Blog Post
Product management has become one of the most coveted roles in just about every sector of business, from tech to manufacturing, retail to real estate and everything in-between. At companies like Facebook, Google, Reddit and Amazon, product managers are the new rock gods. And they're paid even better. According to according to indeed.com the average base salary for a product manager nation wide is nearly $108,000; at companies like Facebook, that number jumps above $200,000.
But more than that, being a product manager at any company is a really satisfying job. Product managers are an integral part of almost every organization, regardless of the type of product, physical or digital. The role is cross-functional with many different departments from sales, support, marketing, operations and product managers have a direct line to the executive team. And best of all, product managers have real and visible impact on the business. In other words, you'll actually get to see your ideas come to life and experience the thrill of customer delight.
So it's pretty clear that a role in product management is exciting, but it's also tougher to land than other jobs. That's largely because of the range of skills needed to succeed, most of which can only be taught on the job, through experience. And the best way to begin getting experience as a product manager is to start with an internship.
This article will break down the roles and responsibilities of being a product management intern. You'll learn about the skills recruiters are looking for. And you'll understand the the step-by-step process of getting your first product manager internship. So get ready.
Let’s just say that a product intern does everything a full-fledged product manager does minus broad decision-making abilities. Now that's pretty exciting. And it's true. Unlike many industries like finance or manufacturing where interns are often glorified coffee getters or paper pushers, as a product management intern you'll be exposed to every aspect of the role and make a real contribution to the company.
Every day is different in the life of a product intern. The responsibilities mostly depend on what phase of development the product is in. One day you might working on market research; the next day, you find yourself collaborating with the UX team or engineers; and yet another day you're interacting with marketing. You'll get exposure to just about every department in your company.
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You stand at the confluence of multiple teams and act as the hub that connects them all. Since you are not likely to be satisfied with this rhetorical answer, here is a list of roles and responsibilities of a product management intern from common job descriptions.
Some of these responsibilities seem somewhat broad and a bit fluffy, so I will go into more detail as I dive deep into the skill requirements in a product manager internship.
A product manager intern is essentially a jack of all trades but master of none, acquiring bits and pieces from UX design, data science, web development, and other customer-centric business functions such as sales or marketing.
And as an intern, your role would mostly comprise of hands-on tasks and cross-functional skills. From time to time, you have to take over responsibilities from other teams, such as helping the user interface (UI) or user experience (UX) teams decide on road mapping or ensure quality management.
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