Product manager salaries in india
Introduction
It was a historic moment recently when Freshdesk became the first Indian SAAS company to be listed on NASDAQ. While for some it may be just another listing. But it signifies an underlying change in the Indian technology space. Indian IT revolution took the global stage with Y2K bug in 2000 serving as the catalyst for Indian service-based companies like Infosys, TCS, Wipro to show their prowess and be the poster child of growth. While 2 decades later it is time for the Indian product companies to take on the world and bring India again to centre stage.
The first IT jobs were service-oriented due to India's strategic advantages of low cost, English speaking labor but with the rise of cloud computing and globalized workforce trends, India is witnessing the rise of native Indian product companies which are becoming new age unicorns, and also India being one of the top destinations for Global In-house Centers (GICs) of foreign product companies. This is not limited to Google, Microsoft, Amazon. The byproduct of the same has been a rise in Product Management jobs and Product Management to be one of the most sort after jobs. One can find the Product management to be the topmost job after Management Consulting and Investment Banking in B schools. With this article, we will try to explore how much do Product Managers get paid and what are the factors behind the same.
Who is a Product Manager and what does he do ?
Product Manager as the name suggests are the custodians of the Product. By Product we refer to the Product feature set and the backlog and not the code or the executable. They are the gatekeepers who manage the Product Backlog and decide what goes in the product.
As per another definition, A product manager is the person who identifies the customer need and the larger business objectives that a product or feature will fulfil, articulates what success looks like for a product, and rallies a team to turn that vision into a reality.
While these definitions may give us a broad sense of what is expected from PM, but a good flow chart which comes close to the day to day responsibilities is captured in Simon Riker's blog. We took out the same image for your perusal.
PM roles and career progression
Before we move to PM Salaries, it is important to understand the Career Progression in Product Management and how one moves across PM roles across years. One of the critical factors in the salaries for PM is designation and number of years experience.
The following diagram by Invision gives a great idea of the responsibilities of Product Managers across designations. We will also review the salaries by years of Experience in later section.
Now let's look at the salaries earned by Product Managers in India.
How much do PM earns ?
Average National Salary for Product Managers
Just like every other role, salary falls across ranges based on factors like company, seniority, geography. We will look at data from LinkedIn, Glassdoor, PayScale, and AmbitionBox which can help build a picture on same but data may vary depending on the source used.
From the following data below one would see PM Salaries range from 5 Lakhs to 35 Lakhs as per sources depending on the source we choose. AmbitionBox has the largest sample size among all the four data sources used. The average based on source varies from 13.47 Lakhs to 17.4 Lakhs. This should help in gauging the current market value of employee.
Glassdoor
AmbitionBox
Payscale
PM Salaries by Years of Experience
The following chart captures the average salary with years of experience.
B-school Salaries for Product Management
One of the hunting grounds for Product Managers is via the MBA route. I have tried to compile data from the 2021 IPRS audited placement reports from top B schools - IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Udaipur. Product Managers at IIM Ahmedabad earns an average of 26.7 Lakhs while Product Managers at IIM Udaipur earns an average of 11 Lakhs.
City Based Salary Segmentation
Next, most question was whether location plays a significant role in salaries when it comes to salaries. The short answer is yes. Bangalore tops the city from an average salary perspective. Following are the top 5 cities by Salaries as per Linkedin.
Why are their salaries higher ?
With the above numbers one may be led to think, why are PM Salaries higher and whether it's just a fad and a correction is coming? There are a lot of factors that play in and the numbers are not fad and salaries are expected to grow even higher. The following factors are the reason for contributing to the same
- Infinite Leverage
We had started in the world where there was no leverage - 8 hours of Labor would mean 8 hours of output but with capital, productivity, the technology we introduced leverage which made leveraged workers produce 10x to 1000x more output than non-leveraged workers. Product Managers work in such high leverage industries that have the major cost component as workforce and are ok with paying higher wages for better talent. Leverage allows you to accomplish 100x what others can – it is a force multiplier for your effort, skill, and judgement. Today, we live in an age of infinite leverage where our work can be replicated at no cost, and we don’t need permission to get started.The economic rewards for genuine intellectual curiosity have never been higher – it’s time to make today’s labor tomorrow’s leverage.- Andrew Yu - Demand and Supply
As mentioned above with India becoming a global powerhouse of Product, E-commerce, and other technology unicorns, we will see huge demand across product roles including Product Manager, Software Developer, Testers, User Experience etc - Organizational Hierarchy
One must not forget that the role may be an individual contributor (apart from senior roles) but still comes with significant strategic responsibilities putting them at middle to top level of hierarchy in the Organization and hence PM roles are rarely entry-level roles - Make or Break role
Owning the Product backlog and identifying Product -market fir for companies especially those who are at 0 to 1 stage and this makes this role a make or break role and hence comes with higher rewards
All that Glitters is not Gold
While it may seem Product Management is a high-paying career but one must remember it's not a bed of roses. The role involves working in quite a VUCA environment and taking some tough decisions. It also involves working with cross-functional stakeholders who may have different agendas but align them to one common goal i.e. to deliver the release backlog in allotted time and budget.
Product Manager as mentioned is an individual contributor role and hence has to lead without authority. This is where Product Managers need to use their soft skills to get things done.
What Future holds?
While Freshdesk was the first Indian SAAS company to be listed on NASDAQ, Indian product companies like Postman, Directi, Zoho, InMobi are all making headwinds in their space and just getting started. As a job seeker or seasoned PM, India holds true promise for growth and learning in what one can achieve. For most Product Managers, it's yet another Day 1 at their jobs.
For accessing product opportunities, enrol into a PM School Cohort to not just learn the art of Product management but also get mentored by Industry experts.
