Associate product manager role and responsibilities

Back in 2016 I had a chat with my co-founder about me leaving the startup I had built with her for the last two years. After an emotional conversation, I packed my bags and came back to my city in India from Delhi where my startup was. For three months I had no idea what to do.

As a failed co-founder, I didn’t know which direction I should go. I had studied computer science, but I wasn’t keen on going back to coding since that wasn’t something I enjoyed. I remember getting an email from a recruiter saying, “Hi Aniket, we like your profile. We are looking for an associate product manager at Paytm, would you like to explore the role?”

Back then, I had no idea what this role was. I quickly did a Google search and it didn’t take me long to realize how perfect this role was for me. An intersection of technology, business, and design, wow. I researched a bit more to understand the details of the role. That was my first touchpoint in product management.

I turned up for the interview and to my surprise, cracked it. This specific role was titled an associate product manager. Now that I’ve risen to the level of senior product manager and can connect the dots, I understand the importance of associate product manager.

In this article, you’ll learn more about the importance of associate product manager and how product management can leverage the importance of this role.

What is an associate product manager?

Generally, an associate product manager is an entry-level role. It’s meant for individuals who don’t have product management experience, but can grow into this role via training and mentorship. This is also the first step of the product management hierarchy.

APMs (associate product managers) work a lot on the execution part of the product as compared to the roadmap, strategy, and vision, which are the responsibilities of the product manager, senior product manager, and head of product. In this role, an individual gains a lot of knowledge about how to work with engineering, design, and other stakeholders and more importantly, how to work with the users so that once they progress to product manager, they can handle the responsibilities of roadmap and execution on their own:

What are the responsibilities of an associate product manager?

An associate product manager is primarily responsible for the execution along with the product manager and making sure that the product succeeds. The following are also key responsibilities:

• Collaboration with stakeholders — This is where my role started. APMs need to be able to talk with stakeholders, understand their ways of communication, and document their needs
• Understanding the product — The other part that went hand in hand with collaboration with stakeholders was understanding the product. This includes doing market research, talking to the customers, understanding the architecture of the solutions and their impact, and gathering the requirements
• Execution — APMs help the product manager in execution by planning the sprint and joining the stand-ups and retrospectives and making sure that all the tickets are well-written, clear, and ready to be picked up in the next sprint

Do product management teams require an associate product manager?

This question isn’t as straightforward as it seems simply because every company, team, and product is different. Paytm was a ten thousand person company back then and there were more than 15 highly scaled products. It had a dire need for PMs who could just focus on execution.

So for Paytm, it made total sense to hire an APM. But would a startup that had just found its product-market fit need an APM? Perhaps not, because in such cases the product manager is focused on the execution, roadmap, and sometimes even strategy (if the company has just a handful of PMs).

However, there are some crucial benefits of hiring an APM:

• Support for product management teams — An APM can help product management especially when the other PMs are out of their bandwidth. They can take care of lesser-priority work like documentation, taking care of bugs, and implementation of easier features. This can help the PMs and SPMs to focus on high-priority work like prioritization, strategy, and talking to the users
• Talent development — Since APMs require training and mentorship, they can provide a ground for PMs and SPMs to practice leadership and move to the next step of the ladder. They can help them become future leaders and build a pipeline of talent
• Focus on users — APMs can help the PMs in the user journey and analysis. This can help the organization double down on the users. This also helps the users to gain first-hand experience of talking to the users

Experience and skills required to be an associate product manager

As mentioned in one of the sections above, an associate product management role is an entry-level role. So no company will expect you to have a product management role. In my case, I had a startup and that already gave me positive points.

Additionally, I had insights about working directly with the users and stakeholders like engineering and design. And so you must have done some level of stakeholder management. Here are some more detailed insights about the qualifications of this role.

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Educational background

I studied computer science and the majority of the applications who get into this role are from this background. However, there are countless examples of people who came from arts or commerce backgrounds and still managed to get into this role. Ideally, a bachelor’s degree in technology or commerce would help you crack an interview call. While a master’s degree is not required, it’s always advantageous.

Work experience

When I got the offer, I had a total of five years of work experience as a business analyst and a co-founder. Today, this could vary from company to company, but roles where you had some touchpoints to stakeholder management, collaboration with other teams, and user research would already give you a lot of positive points.

