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what does an associate product manager do hi there my name is josh and i'm one of the founding partners here at product manager hq i'm also the head of product and founder of a software company called squibbler and today i'm going to dive into one of the most important and widely discussed careers in product development which is that of the associate product manager i'll go ahead and share with you some key insights on the roles and responsibilities of an associate product manager also be touching on some of the other important aspects of this type of role such as salary offers as well as possible career paths but first don't forget to hit that subscribe button to get direct notifications whenever i post new and insightful videos like this one to the pmhq channel and that way you'll always be guaranteed to get your fair share of high quality instructional content from real product management experts that being said let's go ahead and jump right into the video first and foremost it's crucial that we answer the million dollar question here what does an associate product manager do the easiest way to describe the responsibilities of an associate product manager is to think of the role as that of a standard product manager except at a lower level an associate product manager is responsible for collecting product data doing customer research coordinating with stakeholders and developing new product features they work with one or more product managers and enable them to do their work more effectively as an associate product manager you should be doing both supporting the more senior product managers on your team while also learning as much as you can from them plus you have to collaborate with the product development team and other stakeholders while assisting them every step of the way more importantly associate product managers have to develop new features in existing products now remember that associate product manager is a beginner level position this means that you probably won't get to work on a new product all by yourself planning and overseeing the development of an entire product from scratch is still the primary responsibility of the senior product managers however you will have to support them by gathering research and participating in the product launch in doing so associate product managers also have to develop product strategies from time to time associated project managers will accompany the product and project managers and stand up scrum meetings to review what has been done what needs to be redone and what's next on the list now that we've looked at the responsibilities that associate product managers are expected to carry out let's go ahead and take a look at the background that most if not all of these professionals tend to have in order to seamlessly slip into this type of role most associate product managers have a bachelor's degree in business management marketing computer science or a related field but again it is an entry level position therefore while it's always great to have previous experience as an associate product manager in another company recruiters do not expect it nor is it a typical prerequisite for the role that said you do have candidates who have completed one or more internships in product management and needless to say these professionals who are fortunate enough to have internships under their belt stand a better chance at securing a job right off college however from the point of view of a recruiter we're all mostly thinking about potential when filling this role so if you're thinking about applying for a position as an associate product manager then go ahead and apply as long as you come to the job with some previous understanding of the customer and their needs you are bound to stand out from other candidates now let's explore a bit further those key skills that candidates need to perform well at the job one of the main ones is that they need the ability to analyze competitive behavior and study the industry analyzing your competitors is a crucial aspect of any product strategy doing so will enable you to understand your competitor's strengths and weaknesses in comparison to your own thus making it easier to find existing gap in the market that you can capitalize on this is even more important in the long run as this type of insight will also teach you how to outdo your competitors so you can keep your customers attention and make your product stand out similarly being competent with web technologies is also important for an associate product management position as you know software applications are specially developed to manage customer relations which in turn allows the marketing department sales department and technical teams to keep track of the product success speaking of web technologies it's fundamental to have knowledge of specific tools that are commonly used in product development and management some of these include trello and jira which are strongly associated with agile project management while it is true that in all likelihood each company will have its own preference for web tools the more you are familiar with the more of an asset you will be seen by an organization where you work that brings me to the next point i would like to stress which is management skills namely of the product lifecycle having sound product lifecycle management skills has many benefits such as getting the product to market faster putting a higher quality product on the market improving safety increasing sales opportunities and reducing errors in waste as an associate product manager these skills will help you to support more senior product personnel in their overall responsibilities now let's take a closer look at the various responsibilities that associate product managers are expected to carry out beginning with their involvement in the product pipeline which is in effect the process through which the product idea and vision are brought to life the product pipeline consists of four core stages brainstorming development testing and launch associated product managers play crucial roles in every step and the support they provide to both engineering and marketing teams a project pipeline usually begins with brainstorming to come up with new ideas for possible products a company can add to its product portfolio needless to say an associate project manager plays a role in this stage assisting the rest of the product vision team and identifying possible product ideas once brainstorming has yielded possible new products the development stage begins different departments may contribute at this point aiding with the design creation and analysis of the new product at any point along this stage the company may decide it is no longer worthwhile to pursue a product for whichever possible reason an associate product manager has to gather market research and analyze it to help the organization make these decisions once a product has been developed the firm can test it this often starts with small group testers such as a focus group the associate product manager will then lend his or her support to the organization at this stage being in terms of organizing these testing sessions or participating directly in them in whatever capacity that they're most needed in another key responsibility that associate product managers are expected to carry out is in developing or improving upon product features since this role demands that you participate in market analysis associate product managers are expected to have a clear understanding of what customers need in doing so they assist in introducing features at the customer's demand and