2016 Product Managers Survey pma.la from

Prepared by Neal Cabage

Survey Summary

220 responses to the 2016 PMALA survey were received as of August 2016. Of those, 84% are practicing product managers. What follows are statistics about only those

practicing product managers, and their experiences, practicing Product in Los Angeles.

Date of Submissions June – August 2016

Total Responses 220 Submissions

Counted Submissions 185 Product Mgrs (84%)

Participation by Title The average respondent has 5.7 years experience, and we see a natural distribution pattern, with fewer people at higher ranked positions, consistent with what we’d expect in the market. Notably

though, VP and Head participation tends to be mostly from startups and smaller companies.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Associate Tech PO PM Sr PM Lead / Mgr Director VP / Head

i. The Individual

Age Distribution Average age of 34.7 years

0

5

10

15

20

25

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Gender Distribution

2:1 ratio between men and women. Slightly better than recent BLA statistics that 19% of engineers are women.

Female 35% Male

65%

Personality Type Intuitive personalities correlate strongly with Product Management, particularly INTJ.

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

18%

20%

Education Business degrees are more common than Engineering & CS degrees combined.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

High school

Some college

Bachelor's degree

Some master's

Master's degree

Doctoral degree

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

Art & Music

Business

Science

Social Science

Education

Engineering

Computer Science

Professional Certifications A majority of practicing Product Managers do not have a professional certifications.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Business Analyst

Analytics

Leadership

UX

Project Management (PMP/CSM)

Product Management / CSPO

None

Prior Career Track More people enter Product from the business they serve, than coming from an related skills-

based disciplines like Engineering or Project Management - particularly true in B2B .

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Marketing

Project Manager

User Experience / Design

College (Product was my first job)

Business/Technical Analyst

Engineering

Buiness (Subject matter expert)

ii. At Work

Where We Work Nearly half of the members of PMA.LA are based on the West Side; specifically Santa Monica.

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Inland Empire

Ventura County

Santa Barbara

San Diego

Long Beach / South Bay

Downtown

Hollywood / Beverly Hills

Orange County

Pasadena

San Fernando Valley

Santa Monica / West Side

Industry Enterprise software (tools to run the business rather than for users) came out on top this year- surprisingly even topping out Media & Entertainment. These two were flipped in the last survey.

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

Type of Product SaaS /PaaS products dominate with 1/3 of all respondents. Consumer electronics and consumer

packaged goods (CPG) are low due to the focus on PMA.LA on the digital/tech product community.

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

Company Size Startups are the surprising leader in Product employment. Companies in the 1k – 10k range follow,

then returning to companies under 200 and 500 employers again for #3 and #4 position.

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

Startup (<50 ppl)

51-200

201-500

501-1000

1001-10,000

Greater than 10,000

Reporting Line of the Product Org

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Other

General Manager

Chief Tech Officer

Directly to President / CEO

Chief Product Officer (Head/SVP)

A majority (77%) of companies have either executive Product representation at the CxO level or report directly to the CEO.

What I own…

A majority “own” a Product or a platform. Feature or initiative ownership may exist on large products/platforms, where team shares ownership.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Customer Problem

Feature

Strategic Initiative

Platform

Product

Dev Process More than half practice 2 week sprint Scrum, with a dynamic story backlog rather than PRDs.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Other

Scrum (1 week)

Waterfall (stage-gated, Gantt)

Kanban (ticket queue)

Wagile (2 wk sprints w/ PRD)

Scrum (2 wk sprints no PRD)

Spend the Most Time On … What the typical Product Manager (associate, PM, Sr PM) spends the most time on.

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

Market Research

Product Design (UX/UI)

ScrumMaster / Project Mgmt

Product Operations

Product Strategy

Requirements

Tools Used for the Job A majority of Product Managers use the Atlassian tools (Confluence & Jira), compared to other

project management tools such as Rally, Pivotal, or Trello. Use of Google Docs, roadmapping and wireframing tools appear to be additive, with project mgmt tools being the core toolset.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Atlassian / Jira

Google Docs

Aha Trello Other Pivotal Product Plan

Rally Balsamiq Asana Office & PPT

Road Munk

iii. Sentiment

I’m the CEO of My Product

I somewhat agree

I somewhat disagree

I strongly agree

I strongly disagree

47% 24%

12%

16%

71% strongly or somewhat agree that they are the CEO of their product.

Product Mgmt is valued Within My Company

I somewhat agree

I somewhat disagree

I strongly agree

I strongly disagree

41% 44%

10%

5%

85% strongly or somewhat agree that Product Mgmt is a valued within their organization.

I make a Meaningful Contribution

I somewhat agree

I somewhat disagree

I strongly agree

I strongly disagree

57% 37%

1%

5%

90% feel they make a meaningful contribution in their role.

What I like the MOST about my role Ownership, having an impact, and solving meaningful problems are key for being in Product.

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

Ownership & influence

Solving Problems

Working with Team

Having Impact

Creativity Executing Strategy People Interaction

Learning Variety of Tasks

What I like the LEAST about my role

Politics, bureaucracy, rate of progress and tactical ‘block & tackling’ that distract from strategic planning and deeper understanding of customer needs are among the greatest challenges.

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

18%

Politics Bureaucracy Blocking & Tackling

Not Empowered

Lack of Resources

Pushing Engineering

Lacking Vision /

Leadership

Lack of Role Definition

Chaotic Plate

Spinning

Limited Access to

Data

About pma.la Product Managers Association of Los Angeles

Networking

Learning

Insights

ü  LA’s Product Community

ü  1,900 Members

ü  Non-Profit Organization

ü  Quarterly Meetups & Workshops

ü  Bi-Annual ProductCamp

What is PMA.LA ? Product Managers Association of Los Angeles is a professional group that connects

thousands of digital Product professionals throughout Southern California.

http://pma.la

Meetups Network and learn what

Other companies are doing In product & innovation.

Workshops Learn valuable skills

From thought leaders in the field, from Agile to UX and

market strategy.

http://pma.la/join-us/

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