Skills

I believe more than work experience and educational background, skills are what will help you get into this role. Hard skills such as the use of LogRocket or any other tool, understanding APIs/technical architecture, use of work management tools such as JIRA, Trello, etc., and wireframing tools such as Figma are highly appreciated. And then some important soft skills such as problem-solving, detail-oriented, collaboration, and time management can help you secure a job in this role.

How to get into an associate product manager role

This is my favorite part simply because back then I tried multiple ways to get into this role. Unfortunately, there is no one way and I highly recommend trying and testing different ideas. Here are a few of them:

• Side projects — Having a side project that demonstrates the skills I shared in the above section can go a long way. This already tells the hiring manager that you not only have the skills but you have used them in reality. Pick up a problem in the space you are interested in and create a small product around it
• Software development/design — These roles can also help you get into an APM role since it’s assumed that you are well aware of the tech/design side of product management. These are important parts of product management and knowing them well can already give you a strong head start
• Portfolio — Create a website using WordPress and share your accomplishments as case studies. This includes what problem you worked on, how you identified the complexity of the problem, how you found the solution and what was the impact. This will help you showcase your skills and responsibilities
• Product management certification — This is the least recommended suggestion simply because although certifications help you learn the theoretical part, the magic is in the practical part. Do your due diligence before enrolling in one

I also highly recommend being creative to get into an APM role. These days creating podcasts, videos, and blogs is always an interesting way to get into an APM role.

Salary expectations for an APM role

Salary expectations are a little tricky because the salary of an APM would widely depend on the geographical location the person is in. The salaries in the US are very different from the salaries in Vietnam. That said, I have tried to give a broad analysis of the current trends in some of the key locations around the world:

Please note that this is not necessarily accurate since the data is gathered from various sources such as Glassdoor and talking to APMs.

Hiring the right APM

Hiring the right APM is extremely important to have good efficiency and build customer-friendly products. Here are some key points to consider:

• Job description — Everything starts from here. If the expectations aren’t mentioned here, you’ll end up with the wrong people on the team. So make sure to outline the responsibilities and more importantly the expectations
• Identify key skills — Don’t ignore someone just because the person doesn’t come from an engineering background. Evaluate the key skills the person has based on experience. This requires reading through the resume and identifying these skills even if they aren’t mentioned exclusively
• Cultural fit — This might sound like an easy point, but in my experience, this is one of the most important points. This doesn’t mean the candidate has to say yes to everything that they have been told or that they have to be a rebel. But do the candidate’s values align with the company’s values?
• Problem-solving skills — Half of the time this is what a PM does. And to be successful in product management, an APM needs to have strong product management skills. Sharing some real-life problems and understanding how the candidate responds is a great way to evaluate this part of an APM
• Growth potential — And lastly, how willing the candidate is to learn about new methodologies, technologies, and processes? This can help you understand if the APM can move to PM quickly or will the candidate require a lot of training

Best practices in onboarding an APM

After hiring, it’s important to focus on the onboarding process to ensure the conditions for success are present within the organization. Keep the following best practices in mind:

• Support from the right hardware and software — This is the first point. Without the right hardware and software, the APM is paralyzed. So you want to support the person right from day one by providing all the necessary equipment
• Orientation — Let the first weeks be all about the company, the product, and most importantly the users. Explain the values of the company, the strategic long-term goals, and the key departments and teams
• Shadowing and product deep-dives — Provide brief details of the product the APM is assigned. This is where a strong document will be helpful. Let the APMs read the document and use the product (if it’s already live)
• Product/project assignment — Once the above steps are done, it is time to assign the project. Make sure the responsibilities and expectations are clearly defined
• Continuous check-in — Once the APM starts working on the project, keep regular check-ins in place (ideally, every week). Create a career growth plan that includes what the APM needs to do to move up the ladder

Key takeaways

As someone who started his career as an APM, I believe this was the best thing that happened to me. If you are an aspiring product manager and don’t know where to start, I highly recommend you go through this article and get into an APM role. You will learn a lot about this very different profession and if you’re a good learner you’ll find yourself climbing up the career path.

For hiring managers, I highly recommend being clear on the responsibilities and expectations and deciding the salary range accordingly. This role can be a great value add and a strong asset if you find the right person for your team.

If you’re an aspiring product manager trying to get into APM and are facing difficulty, feel free to comment and I’ll help you out.

Featured image source: IconScout

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