will subsequently love in the long run as you can see there are multiple steps in this process let's explain this by taking the example of an apparel company in the fashion industry product development usually begins the old-school way with a hand-drawn sketch or the digital equivalent made using a program like procreate this step is primarily done by designers but an associate product manager will go ahead and conduct the market research to determine which trends are in vogue these days our print in the season does monochrome seem to be attracting customers interest or are people more inclined towards statement shoulders they will then communicate the ideas with the designers who will then put them on paper a sketch is then developed into a sample using a pattern maker or seamstress during the prototyping phase a size set is created which means a range of samples with different measurements for each size you want to sell in this step the associated product manager will coordinate with the stakeholders getting insights into the size guides the company wants to create for instance a company might want to cater to plus sizes or make predominantly sustainable apparel once the size set is finalized it is put into production during the production process an associate product manager assists in aligning the product requirements with business goals for instance a company might want to appear as a strong advocate for sustainability thus an associate product manager will ensure the production phase is in ance with sustainable practices in this way they also help curate a story for the brand all the while collaborating with marketing teams as discussed an important role in associate product managers job is conducting market research market research is essential not only for new products but also for existing services and concepts if a software company wants to scale up sales or introduce a new feature it requires knowledge on where customers stand with respect to the current product version and whether they're ready for changes if you look at the image on your screen you'll see identifying market trends on top if i take the same apparel company example forward the market trends will revolve around fashion prints or solids neutrals or bright colors did a famous celebrity wear something from the 90s bringing the trend back you see all these things matter when conducting market research here and also how custom are the customer segments to understanding software today if they're more accustomed to understanding software you might need less tutorials if you're working on a software product and secondly we have competitor analysis companies always need to be on top of their game making sure they are providing something better than their competition when apple introduces dual cameras samsung releases a phone with four cameras that's how competition works and associate product managers need to make sure they are studying the competitors additionally associate product managers also have to help in creating pricing strategies for example a shirt at zara maybe thirty dollars while a sure let's say gucci is around seven hundred dollars the associate product manager at both companies has to look at different factors to come up with the final pricing for example they have to consider the quality of the product since associated product managers have already conducted market research they know at what price the consumer will be comfortable buying their company's product similarly associate product managers also have to look at their competition when determining the prices and these are just some of the many aspects that associate product managers need to bear in mind when conducting market research associated product managers also have to create and implement product backlogs think of a backlog as a to-do list but for products a product backlog is a list of the new features changes to existing features bug fixes infrastructure changes or other activities that a team may deliver in order to achieve a specific outcome some steps include studying technical and business requirements determining performance by doing tests researching the market weeding out defects and supporting the various marketing processes therefore an associate product manager has to help the product owner and backlog refinement it's a process through which the product owner and some or all the rest of the team review items on the backlog to ensure the backlog contains appropriate items that they are prioritized and that the items at the top of the backlog are ready for delivery now that you know enough about the role of an associate product manager let's talk about salaries ing to pay scale the average base pay of an associate product manager in the us is about 81 250 and that's based on close to 2 000 salary profiles the base salary ranges from 50k all the way up to close to 100k with 71k being the median salary additionally here associate product managers enjoy annual bonuses ranging from 1k to upwards to 10k ing to payscale's reports the average salary of an associate product manager depends on their experience level an entry-level associate product manager earns five percent less than the national average while someone in their early career stage is only one percent behind the national based pay as their experience increases the associate product managers start earning more than average as with any other field associate product management always affords professionals avenues for growth enabling you to transition to other job titles such as that of a product or product marketing manager the career path for associate product manager is quite progressive considering most nmr promoted to products managers in just a few years after that they can advance to senior product management professionals these two seem to be the most common career paths for associate product managers after getting into managerial positions they can become vps or cpos in a few years time ensure associate product management is a good place to start if you want to get your feet wet in product management the majority of people in product management start their careers as associate product managers if you want to ace your product management interviews sign up then for one of pmhq's certification courses that we have and we'll walk you through that interview process how to build your resume and also a lot of the key concepts that you need to know and product strategies that you can put in place as well as how to work with different stakeholders on your team in this way you'll have a good understanding of how to succeed once you land the job and you can answer a lot of questions that have to do with wireframing and prototyping conducting usability analysis creating a product roadmap writing a comprehensive product spec as well as popular development methodologies and if you could do all those things you'll have a much more likely time at getting a better associate product manager job as well as landing the job in the first place now before i end this video i want you to answer a quick question just to see if you are listening as an associate product manager what do you market and launch the product or merely assist in the process now feel free to go ahead and answer this question in the comments below and while you're at it don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you can get notified whenever we release new videos about product management so you can have your youtube feed filled with helpful material for your career and that said i'll go ahead and see you in some of our other videos and i wish you the best of success in your career journey and product management cheers