Job Responsibilities
Product Design and Development from product planning and business
case creation to vendor contract negotiation to product
implementation and market rollout.
Product Profitability and Lifecycle Analysis including
responsibility for pricing decisions and recommendations for
future product investments and product positioning.
"Product Expert" function that provides guidance to the sales
team on responses to proposals and bids for specific product
capabilities.
Due to the nature of the job (duties do not have a definite
start/end time), it is difficult to approximate the amount of
time spent on each responsibility. It primarily depends on the
work organization style of the individual.
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Job Requirements
It is rare for a product manager to have this as a starting job
right out of college. People end up in product management mostly
after years of experience in operations and back-end processing,
understanding the business and its drivers.
A possible shortcut is to join a bank's management trainee
program (where they recruit from Business or MBA programs) where
one starts out as a Junior/Associate Product Manager.
The most common degree for product managers is Economics,
however, there are several people with Business, Accounting and
Marketing degrees. About 20% have "other" degrees including an
assortment of odd ones such as "Actuarial Science" or "Criminal
Psychology." There is a strong correlation between intelligence
and success in this field.
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Uppers
The position is almost always "exempt" or "salaried" meaning that there are no
set work hours. The nature of the position allows for flexibility in schedule (I
am a night owl and work 9am-6pm whereas my boss is a morning bird working from
7am-4pm) and sometimes in work environment (some work remotely from home due to
specific needs). We are important enough to be included in many business planning
meetings and decisions, but are not the first point of contact in
disaster/contingency situations (no 3am calls to wake us up).
There is often a chance to interact with peers in other companies using similar
vendor products, so one can develop an extensive network of acquaintances and
future job contacts.
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Downers
Long work hours. Most people in this position average a 50 hour
or more work week (banking industry wide phenomenon).
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Lifestyle
Travel depends on the company. At a minimum, product managers can expect to
travel for business at least 10 times a year. Some of the larger banks have their
product managers traveling every week.
Product managers attend multiple industry conferences each year, depending on
their product specialty, interest, and company budget. It is a wonderful
opportunity to learn about new products and meet peers at competitor banks.
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Compensation
Base salary: $84,000
Incentive plan: 20% of base salary
Vacation: Varies for each company and salary grade level of
individual. Generally from 15-25 days each year.
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Advice to Jobseekers
Consider joining a management trainee program. I did not do this
myself (I went up through the ranks), but I know several people
that did. These programs give you an idea of what to expect in
various banking positions to see which one you will like best.
You then can select at the end of the program which business
unit/position you are most interested in pursuing.
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