Over the last year, we have seen a 42% increase in the amount of open digital product roles. It’s safe to say the demand for these executives is booming.
The battle for talent is fierce. Combine the market landscape with inflation, and many hiring teams and digital product executives are curious about compensation for these coveted executives.
We conducted a digital product compensation study to help hiring managers and candidates better understand the competitive landscape. This data will help inform hiring teams looking to build out a dedicated product team for their company, executives already in the industry, and individuals looking to shift into the product space.
Download the 2022 Digital Product Compensation Guide
How well does product pay?
Product roles allow for both vertical and horizontal career development and allow employees to develop a wide-ranging skillset that is applicable across multiple industries. Digital product positions provide a unique value proposition to anyone looking to pivot into the space, and companies are beginning to realize that a dedicated product team is integral to their success with regard to delivering better products to both their external customers and internal organization.
Our study looked to determine how product roles stacked up across not just various job titles, but also the market, by looking at the software, financial services, advertising and marketing, and other sectors.
We found that product positions, starting with manager-level roles, offer salaries that are not only highly competitive but extremely desirable, even before bonuses.
For example, product owners or managers tend to make salaries between $120-150k. For Vice Presidents, that number climbed to a little over a quarter of a million dollars per year.
These figures show that product roles not only allow for high compensation at manager and above level positions but also high room for growth in salary as one progresses up the organizational ladder.
It is also worth noting that professionals do not frequently land product roles immediately out of college. Typically, professionals transition into digital product positions from the technology, marketing, or business/sales side.
Key skills for product professionals
We have found these to be some of the most in-demand skills for digital product executives:
- Project management skills to handle multiple projects and pieces of the product
- Experience with CX strategies, including the ability to identify areas of improvement and incorporate CX strategies to increase customer satisfaction
- Executives with customer-facing or customer-driven experience contributes to a candidates’ attractiveness to a potential employer
- Understanding of software programs related to the product
In addition to these, being able to build meaningful relationships with colleagues, communication skills, and professional soft skills are all attributes of successful leaders within the space.
2022 Digital Product Compensation Study
As the world becomes increasingly digital, the product space is poised for continued growth. Download your copy of the 2022 Digital Product Compensation Study here.
