The average salary for a product manager in New York is $109,951, according to the latest research from CyberCoders, a leading recruiting firm in the U.S.
Marc Andreesen, the legendary founder of Netscape and now highly influential venture capitalist, coined the phrase "product/market fit" to describe the degree in which a product satisfies a strong market demand.
He has since emphasized the key role it plays in making startups successful.
"The only thing that matters is getting to product/market fit," Andreesen said. "Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market. Lots of startups fail before product/market fit ever happens."
Once a startup finds the right product/market fit, product managers play key roles because they oversee the development, strategy and execution of both existing and future products that will keeps customers happy and businesses viable.
Growing role
The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects advertising, marketing and promotion manager positions to experience 9% growth from 2014 to 2024, which is faster than the average for all other occupations.
Our job board has numerous openings from NYC startup and tech companies looking for product managers and specialists —and the listings are growing everyday.
Find Product Manager Jobs in NYC
Career website Glassdoor recently listed product manager as the eighth "Best Job in America," citing the national median salary as $106,680.
CyberCoders, which released its 2016 salary guide earlier this month, places the average salary nationwide at $105,781 with the highest earning product manager making $500,000.
Salary will vary depending on location, expertise (whether you are a junior, middle or senior-level product manager can make a big difference), company size and an organization's needs.
'CEO of the product'
"It is essential for the product manager to see the whole picture—the strategic vision as well as the details of implementation—in order to make good decisions about products," Smashing Magazine wrote in its 2014 article "Why Companies Need Full Time Product Managers."
The positions requires interaction with all areas of a company and the product manager is, effectively, the "CEO of the product," working with engineers, designers, other managers, marketers, sales and analytics to receive input while also maintaining the original vision and integrity of the product.
Good managers are market-driven and understand the needs of their core consumer. Their focus is often to innovate and improve the existing product, but also to find opportunities within the vertical to create new things that customers need.
Product managers also define the product development process, making key strategic decisions about which features are must-haves and which are not, effectively reducing the amount of time it takes a company to get to market.
It is not an easy job.
"Being a good product manager is so hard that most product managers at most companies fail to be good—and instead are bad," Ben Horowitz and David Weiden wrote in their famous "Good Product Manager/Bad Product Manager."
"Because product management is a highly leveraged position, a bad product manager leads to many other bad consequences, generally including the wrong product being built, which generally has a significant impact on revenue, morale, and reputation—of both the product manager and their company."
