It isn’t easy being in product management and marketing, according to the 1,300 respondents who took part in Pragmatic Institute’s 15th annual survey, conducted between Nov. 19 and Dec. 19, 2014.
It isn’t whether you win or lose. It’s all about how you play the game. In football, endless hours are spent reviewing the game tape of every win and loss. Product teams need to take a page from that playbook. On average, respondents spent only two hours per month on win/loss, with just 31 percent of respondents saying that performing win/loss analysis was their responsibility.
Clock management. There just aren’t enough hours in a regular work day to take care of all of their go-to-market, technical and sales-readiness responsibilities. Respondents reported that they work an average of 29 hours a month managing their emails and 39 hours in meetings. And they’re only able to spend 28 percent of their time on strategic activities.
In some ways, we’ve got a ways to go. While there is a stronger, more consistent understanding of product management and marketing responsibilities, we found a gap between how important certain activities are considered and how well they are being performed. In particular, while the importance of gathering and understanding market problems was universally recognized, it was also among the lowest-rated activities in terms of performance. Because market facts should be the basis for every product and go-to-market decision, this has a direct and adverse effect on every artifact and activity downstream.
Salary cap. The average salary remained at $100,000-$120,000 annually. Location was a contributing factor to whether they fell above or below the average. In Australia, the average was $136,000, followed by the United States average of $117,000 and $106,000 in Germany. India was at the other end of the spectrum with a $70,000 average, followed by New Zealand’s $75,000.
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