OVERVIEW:

FINDINGS:

• With Technology, as the leading choice of career path, Product Management profile has been the most favored profile with many factors contributing to its preference.
• A major determinant is the recognized authority that Product Managers (PMs) command within an organization.
• This is partly incited by the famous conviction that PMs are the CEOs (Chief Executive Officers) of their product, which has made the role specifically appealing "for impact driven MBAs" (Master of Business Administration).
• Another determinant is the boom of product managers in technology.
•  Sundar Pichai, an MBA graduate from Wharton, is one such case who was a product manager at Google and climbed the corporate ladder to become CEO in 10 years.
• Finally, the skill fit needs to be considered where a greater number of organizations are looking for product managers with MBAs and showering high salaries to contend with finance and consulting careers.
• The role is growing with the significance of data in decision-making, an incremented customer and design focus, and the development of software-development methods.
• The contemporary product manager is the proliferating "mini CEO of the product".
• The present day product managers "are increasingly filling the new CEO pipeline for tech companies".
• Before assuming the role of CEOs of Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, and Marissa Mayer were product managers, and they educated themselves on "how to influence and lead teams by shepherding products from planning to development to launch and beyond".
• Such knowledge is also priceless beyond tech: PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi commenced her career in product management–like roles at Johnson & Johnson and Mettur Beardsell, a textile firm.
• There is an expanding demand for product management talent because there are so many budding digital companies.
• Industries accepting and taking advantage of new technologies such as Retail / Direct to Consumer, Automotive, Manufacturing, Financial Services and Healthcare, have built a demand for ingenious product managers.
• There is an exponential demand for product managers, with the skill supply not meeting the demand.
•  Executives and Senior Leaders of creative digital businesses are aware that to be a wonderful product manager "demands talent that can solve complex problems".
• Traditionally, product managers were generalists who are accomplished at solving issues and "could plug and play in almost any company if they were" skilled.
• While the business issues are becoming increasingly complex, the supply of specific product management skills and knowledge has become limited.
• An increasing number of candidates are looking to step across into a rising busy and famous product management market.
• The topmost paid role in technology in the United States is Product management.
• The rise of product management reflects that of software developers in the 1990s.
• According to Hired’s 2017 Global State of Tech Salaries, Product managers acquire the topmost average salary offers of any tech role.
• Product managers play a pivotal role in any software startup.

RESEARCH STRATEGY:

YOUR RESEARCH TEAM APPLIED THE FOLLOWING STRATEGY:

WHAT INFORMATION WAS NOT AVAILABLE?

• As a result of extensive investigations, our research team found that there was no information specifically stating the 4-5 conditions that could be contributing to the growth of the professional coaching market in the United States, particularly in the Product Management coaching space.

WHY WAS THE INFORMATION NOT AVAILABLE?

• It is likely that the concept of hiring a professional Product Management coach to boost the product management career is still developing and no research has been conducted to examine the particular reasons for the growth of the product management coaching space.
• It is also probable that product management coaching is currently being availed significantly by businesses for their employees and data about growth has not been allowed to made public by companies for competitive reasons (for instance, competing companies reaching out to the same coaches to know about product management practices of the respective companies and so on).

METHODOLOGY:

• Our research team commenced work by initially searching for the companies that are recognized for hiring professionals in order to coach their existing product team(s) and within that the factors as to why they are hiring. Searches were conducted in information portals like 280group, productleadership, insead.edu, productschool and so on which had articles related to the best companies to work for as product manager and suggested certificates and courses by various institutes. Here our research team looked for companies that have worked with such professionals and have shared their success stories starting from why they hired a professional. Through this approach, some companies cited were computer.inc, Guardian edge, Netcom, Adobe systems, Hewlett Packard, Cisco and so on, who had only reviewed these agencies providing professionals but unfortunately, there were no success stories that could cite the reason or driver that led them to hire a professional coach.

• Subsequently, with some companies noted through the first strategy above, we went on to look for these companies (Guardian edge, Netcom, Adobe systems, Hewlett Packard, Cisco, and so on) individually, scanning each and every section of their website (articles, blogs, publications and so on) with a hope to find data on why they are coaching their existing product teams and what are some common drivers, which we could have been collated and presented as a direct solution. However, no such data was discovered except general material on company products, reports, technology used, new innovations and so on.

• Our research team then examined interviews and articles of product management coaches where it was hoped to find material on why they were hired by certain companies. Here we looked into interviews pertaining to stephancognatta, productmanagementcoach and so on where we found a lot of information on how they work with the companies and so on but nothing on drivers or conditions that were considered by the companies at the moment when they were hired. During this strategy, we also found some helpful material pertaining to the demand of the Product manager profile and the factors associated with it, which has been presented in the findings above.

• Job websites like LinkedIn, Indeed, simplyhired, upwork, glassdoor, flexjobs and so on were studied where we looked for listings of product management coaching jobs to determine if the companies have mentioned the reasons to hire for this profile for their existing employees in the product management department. However, the listings included basic job responsibilities and the perks associated with them but no information on why they are hiring. The idea here was to present these reasons as the possible key drivers which could be contributing to the growth of the professional coaching market in the United States, particularly in the Product Management coaching space. But no such material was found.

CONCLUSION:

• With the above attempted strategies, the required information does not appear to be openly available. However, detailed examinations have revealed some helpful findings which have been encapsulated above.