Product manager salary in India is a topic of interest for various aspiring product managers in the country. The career path has a high scope and offers great growth opportunities to those in the field.
This may surprise you, but the one common thing between successful CEOs like Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Marissa Mayer (Yahoo), Susan Wojcicki (Youtube), and Sundar Pichai (Google) is that they were all product managers at one time.
A product manager’s job entails understanding consumers' needs, defining the life-cycle of a product, and leading their team to develop user-friendly products.
Since a product manager is pivotal to a company’s success, their demand is always high and companies across the globe offer high-paying salaries to deserving candidates, and Indian companies are not an exception to this.
With increasing demand, the product manager has become a high-in-demand job role.
If you too are on the path of becoming a product manager, this blog is for you.
Read on to discover the role, responsibilities, demand, and scope of product managers, followed by interesting insights on product managers' salaries in India based on location, experience, and company.
Why does the product management industry have high salaries?
Product manager salary in India is high as it is one of the most coveted job profiles in India.
They play a major role throughout the lifecycle of a product. From ideation to the final implementation, post-implementation bugs, and updates, product managers handle it all.
Recruiters in every organization look for the best candidates and are willing to offer high salaries to those with relevant skills and experience, making it one of the highest-paid industries in India.
Who is a product manager?
A product manager is a person at the center of User experience (UX), tech, and business development. The role demands one to identify the customer's needs and fulfill them through a product or feature while keeping the business goals in mind.
Product managers play a crucial role in bringing products to life. They are highly organized, technically skilled people who possess critical-thinking abilities and troubleshooting skills.
The day-to-day responsibility of a product manager varies in each company, but their main job is to build a product while keeping in mind the consumer interest and business goals.
A good product manager handles the entire process of product development and ensures smooth and error-free implementation of the same.
What qualifications does a product manager need?
The basic requirement to become a product manager in India is:
- Relevant bachelor’s or master’s degree in Business administration, management, computer science, engineering, marketing, economics, or a related field.
- 2-5 years of field experience in product development, testing, or product designing.
- Knowledge of MS-Excel, Google Office suite, and related software.
What is the career path of a product manager?
There are several career trajectories for a product manager. From being an associate in the field to leading a team of product managers, the scope is vast.
To offer a better understanding of crucial job profiles in the industry, here is a list of potential roles that can be stepping stones in a product manager’s career path
Associate product manager
This is the first step towards becoming a product manager. Associate product managers are responsible for collecting research data, market research, coordination with stakeholders, conceptualizing and developing new features.
They work directly with product managers for the effective completion of projects. Here are some of the roles and responsibilities of associate product managers:
- Assist in product development and coordinate with operations, management, and development teams to complete projects within budget and timeline
- Understand product operations and work closely with other teams to ensure seamless product release and customer support
- Assist in building new products and enhancing the already existing ones
- Keep a check on project progress and develop plans to mitigate potential risks
- Find marketing ideas that match current trends, market environment, and other such factors.
- Check the product for defects and find appropriate solutions
The average salary of an associate product manager in India is ₹ 12.5 Lacs and ranges between ₹ 4.6 Lacs to ₹ 25.0 Lacs.
Also see, associate product manager jobs here.
Product manager
The next step is to become a product manager. While the assosciate product managers set milestones for projects, a product manager plans the roadmap, works on strategy and shares the vision for product in question.
The roles and responsibilities of a product manager vary in each organisation and sometimes even on products. To find more about what a product manager does and product manager salary in India, keep reading!
Senior product manager
Senior product managers are experienced in product management and have proven experience in the field of product development and its lifecycle management.
To apply for this role, you will need a background in program management and software development, some experience as a product manager, and a BSc or BBA degree in computer science or related fields.
Some of the basic responsibilities of a senior product manager are:
- Identify product roadmaps and lead product managers
- Use feedback from market research, teams, and devising strategy to overcome shortcomings
- Coordinate with internal teams to supervise smooth functioning of a new product or the updates of an existing one
- Identify the right direction for a product’s development in sync with the vision of the company
- Observe the product use and suggest creative solutions to deal with discrepancies
The average salary of a senior product manager in India is 24.2 lacs and ranges between ₹ 8.2 Lacs to ₹ 51.0 Lacs.
Also see, senior product manager jobs
Lead product manager/ Product lead
The role of a lead product manager entails almost similar job responsibilities as that of a product manager. But they are also responsible for guiding and mentoring the product managers.
A product manager lead holistically looks after every aspect of a product, which is taken care of by the assigned product manager.
The role of a product lead is best suited to someone with a technical background who has in-depth knowledge of the product and the company’s vision to align the product with its purpose at heart.
The roles and responsibilities of a product lead include:
- Responsible for developing new products and staying on top of all the product managers handling various aspects/ features of the same
- Interact with the development, marketing, and research team to place the product in the market and promote it to the right target audience
- Focus on the hands-on product development and distribution
- Provide extensive knowledge of a product and its user segment to the stakeholders
- Work closely with senior product managers, product managers, and product owners to guide them through the product development process of new initiatives and enhance the performance of existing products
The average salary of a lead product manager in India is ₹ 27.6 Lacs and ranges between ₹ 9.3 to ₹ 94.0 Lacs
Also see, lead product manager jobs
Principal product manager (PPM)
Principal product managers are the senior most product managers on the individual contributor track.
Unlike other roles mentioned above, they do not manage product managers but are solely responsible for managing important segments of product planning and strategy.
