Product Developer Job Description, Skills, and Salary
Are you searching for a product developer job description? Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a product developer. Feel free to use our product developer job description template to produce your own product developer job description. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as a product developer.
Who is a Product Developer?
Product developers are responsible for designing new products or upgrading existing items so that the company can satisfy customers’ needs more effectively. Product developers may work as part of a team, collaborating with marketing, technical, and manufacturing specialists throughout the product-development process. A product developer, often known as an industrial designer, combines design, business, and technical talents to produce products that fit both market and manufacturing needs.
A product developer is a blend between an engineer and an industrial designer that develops new goods or enhances current ones for small enterprises or huge corporations. In this field, you engage with customers to understand their needs, investigate the market potential, and look into trends to evaluate which items sell the best. With this data, you strive to construct a competitive design. Your work activities can include producing prototypes, translating sketches into specification sheets, using computer design programs, and coordinating with sales, marketing, technical, or production divisions to launch goods. As a product developer, you mix commercial abilities with design and engineering to produce better goods than those on the market.
Companies often rely on product development professionals to generate unique items that provide them a competitive advantage in the market. You can pursue diverse product development careers in several industries, depending on your interests and skills. Learning more about product development and what it requires might help you determine if you want to pursue a career in this sector. In this article, we discuss who a product developer is what product development is all about, the duties and responsibilities of a product developer, the qualifications of a product developer, the essential skills of a product developer, and how to become a product developer, where to work as a product developer and finally the salary scale of product developers, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom.
What is product development?
Product development comprises the life cycle, or all the distinct steps, involved in taking a product from a concept to the consumer. While the processes in the product development life cycle aren’t the same for every product, they generally follow this process:
Identify a market need: Identify a problem and design a solution to remedy that problem by talking to customers, doing surveys, and using market research.
Quantify the need: Determine if the problem is substantial enough to support a product-based solution and if the customers are willing to pay for this solution.
Conceptualize the product: Apply creativity and innovation to work out whether the product could be the solution.
Validate the solution: Test whether the solution product is viable, worth pursuing, and liked by the target users.
Build a roadmap: Identify goals and themes for development and address the most essential obstacles to validate the product concept.
Develop the product: Create a minimal viable product (MVP), an initial version that has only enough function to meet its customer’s purpose.
Release to users: Conduct experiments with the MVP to evaluate interest, test price sensitivity, locate marketing channels, design a message and develop packaging.
Ongoing feedback: Collect consumer feedback to continue expansion and enhancements, keep extending the product roadmap and define new strategic goals for the product.
Some Roles in Product Development and their job specifications
- Onsite manager
Primary duties: An onsite manager, or site manager, recognizes chances to produce new products, helps develop new items from original development to final delivery, and finds methods to overcome problems. Some frequent roles for an onsite manager include monitoring capacity planning and estimates, setting delivery targets, addressing difficulties, maintaining development tracking tools, preparing sprint plans, and working on development. Other roles may include engaging with the product manager, researching business and technical needs, reviewing deliverables, and defining expectations between offshore and onsite teams. Most site managers have a bachelor’s degree or higher in industrial design, engineering, business, marketing, or management.
- Offshore manager
An offshore manager often termed an operations manager, manages a foreign development team that supports customers with key activities. Some frequent roles for an offshore manager include allocating and managing resources, reporting development progress, keeping status and work logs updated, assuring quality delivery, and organizing release testing and alpha testing. Other responsibilities may include planning and organizing sprints, managing a team, attaining delivery targets, reporting productivity, and generating and delivering build and release documentation. Most offshore operations managers have a bachelor’s degree or higher in a relevant engineering- or science-based topic.
- Business analyst
A business analyst works on the product development team to study business domains, define systems and processes, explain business needs and find viable business models. Some frequent roles for a business analyst include doing user acceptance testing, generating system requirements, offering clarification on requirements, advising development and testing teams, and creating a product roadmap. Most business analysts have a bachelor’s degree or higher in business administration, business analytics, finance, or economics.
- Product Manager
Product managers optimize products throughout the development stages, ensuring it meets or exceeds the client’s expectations. Some frequent responsibilities for a product manager include defining the plan for products, researching the market, dealing with external vendors, managing backlogged products, approving and accepting sprints, and coordinating beta testing. Other roles may include managing product strategy, integrating business plans, managing stakeholder release expectations, supplying high-level requirements, and releasing products to customers. Most product managers have a bachelor’s degree or higher in marketing or a similar discipline.
