Glints TalentHub
Switch Language
Hiring & Recruitment
Product Manager Job Description: Roles, Responsibilities, and Key Skills
Elbert Jolio
December 23, 2025

Product Manager Job Description: Roles, Responsibilities, and Key Skills

Hiring a Product Manager is not just about filling a role, it is about finding someone who can translate business objectives into clear product decisions without slowing teams down. Many employers struggle with unclear responsibilities, overlapping ownership with engineering or design, and mismatched expectations that lead to poor product outcomes.

Whether you are hiring your first Product Manager or scaling an existing product team, a clear Product Manager job description helps you attract the right candidates, align stakeholders early, and avoid costly hiring mistakes from day one.

What is a Product Manager?

A Product Manager is responsible for ensuring that a product delivers real business value while meeting user needs. From an employer’s perspective, this role acts as the decision-maker who prioritizes what the team should build, why it matters, and how success is measured.

Rather than owning execution, a Product Manager owns product direction and outcomes. They align business goals, customer insights, and technical constraints into a clear roadmap, helping cross-functional teams work efficiently without confusion or misaligned priorities.

Key Responsibilities of a Product Manager

While responsibilities vary by company size and product maturity, most Product Managers are expected to cover these core areas.

1. Product Strategy and Vision

They define the product vision and long-term roadmap based on company goals, customer insights, and market trends. This includes identifying problems worth solving and articulating how the product should grow over time.

2. User and Market Research

Product Managers gather insights through user interviews, data analysis, feedback loops, and competitive research. This helps them validate assumptions and prioritise features that solve real problems.

3. Roadmap and Backlog Management

They translate strategy into a clear product roadmap and manage the product backlog. This involves prioritising features, writing user stories, and ensuring the team focuses on the highest impact work.

4. Cross-functional Collaboration

Product Managers work closely with engineering, design, marketing, sales, and customer support. They align teams around priorities, clarify requirements, and ensure everyone understands the “why” behind decisions.

5. Delivery and Execution

During development, they support sprint planning, review progress, and help remove blockers. They also coordinate product launches and work with go-to-market teams to ensure smooth releases.

6. Performance Tracking and Iteration

After launch, Product Managers monitor product performance using metrics such as usage, retention, conversion, and customer feedback. They use these insights to improve and refine the product continuously.

Key Skills Required for a Product Manager

Strong Product Managers combine soft skills, analytical thinking, and practical execution abilities.

1. Strategic Thinking

They can see the bigger picture, connect product decisions to business outcomes, and plan beyond short-term feature requests.

2. Communication and Stakeholder Management

Product Managers must explain complex ideas clearly, influence without authority, and align different teams with competing priorities.

3. User Empathy

Understanding user pain points and motivations is critical. Great Product Managers advocate for users while balancing commercial realities.

4. Analytical and Data Literacy

They are comfortable working with data to inform decisions, measure success, and validate hypotheses, even if they are not data scientists.

5. Problem-solving and Prioritisation

Product work is full of trade-offs. Product Managers must decide what not to build as much as what to build, often with limited information.

6. Basic Technical Understanding

While they do not need to code, Product Managers should understand technical concepts well enough to collaborate effectively with engineers and assess feasibility.

Example Product Manager Job Description

Below is an example of a Product Manager job description that employers can use as a starting point when hiring.

1. Junior Product Manager Job Description

About the Role

We are looking for a Junior Product Manager who will support product discovery, documentation, and execution. This role is ideal for candidates who are early in their product career and want to develop hands-on experience under guidance from senior product leaders.

Key Responsibilities

  • Assist in gathering product requirements and user feedback
  • Support backlog management, user stories, and product documentation
  • Work closely with designers and engineers during sprint execution
  • Help track product performance and basic metrics
  • Coordinate with internal stakeholders to ensure alignment

Requirements

  • 0–2 years of experience in product, business, or related roles
  • Basic understanding of product development and agile workflows
  • Strong communication and willingness to learn
  • Attention to detail and good organizational skills

2. Product Manager (Mid-Level) Job Description

About the Role

We are seeking a Product Manager who can independently own product initiatives from discovery to delivery. This role requires balancing user needs, business goals, and technical constraints while working closely with cross-functional teams.

Key Responsibilities

  • Own product roadmap and prioritize initiatives based on impact
  • Conduct user research and validate product assumptions
  • Define clear product requirements and success metrics
  • Collaborate with engineering and design to deliver features end-to-end
  • Align stakeholders and manage trade-offs effectively

Requirements

  • 2–5 years of experience as a Product Manager or equivalent
  • Strong understanding of agile product development
  • Experience using data to inform product decisions
  • Ability to work independently and manage multiple priorities

3. Senior Product Manager Job Description

About the Role

We are looking for a Senior Product Manager who can drive product strategy and influence business outcomes. This role involves leading complex product initiatives, mentoring other PMs, and partnering closely with leadership to shape long-term product direction.

Key Responsibilities

  • Define and own product vision, strategy, and long-term roadmap
  • Lead high-impact product initiatives across multiple teams
  • Make strategic trade-offs based on business priorities and data
  • Mentor junior and mid-level Product Managers
  • Influence leadership decisions using product insights and metrics

Requirements

  • 5+ years of experience in product management
  • Proven track record of delivering successful products at scale
  • Strong stakeholder management and leadership skills
  • Ability to operate in ambiguous and fast-changing environments

Final Thoughts

Writing a Product Manager job description is not about listing generic responsibilities. It is about clearly defining ownership, decision-making scope, and success metrics, so both employers and candidates share the same expectations from the start.

For employers, a well-structured Product Manager job description helps attract the right talent, reduce role ambiguity, and align internal teams before the hiring process even begins. Getting this right early makes it easier to scale product teams, improve collaboration, and drive stronger product outcomes over time.

This article is brought to you by Glints TalentHub. Leading companies are actively building their borderless teams in Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and beyond. However, the prospect of going borderless can be daunting due to complex regulations and cultural ambiguities. With Glints TalentHub, you’ll have a dedicated team of in-market legal, HR, and talent experts by your side at every step of the way.

Glints TalentHub offers an end-to-end, tech-enabled talent solution that encompasses talent acquisition, EOR, and talent development. We empower businesses to leverage the strengths of regional talent efficiently to build high-performing, cost-efficient teams.

Schedule a no-obligation consultation with our experts to receive a tailored proposal today!

Join our Employers Community!
Subscribe to our newsletter to receive all our latest news and offers delivered right to your desk.

Featured Resource

Download Now

Connect With Us

Never miss a beat! Follow our social media channels for specially curated insights, knowledge and best practices to help you hire, retain and improve on your human capital.

Recent Posts