The 2011 Annual Product Management and Marketing Survey Results are in!

Every year for the last decade, Pragmatic Marketing has run a survey of the product management and marketing community in order to assemble a profile of common industry practices, team sizes, responsibilities, and compensation.  This year, I administered the survey, and we got some very interesting data!  Over 1800 of your peers participated, and for the first time explored some new areas around soft skills and compensation.  I hope that you find the results as interesting as we did.

First, you can download the complete report in all of it’s PDF glory from our website.  Here are some nuggets to whet your appetite:

• 52% of respondents report directly to the CEO/COO or a Product Management VP.  Product Management is becoming its own department in the majority of companies.
• There are only 0.48 Product Owners per Product Manager.  This tells us that Product Managers are being asked to take on both roles – a recipe for potential disaster.
• Over 80% of respondents indicated that they spend at least half a day per week (or more) in meetings with Engineering (such as daily standups).  Whereas only 30% indicated they spend at least half a day per week visiting sites without Sales.  Where is the time to be in the market?
• On the softer skills of product management, over 45% rated their ability to challenge and negotiate with executives to be a weakness, an opportunity for improvement.
• The average compensation is $98,068 plus a $13,501 annual bonus.

If you participated in this year’s survey – thank you!  Also, a special thanks to Steve Johnson for his valued assistance and guidance in assembling this year’s results.

If you have additional questions, drop them in the comments below and I will attempt to answer them.