They work on complex tasks that need an in-depth understanding of the product, business strategy, and audience behavior. Some of the responsibilities of a Principal product manager are:
- Define portfolio building practices to establish set methods across divisions of companies
- Research, identify and assess the ROI and product feasibility and work towards increasing it manifold
- Position the product in the market and identify effective marketing strategy in collaboration with internal teams
- Have a clear understanding of the problem it solves for the consumer and make constant efforts to make the product more efficient for the user
- Data-driven analysis through SQL to understand the effectiveness of features, establish a development process, and problem-solving
- Awareness of products shortcomings and customer reaction to set a well-researched, growth driven roadmap
- Establish a strategy and KPIs for the product to put forward suggestions and execution plans to leadership
The average salary of a principal product manager in India is ₹ 32.0 Lacs and ranges between ₹ 18.4 to ₹ 95.3 Lacs.
Also see, principal product manager jobs
What is the role and job description of a product manager?
A product manager is a person responsible for the product throughout its lifecycle. From the conception of an idea to marketing, it is the product manager that defines and prioritizes every step of product development.
Product managers set the vision for the process and work closely with tech, marketing, research, and other internal teams to ensure the established goals are met.
The job description for the post of product manager entails:
- Developing easy to use, interactive products to improve the user experience
- Market research and analysis of consumer needs; use customer feedback as insights
- Analyzing market competition in detail to build a roadmap to make innovative products
- Leading a team of product designers and act as a link between leadership and them
- Establish a mission, vision, and strategy to bring the product to life
- Making product-related decisions aligning the interests of all stakeholders to ensure effective decision making
- Innovating new products and adding features and updates in the already existing ones to make them better
- Developing short- and long-term product sales projections, data, and assessments.
What is the scope of working as a product manager?
Product managers are at the center of all business strategies today. Their job is extremely crucial, and business owners realize that a good product manager can do wonders for the success of their venture.
It has led to an organically evolving rise in demand for product managers in India, making it a coveted position in the job market today.
With the constant innovation in the Indian IT ecosystem to create products for social evolution, the scope of working as a product manager is getting better by the minute. An article by ProductLeadership stated:
India’s B2B software product industry has grown 20% in USD terms and 28% in INR terms between October 30, 2014, to June 30, 2015. If you have toyed with the idea of becoming a product manager, the time is now.
And this was back in 2015!
Product management is one of the most popular industries and expects to have 22 million job openings across the globe, whereas India has a mere 20,000 product managers today. No wonder product manager salary in India is so high!
This gap opens a plethora of opportunities for those aspiring to become product managers in the future, making it one of the best fields to approach.
What is the salary of a product manager?
Source: AmbitionBox
According to AmbitionBox , the average salary of a product manager is ₹ 15.4 Lacs and ranges anywhere between ₹ 5.0 Lacs to ₹ 35.0 Lacs
The salary of a product manager can vary due to several factors like location, skills, experience, company, and so on. Let us find more about it.
What is the salary of a product manager based on location?
Product manager salary in India can vary in different cities as factors like cost of living, IT development, house rents, etc., play a crucial role in determining the salary structure.
The national average product manager salary in India is ₹ 15.4 lacs.
Let us take a look at the salary insights of product managers in 4 metropolitan cities of India:
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Product manager salary in Mumbai ranges between ₹ 5.5 Lacs to ₹ 25.0 Lacs with an average salary of ₹ 11.8 Lacs.
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Product manager salary in New Delhi ranges between ₹ 4.8 Lacs to ₹ 28.4 Lacs with an average salary of ₹ 12.3 Lacs.
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Product manager salary in Bengaluru ranges between ₹ 6.8 Lacs to ₹ 37.0 Lacs with an average salary of ₹ 20.0 Lacs
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Product manager salary in Pune ranges between ₹ 5.0 Lacs to ₹ 31.4 Lacs with an average salary of ₹ 14.9 Lacs.
What is the salary of a product manager based on experience?
The average salary of a product manager varies depending on the years of professional experience. To help you understand better, we have divided the experience levels into the following bands:
1. The average salary of a product manager for entry-level experience (1-3 years) is INR 12.0 LPA
Source: AmbitionBox
2. The average salary of a product manager with mid-level experience (4-8 years) is INR 15.0 LPA
Source: AmbitionBox
3. The average salary of a product manager with senior-level experience (9+ years) is INR 16.0 LPA
Source: AmbitionBox
What is the salary of a product manager based on the company?
All companies have different factors which determine the salary range for a position.
Product manager salaries in India also vary based on factors like complexity of the project, team size, nature of the company, etc.
Here is the list of a few popular companies along with the salaries they offer for the position of a product manager:
- ICICI Bank: INR 11.9 LPA
- HDFC Bank: INR 10.8 LPA
- Amazon: INR 32.6 LPA
- Axis Bank: INR 11.2 LPA
- ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company: INR 10.1 LPA
- Kotak Mahindra Bank: INR 10.8 LPA
- Flipkart: INR 29 LPA
Source: AmbitionBox
Top paying companies
The compensation a company pays its employees depends on their turnover, quarterly revenues, market situation, etc. While some companies pay handsome compensation, others may offer comparatively lesser salaries.
Let’s take a look at some of the top-paying companies for product managers.
- OYO Rooms: INR 21.7 LPA
- PayTM: INR 20.3 LPA
- Reliance Jio: INR 14.3 LPA
- Bajaj Finserv: INR 12.7 LPA
- IDFC First Bank: INR 12.4 LPA
Source: AmbitionBox
Conclusion
In this article, we have tried to extensively discuss product manager salaries in India along with details about varying salary trends based on experience, city, companies, etc.
The demand, scope, and career growth for product management seem promising and we can say this with certainty that those aspiring to become product managers can expect great opportunities, well-paid salaries, and exposure on their journey ahead.
All the best!
Note: The compensation mentioned in this article is average salaries based on each category and is subject to change in the future.