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A1.
Overwhelmingly, almost 90% had at least one dedicated product manager. For those that did not have a dedicated product resource, the role was generally assumed by:
A2.
The majority of product managers have considerable experience. Only 15% cited two or less years.
A3.
Product managers may be called many things --- but lazy is not one of them. 71% work more than 40 hours a week and 76% of product managers work weekends. As for remuneration, very few get paid for extra hours or weekend work (after all, most are salaried employees). Of those that work extra hours, most cited they do it because it is necessary to complete the job. Others expressed passion for their careers and a commitment to company success. Also, with the wide spread adoption of smart phones, several felt obligated to respond to emails (usually from sales) regardless of the day of week or time. This was considered an interruption --- but sometimes necessary.
Most interesting comment:
"I work extra hours so I can eventually get promoted OUT of product management hell"
A4.
Approximately 85% of product managers are responsible for more than one product. Striking, is the notion that roughly 1/3 of product managers manage 5 or more products. Certainly this supports the essence of the responses to question #3 above. It also begs the questions: how well are these product managers performing? Is it sustainable? Both topics that merit further investigation in our next survey.
A5.
It appears the survey had reasonable distribution across large and small companies. Although it could be suggested that the data is somewhat skewed towards large (251 million plus) companies.
A6.
Interestingly, almost a third practice both B2B and B2C. The impact or unique challenges this presents to product managers was not addressed.
A7.
The average business to business (B2B) customer base at every level, except 26,000 plus, exceeds business to consumer (B2C) by almost 2:1 (at the low end) and 5:1 (at the high end). To be expected, B2C exceeds B2B at 26,000 plus.
A8.
76% of B2B companies have an average customer of 50 or less users. Almost 40% average 10 or less users and approximately 10% average between 101 and 500 users per customer.
A9.
Microsoft technologies continue to dominate software development. Although, it should be noted that many "other" responses identified one of several open source technologies.
Popular "other" responses included:
A10.
One third of ISVs have no interest in software-as-a-service while approximately 57% are either considering SaaS of have already adopted it. Only one company admitted to trying SaaS and failing.