Product Manager Survey Part 2 – UK Results "Product people - Product managers, product designers, UX designers, UX researchers, Business analysts, developers, makers & entrepreneurs 16 May 2014 True Equity, Product Management Jobs, product manager role, Remuneration, Mind the Product Mind the Product Ltd 605 Product Management 2.42
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Product Manager Survey Part 2 – UK Results

In part 2 of this series analysing the results of our Product Manager Survey, we’ll be looking at the breakdown of responses from people based in the UK. If you missed it, you can also read Part 1 of the survey results.

Some 40% of the responses came from the UK. Of those responses, 60% were from people with a role of Product Manager, with next most popular role being Senior Product Manager at 13% of responses.

Response by Role UK 2013 Survey Results

How do product managers work?

As it turns out, 53% (vs. 45% in our last survey) of product managers in the UK report directly to the CEO via a Product line, with another 21% reporting into technology. Unlike the previous survey, only 7% are reporting to marketing while 14% report into business. While I’d like to think this change is due to growing recognition of product is more than a bolt-on, I will err on the side that the changes are perhaps due to a greater number of responses.

Report Lines 2013 Survey

According to our survey, our respondents had an average of 4.8 years of experience in product management, a small rise on the previous survey of 4.4. A median developer-to-product manager ratio of 6 was reported, although there are a few with much larger ratios.

UK product managers tend to work in smaller companies with the median size 105 employees, compared to 205 employees per company across the overall survey. The UK company sizes chart shows a similar shape to the overall chart with the exception that it is lighter in terms of large companies.

Company Size UK 2013 Survey Results

What are product managers paid?

Like last year, we aimed to start building a base of data on salaries and begin tracking the changes.

An interesting change has occurred between this survey and the 2012 survey. The number of respondents reporting receiving equity increased to 43% from 35% last survey. This could be down to a number factors:

  1. The larger number of respondents in the UK reduced a bias in the previous survey results
  2. You all went away last year and negotiated to add equity to your package.
    1. From the data we have it is impossible to determine which of these two factors is at play. I suspect that larger number of respondents probably the greatest cause of the change but I also note that the number of product managers in smaller companies responding increased this year.

      equity_uk_2013

      Generally there isn’t a noticeable difference in median salaries between this survey and the previous one. Junior Product Manager role increased from approximately £29K last year to £31K this year. As the number of respondents with the Junior Product Manager role increased this year I suspect that it is mainly due to that.

      salary_by_role_uk_2013

      This survey, we included the position of Director of Product. What we’ve found is that in some companies the Director of Product is equivalent to VP of Product or CPO. The challenge is with the limited number of replies for the VP of Product and CPO it is hard to draw many conclusions. Suffice to say I think the Director, VP and CPO positions will be going through some shake out.

      It is interesting to see the salary median salary difference between Head of Product and Senior Product Manager is unchanged from last year’s salary. What this survey does show is a much lower bottom quartile of salary for Head of Products, in fact very close to the median salary of a Product Manager. My hypothesis is that these Head of Products are in smaller companies where the title is being used in lieu of salary. What do you think?

      Looking at moving to a new job? Check out the Mind the Product job board for some great roles!

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