- Software architect
Software architects, also called solutions architects, are systems logistics specialists who implement, maintain, and design the IT systems for a corporation and might specialize in product development IT. Some common responsibilities for a software architect include managing the technical roadmap, advising on technical designs, providing a technical understanding of requirements, advising on choices of technology, performing research and development, helping with technical challenges, and reviewing and approving design decisions. Most technical architects have a bachelor’s degree or higher in information technology or computer science.
Product Developer Job Description
What is a product developer job description? A product developer job description is simply a list of duties and responsibilities of a product developer in an organization. Below are the product developer job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a product developer job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
The duties and responsibilities of a product developer include the following:
- Create and enhance items that fill a niche in the market or help their clients to remain competitive.
- Determine product specs according to a number of various elements and purposes.
- Support manufacturing and design efforts by developing prototypes for items under development.
- Consult market research materials and sales statistics to guarantee that items are feasible and competitive.
- Submit suggestions and designs for consideration by the project team and management before progressing to the next step.
- Work under the supervision of the Project Manager to coordinate and execute product development operations.
- Complete the product development tasks within allocated budgets and schedules.
- Ensure that final items fulfill customer expectations.
- Develop process enhancements to assure product quality and productivity.
- Follow best practices to enable seamless and continuous product development operations.
- Coordinate with Manager in preparing product design documentation and requirements.
- Communicate new product ideas and concepts to the Manager.
- Maintain training materials for new hires.
- Review and recommend modifications to present product development methods.
- Adhere to company policies and procedures.
- Maintain professional knowledge of product development techniques.
- Make product modifications based on changing business demands.
- Maintain product requirements and technical and functional documentation for reference reasons.
- Analyze and troubleshoot product issues in a timely method.
- Work with Manager in defining product development plan, budget, and timeframes.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in engineering or industrial design.
- Proven working experience as a product developer or in a relevant industry.
- Be comfortable utilizing prototyping equipment (3D printers and CNC machines) (3D printers and CNC machines).
- Be comfortable utilizing design software (SOLIDWORKS and Autodesk) (SOLIDWORKS and Autodesk).
Essential Skills
- Knowledge Of Web Development: While product managers don’t necessarily do coding or programming, a familiarity of this process is useful. Knowing the product management principles is one thing, but being a successful product manager implies that you also care about the context you’re working in. It can also help you relate and empathize with your technical staff, as well as communicate with them more effectively while defining timeframes and a roadmap.
- Ability to write Technical Specifications And Requirements: Coming up with new product ideas and optimizations are a crucial part of a product manager’s responsibility, but without explicit technical requirements, product development might stall and get trapped in pre-production. Being able to establish technical product specs, comprehensive needs, and product features for new items provides a specific direction for your engineering team and designers.
- Understanding Of User Experience Best Practices: While a product team generally comprises UX and UI professionals, it is helpful for product managers to have some technical knowledge of user experience best practices. This will assist the product manager to speak the same language as the UX product team, and ensure mutual understanding of how quick or time-consuming a task may be. It also can assist a Product developer to explain needs more effectively and can be utilized while generating wireframes or other product documentation.
- Outstanding Leadership And Ability To Take Initiative: As with any management position, leadership abilities are vital for supporting and inspiring your team. For product managers at all levels, not just senior product managers leadership qualities need to operate in tandem with an initiative to get projects into development and to achieve deadlines. This means that the top product managers also possess certain project management skills in order to see products from product development to product launch. Also, product managers typically have to lead cross-functional teams that may include people from the development team, product team, engineering team, marketing team, sales team, and other teams. Leadership is vital in putting all team members on the same page and working toward the same goal.
- Flexibility: Priorities might change frequently in the realm of product management. One day a certain product is the priority, and the next it’s something other. Product managers need to have prioritizing skills and must be able to keep up with changes in their business and in the competitive landscape and stay adaptable to ensure products are produced and deployed in a timely and efficient manner.
- Ability to Solve Problems: At their essence, goods are intended to address problems, for a business or for a specific type of client. Great product managers need to build products that fundamentally do this. A problem-solving mindset is a fundamental aspect of producing and brainstorming product ideas in the Product development position.
