An Agile Analysis of 2008 Annual Product Management and Marketing Survey

Pragmatic Institute Logo and 3 verticals

[Originally published at Write That Down blog]

Agile.

That word means different things to everyone. To me, it really means being efficient – and leveraging the best parts of a team.

Of course, there are many different facets and “things” to agile – scrum, extreme, DSDM, getting real, etc… But what do these all mean to organizations and product managers?

Pragmatic Institute’s Annual Product Management and Marketing Survey can definitely shed some light on it for us. I’ve taken a pretty straightforward approach to this post, because hey — I’m a pretty pragmatic guy (no pun intended). I like to facts to be presented to me, with some analysis/thoughts/opinion around them and then I can draw my own conclusions.

So that’s what I’ve tried to do.

Just as a preface – I firmly believe in agile practices. And not just because they have cool terms and names like scrum and sprint and stories. But because they really do lend themselves well to where I have chosen to spend my career – in technology start-ups. Lightweight, super-effective, and while not everyone buys into the methodology, I’ve never seen the core of them fail a small company.

With that, let’s get to it.

 

Agile Product Manager Demographics

The first step is looking at the typical agile product manager. Let’s look at some demographics:

  • Average agile PM salary: $104k
  • Typical experience level for agile PMs: 6-10 years
  • The large majority have degrees – predominantly bachelor degrees and MBAs
  • Most define themselves as being somewhat technical
  • The average age is 39
  • Predominantly Male

This is very interesting. I think this may scare some people – especially the younger folks in the audience. Don’t be.

You don’t need to have 10+ years and be over 35 to be successful as an agile PM. However, I do think this proves there are a lot of organizations out there that newer PMs can get involved in – and there are some really experienced folks out there that can step up to the plate and be great mentors.

And that just means the world will get even better products as a result, which is always a good thing.

So now that we have an idea of the typical agile PM demographic, let’s get to the meat of the data – what do agile PMs spend their time on?

 

Agile Product Manager Activities

There are a couple of complexities to this aspect of my analysis. The first is understanding that I don’t believe in requiring a Product Owner to be present in order to successfully have agile-based product teams. That being said, they can play a tactically positive role based on the scale of the organization. Really, they need to be there to help the PM out so they can remain active in their most important activities – which should be strategic.

One of the biggest traps agile PMs can fall into is firefighting. Because things are happening so quickly, there is a strong tendency to really get bogged down in the day-to-day. So – let’s see if that’s happening.

I’m actually pretty shocked at how this turned out. I thought for sure I would see some huge variances in certain activities, so I’ll attack the general points.

 

product strategy for agile product managers vs non-agile product managers

 

There’s some great stuff in here – and it shows that PMs are spending their time in the right places, and it doesn’t appear as though agile PMs are fighting many more tactical fires than non-agile PMs. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me smile that almost 20% of folks that responded really aren’t spending time on the sales process.

I think this does show that agile PMs could be spending some more time on a roadmap, however. I always like to keep a high-level view of the backlog on-hand that gets updated regularly and discussed. In addition, I think all PMs could be spending some more time on defining and reviewing metrics. Those things are critical and they do tend to get ignored; I’m guilty of this as well.

Author

Other Resources in this Series

Most Recent

Article

Women Product Leaders and Changemakers

In the spirit of Women’s History Month, we brought together the insights of product management leaders and Pragmatic instructors Cindy Cruzado and Amy Graham in a comprehensive interview that sheds light on their experiences, challenges,...
Category: Leadership
Article

How to Write a Product Manager Resume

A comprehensive guide to writing a product manager resume with best practices, dos and don’ts for writing a resume, and templates.
Article

Top Reasons to Pursue a Product Management Certification 

Earning a product management certification is a strategic move for professionals immersed in product development, whether they're officially holding the title or managing related tasks. It’s also a smart step if you’re aspiring to move...
Article

How to Choose a Product Management Certification

Learn how to choose the best product management certification for your career development and what makes a certification worth it.
Article

How to Recognize and Overcome Imposter Syndrome at Work

Imposter syndrome is the internalized belief that your success is due to luck or other external factors rather than your skills, intelligence or qualifications. This false idea leaves you with a perpetual feeling of being...
Category: Career

OTHER ArticleS

Article

Women Product Leaders and Changemakers

In the spirit of Women’s History Month, we brought together the insights of product management leaders and Pragmatic instructors Cindy Cruzado and Amy Graham in a comprehensive interview that sheds light on their experiences, challenges,...
Category: Leadership
Article

How to Write a Product Manager Resume

A comprehensive guide to writing a product manager resume with best practices, dos and don’ts for writing a resume, and templates.

Sign up to stay up to date on the latest industry best practices.

Sign up to received invites to upcoming webinars, updates on our recent podcast episodes and the latest on industry best practices.

Subscribe

Subscribe