The purpose of this survey was to learn about actual product management practices in the field and to provide product management practitioners (executives and product managers) and product management product and service providers with meaningful insight into today's high-tech product management environment. The report facilitates comparative bench marking with those of the broader market. The 2009 Product Management Survey is a joint initiative between the 280 Group and Quantum Whisper.

The survey was comprised of 20 questions and was distributed to select targets (i.e., product management groups) as well as the broader product management community online. The survey opened June 23^rd and closed July 5^th at midnight.

Survey highlights inlcude:

• 78% of product managers work weekends (average 6 hours)
• The average product manager is responsible for 3.3 products
• 33% of respondents indicated they will not offer software-as-a-service (SaaS)
• 38% practice agile development (e.g., SCRUM)
• 4.5 is the number of average product releases per year
• Only 22% of those that use product management software "love it".
• Only 6% of respondents rate the quality of their "market evidence" as "excellent".

How to Use this Report

Regardless of your experience with product management, there is something in this report for you. If you are a new to product management, take a look at the time commitment, perceived benefits and tools that your peers are using.

If you are in mid-career, compare yourself and your organization against other product managers and companies. Learn what tools they are using and see whether you are achieving the same benefits as your more experienced colleagues.

If you are a product management guru, consultant, or product management software vendor, there is a lot of fodder in the survey to challenge your assumptions as well as several inflection points.

Participation

• Total Started Survey: 789
• Total Completed Survey: 675 (85.6%)
• 55% practice B2B, 10% B2C and 34% practice both

Average revenue per participating company is 114 million. However, 45% of companies reported less than 50 million.

View Product Management Survey Results.