manager Lead Resume
    Product Manager Lead Resume
    Product Manager Lead Resume
    Product Manager Lead Resume
    Product Manager Lead Resume
    Product Manager Lead Resume
    Product Manager Lead Resume
    Product Manager Lead Resume
  7. Apply for product manager lead jobs

    Now it's time to start searching for a product manager lead job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

    1. Browse job boards for relevant postings
    2. Consult your professional network
    3. Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
    4. Watch out for job scams

How did you land your first product manager lead job

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Average product manager lead salary

The average product manager lead salary in the United States is $138,531 per year or $67 per hour. Product manager lead salaries range between $99,000 and $192,000 per year.

Average product manager lead salary
$138,531 Yearly
$66.60 hourly

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How do product managers lead rate their job?

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Product manager lead reviews

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A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2023
Pros

Solve tough problems, work on agile teams, outlet for creativity,

Cons

high expectations, constantly evolving technology, broad range of topics to learn (product management specifics, industry, technology, software development methods


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A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2020
Pros

Its not a specific job, As a product manager your job responsibilities cover many different areas and that's what i love about it.

Cons

all other teams think that they are doing a task for you instead of thinking that they are part of a team on a project


profile
A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2019
Cons

Agendas

Pros

Making strategic decisions in product development is pretty exciting for me


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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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