- Effective Time Management Skills: Product managers are continually sharing their time between multiple products and projects, as well as always reacting to altering priorities, as indicated above. Time management skills assist product managers juggling everything on their plate, while still performing duties quickly and bringing projects through to launch. Time management abilities may constantly be improved upon as you understand what works best for you.
- Good Communication skills: Product managers spend much of their days communicating in one form or another. From product meetings to presentations to engaging with clients on their aims and expectations, these professionals are often needing to talk or write in a way that conveys their objectives and priorities in an easy-to-understand manner. Product managers must also constantly contact their teams to provide direction and guidance and ensure product development is on the proper track. Without good communication skills, product managers won’t be able to properly accomplish many of their obligations.
- Business skills: Many product managers need to master core business competencies to efficiently conduct their jobs. For example, when designing a product strategy, a product manager should grasp how earnings, budgeting, cash flow, and profit-and-loss all play a part in the product development process. Additionally, product managers may need to engage with clients on existing and future revenues as well as create a case for a product development budget.
- Research Competence: These professionals constantly undertake intensive market research to identify what type of items their consumers require as well as where the competition stands with respect to your firm. Good research skills and data analysis may keep product managers in the know about marketing possibilities and risks and offer them a solid foundation for building a successful product.
- Good Analytical skills: Analytical talents and research skills go hand-in-hand for product managers. After completing marketing research, product managers must then study and use this data to make intelligent product decisions. Good product managers know how to use the data they have uncovered to address difficulties and build solutions that will ultimately lead to a successful product.
- Relationship skills: In addition to great communication abilities, product managers must also possess excellent interpersonal skills to effectively influence and lead the individuals they deal with. From clients to stakeholders to team members, product managers are continuously striving to get others on board with their product vision. Good interpersonal skills for product managers to have to include presenting, emotional intelligence, active listening, teamwork, and negotiating abilities.
- Marketing abilities: Marketing skills are vital for product managers since they typically must discover ways to make their products as marketable as possible to consumers. Marketing abilities involve the capacity to advertise and deliver products and services in the most successful way feasible. Good marketing abilities needed by product managers include the capacity to respond to changing demands, build marketing plans for product launches and create price structures.
- Delegation skills: Product managers cannot successfully oversee a product development team without great delegation abilities. A development team is generally made up of multi-functional team members, all of whom are accountable for certain tasks in the creation of a product. Product managers must be able to identify each team member’s capabilities and delegate duties depending on team members’ talents. Good delegation abilities include being able to properly communicate expectations for tasks, resist micromanaging team members, and routinely check in with team members to assess what worked and what didn’t during the completion of a task.
- Strategic thinking skills: Product managers should be able to think strategically during every phase of a product’s development. From studying the industry to selecting how to launch a new product, many product management activities involve strategic thinking to be properly implemented. Product managers should have a thorough understanding of the product life cycle, audience segmentation, the project management process, and projecting sales. Additional strategic thinking talents include problem-solving skills, mind-map software, risk management, and goal orientation.
- Prioritization skills: Product managers must be able to objectively enforce prioritization to successfully complete projects and fulfill goals and deadlines. Good prioritization abilities ensure that all team members are always working on what’s most important at the time and keep the project moving along smoothly and within the timeframe requirements.
How to Become a Product Developer
- Obtain a bachelor’s degree: Attending a four-year bachelor’s degree program is the minimum education required for product developers. Depending on the industry a product developer wishes to work in, they can pursue a bachelor’s degree in food science, marketing and sales, industrial design, or engineering.
- Round off an industrial engineering internship: As students complete a bachelor’s degree program, they should also apply for product design, development, or industrial engineering internships within their selected industry. This is significant as it enables aspiring product developers to create industry connections and obtain useful professional experience that they can emphasize on their resumes.
- Consider earning a Master’s Degree: Attending a two-year master’s degree program is an optional step for product developers. However, these programs can assist students to learn about product development issues in-depth, and can also help them obtain more senior product development responsibilities in the future. Good degree programs include product development or product design and development management.
Where to Work as a Product Developer
- Manufacturing Industries
- Food Product Firms
- Fashion Industries
- Software Firms
- Marketing Agencies
Product Developer Salary Scale
The estimated total pay for a Product Developer is $103,565 per year in the United States area, with an average salary of $74,413 per year. The average product developer income in the United Kingdom is £35,000 per year or £17.95 per hour. Entry level occupations start at £28,000 per year while most experienced workers make up to £60,000 per year.