As the level and intensity of competition are increasing, the demand for skilled individuals who can manage products and steer them to growth is increasing. In recent years, the need and demand of growth product managers has reached new levels. So, what is a growth product manager you ask?
Well, just like a traditional product manager, a growth product manager solves customer problems but focuses more on initiatives that drive the most significant business outcomes. Their objective is to help the company achieve its goals and sustain in the modern-day hyper-competitive market.
In this article, we explain what is a growth product manager, the roles and responsibilities they carry out, the skills you need to succeed in this role, and their impact on business operations. By reading this blog, you will understand why modern companies require a growth product manager.
Also read: The Product Manager Career Path
What is a Growth Product Manager?
A growth product manager (PGM or growth PM) is an expert who identifies, plans, and executes growth opportunities. Typically, they have a strong understanding of the user journey across the entire funnel and use it to enhance the customer experience and the company’s performance. They use their knowledge and experience to find ways to make the product more efficient and user-friendly.
GPMs drive a company’s growth by effectively implementing product development and marketing strategies. They are laser-focused on identifying and exploiting growth opportunities, unlike the traditional product managers who build and improve products.
The growth product managers use strategies to increase user acquisition, engagement, retention, and eventually company’s revenue.
These professionals are at the intersection of product development, marketing, and data analytics. They use data to make informed decisions, run experiments, and improve the customer journey. The eventual objective of a growth product manager is to increase the pace of growth, mostly through rapid iterations and experiments.
So, now that you have understood what is a growth product manager, let’s look at some of their key roles and responsibilities.Â
Roles and Responsibilities of a Growth Product Manager
In recent years, growth PM has emerged as one of the top non-tech roles in several modern companies. It is a highly specialized role, where one solely focuses on driving initiatives that drive the product’s and company’s growth.
This role is very different from the traditional product management role. The product managers are responsible for aligning the products with the company’s goals and targets.
Now, let’s dive into the key roles and responsibilities of a growth PM. These will help you understand what is a growth product manager.
- Market and customer research: One of the central responsibilities of a growth PM is to conduct market and customer research. They have to do this to understand the market and customers better. Such information helps them make informed decisions and ensure the product functions optimally and contributes to the company’s objectives.
- Engage with customers across the various stages of their journey: GPMs have to interact with customers at different stages of their journey. This is done to understand their pain points better and serve them effectively to enhance their overall experience. Growth product managers spend a major chunk of their time identifying and understanding customer problems and their journey. The better they understand the customer’s pain points, the easier it is for them to identify engagement opportunities.Â
- Optimize customer experience: Growth product managers have to understand the customer’s experience of using the product and identify opportunities to optimize their experience. This helps improve their overall satisfaction with the product and the company. For this, the growth PMs run different experiments from time to time and embed a culture of product-led growth in the business. By doing so, they build a growth mindset within the organization and focus on enhancing the overall customer experience.
- Analyze data to obtain new insights: The GPMs are data-driven by nature. This means they focus on using data to make decisions and implement changes and improvements across the organization. They, typically analyze user data, market trends, performance metrics, and more to identify growth opportunities. They thoroughly analyze the user behavior, funnel, and the results of A/B testing.
Also read: How to Become a Product Manager? Your Step-By-Step Guide
Key Skills to Becoming a Growth Product Manager
Now that you have understood what is a growth product manager and their key roles and responsibilities, it is time that you learn about the skills you need to land such a role.
The following are the key skills to become a growth product manager:
- Analytical thinking: The GPMs should have the ability to analyze data and determine actionable insights. They should be comfortable with using different analytical tools and have robust statistical knowledge. With this skill set, they can make better decisions that help fulfil the company’s goals and targets.Â
- Problem-solving: This is a very critical ability that a growth PM should have. Since they have to improve the product, optimize customer experience, and drive growth, they should be able to come up with unique solutions for such problems and scenarios.Â
- Communication: Since the growth product managers work in a team-based setting, they should be able to effectively communicate with different stakeholders. They must articulate their ideas and strategies. This skill is important also because they have to present data-driven findings, persuade stakeholders and improve collaboration across teams.Â
- Project management: The growth product managers should have expertise in project management. They have to run several experiments and initiatives simultaneously. As a result, strong project management skills are a must for GPMs. They must know how to prioritize tasks, manage timelines, and ensure projects are delivered as per the decided schedule.Â
Role of Growth Product Managers in Scaling Success
A significant increase in the demand for growth product managers in startups and tech companies, especially FAANG has been observed in recent years. In addition, companies that follow product-led growth strategies have shown keen interest in hiring experienced and skilled GPMs.
For such an individual, the primary stakeholder is the business itself, therefore, the focus is always on delivering measurable outcomes by making short-term improvements.
Companies have shifted their growth away from sales and marketing towards product teams. By hiring GPMs they can benefit from their unique understanding of the product, business goals, and users.
They are described as holistic product experts and therefore are in a position to influence the product roadmap and achieve growth. The growth product managers focus on growth metrics and continuous optimization, they help companies achieve sustainable growth.
Also read: Mastering Product Manager Interviews
Crack the GPM Interview with Interview Kickstart!
Now that you have understood what a growth product manager, their roles and responsibilities, key skills, and impact are, it is time to learn to crack their interview and land your dream role. Interview Kickstart’s Growth Product Manager Course will help you ace the interview and bring a new dimension to your career.
This course is designed and taught by FAANG+ instructors to equip you with the skills and expertise to secure high-paying GPM roles.
Enrol in this course to learn about growth metrics and analytics, user acquisition & activation, engagement and retention, and more. In this course, you will also learn how to create an ATS-clearing resume, optimize your LinkedIn profile, and build a strong online personal brand.
FAQs: What is a Growth Product Manager?
Q1. How Does a Growth Product Manager Differ from a Traditional Product Manager?
While both roles focus on product development, a Growth Product Manager (GPM) specifically targets growth metrics such as user acquisition, engagement, retention, and revenue. Traditional Product Managers often focus on broader aspects of product development, including feature prioritization, product design, and ensuring the product meets user needs.
Q2. What Industries Commonly Employ Growth Product Managers?
Growth Product Managers are commonly found in tech-driven industries such as software development, SaaS (Software as a Service), e-commerce, fintech, and digital media. However, any industry focusing on digital transformation and user-centric growth strategies can benefit from this role.
Q3. What are Some Common Tools Used by Growth Product Managers?
Growth Product Managers often use a variety of tools for data analysis, A/B testing, and project management. Common tools include Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Optimizely, Tableau, and SQL for data analysis, as well as project management tools like JIRA, Trello, and Asana.
Q4. How do Growth Product Managers Measure the Success of Their Strategies?
Success is typically measured through key performance indicators (KPIs) such as conversion rates, customer lifetime value (CLV), user retention rates, churn rates, and revenue growth. GPMs regularly monitor these metrics and adjust strategies based on the results of experiments and data analysis.
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