With no shortage of new products entering the market in any given year, product managers are in high demand for a growing variety of industries who are targeting a wide range of consumers. Younger generations are rapidly gaining buying power, requiring companies to have the ability to rapidly adapt to new audiences with fresh, well-marketed products.
Product managers are responsible for overseeing the lifecycle of products, including successfully identifying both the product’s assets and the consumers who would be most interested in buying it. This makes creativity high on the list of traits that companies are looking for, as well as having the technical skills to understand and incorporate data and create meaningful graphical renderings to convey the product’s worth internally and externally.
Along with being able to assess a product’s value to consumers and to companies, product managers need to have excellent people skills due to the different types of personalities they’ll be managing and working with. The fusion of creativity, communication skills, and organizational ability is ideal for those interested in being a first-rate product manager.
From 2017 to 2020, the number of openings for product managers more than doubled. With an average salary of $110,916 and a high rate of job satisfaction, it’s clear that competition in the field is fierce.
Having the ability to skillfully determine the value proposition of products and coordinate your team members isn’t enough to secure a product manager job - you’ll also need to have a resume that clearly communicates your prowess. This guide will cover best practices on what your product manager resume should focus on, section by section, including what should be emphasized to make your pitch truly pop.
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A product owner is the advocate of customers and stakeholders in the development team. They help optimize the strategic planning and execution process in an Agile team (typically). Some of their responsibilities include gathering and sharing feedback, determining backlog deadlines and priorities, and analyzing market forces. This is a role that requires strong management skills. Hence, it’s a good idea to highlight your leadership skills on your resume.
Product owners play a huge role in the Agile team. That’s why they are often required to have extensive experience in product development. You can mention previous job experiences in which you got involved in product development and execution. You can also include independent projects in which you used Scrum/agile principles.
Product owners should be data-driven, either conducting market research or getting user feedback, to improve products. You should also be aware of changing regulations, customer trends, and competitors. Most product owners rely on data analytics to conduct this research. Try to include examples of how you've been involved in some step of the data analysis process, whether that's business intelligence and generating insights, or in the actual data preparation step.
As a product owner, you’ll be responsible for assigning and prioritizing tasks and evaluating the work of your team. You’ll need good knowledge of the industry, an understanding of what customers are looking for, and the ability to see a product through the entire development cycle. Your resume needs to show your experience in the field as well as a balance of hard and soft skills.
If you’re applying for a product owner role, you’ll need to demonstrate a number of hard skills, including SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle), programming languages and project management software, and product owner certification. To make a long list of skills easier for hiring managers to digest, you can break them up into sections, like techniques, software, and additional certifications.
Using strong action verbs in your bullet points is the best way to highlight your product owner/management achievements, including soft skills that don’t belong in your skills section. Leading with verbs like “identified,” “implemented,” and “designed” clarifies exactly what you achieved and frames your accomplishments in a proactive light.
Writing a resume as a Senior Product Owner is different from other roles - this isn't just a job, it's a leadership position. You're expected to draw on extensive experience to guide the development of digital products, and you'll need to demonstrate a deep understanding of the industry. Over the past few years, the role has evolved with Agile methodologies becoming the norm and emphasis shifting towards outcome over features. The trick to crafting a stellar resume? Show that you can adapt to changes and lead a team in today's fast-paced tech environment.
Becoming a Senior Product Owner means moving beyond just technical proficiency. It's about merging business acumen with technical knowledge to deliver solutions that not just answer user needs, but also drive business value. Your resume should reflect this balance and focus on how you're able to translate complex technical jargon into understandable business language. Remember, you're not just a product owner, but a strategic contributor to the company's growth.
You are expected to have a rich background in product management as a Senior Product Owner. Make sure to detail your previous positions, the products you managed, the methodologies used, and how your role was instrumental in product development.
As a Senior Product Owner, you'll be leading a cross-functional team while working closely with key stakeholders. Provide specific examples of how you've led teams, facilitated collaboration, and navigated challenging situations. Also, remember to share how your strategic thinking has contributed to the success of past products.
With enough experience in the field, you may find yourself rising to the ranks of senior product owner. As a senior product owner, you’ll be expected to bring high-level expertise and years of experience, taking a leading role in implementing new tools and practices. Senior product owners are actively involved in building customer relationships and will need a strong business acumen as well as soft skills like leadership and communication.
Soft skills are essential to leadership roles. Use your bullet point accomplishments to demonstrate your ability to lead a team, manage customer relationships, and optimize the product to drive sales. Metrics are your friend here — the more explicit you can be about what you’ve achieved, the more obvious these skills will seem to a recruiter.
If you’re applying for a senior-level role, you’ll need to demonstrate your ability to take initiative and work toward the business goals of your company. The best way to do this is through promotions. You can list separate job titles under the same company heading if your title changed, or make an increase in responsibilities clear through your bullet points.
An Agile product owner is a bridge between the strategic and tactical tasks in a product development team. They are responsible for keeping communication flowing from stakeholders, and customers, to the development team.
That’s why they must understand the company’s vision and product market. This way, they can determine the backlog, prioritize tasks, and create a product roadmap. This is why it’s so important to highlight your strategic planning experience on your resume.
User experience is the process of understanding the interaction between the product and the customer. This research is done to find areas of improvement and enhance users’ interaction with the product. You can emphasize this skill set by including a bullet point in your work experience how you talked to users, optimized the UI, or prioritized user stories/features dedicated to improving UX.
Agile Product Owners work within specific agile principles that value change and collaboration over technical processes and tools. As such, your resume needs to demonstrate a firm understanding of agile systems, including the scrum product development framework, as well as more general technical skills like data analysis, software, and programming skills. As a project owner, you’ll also need solid soft skills, including attention to detail, problem solving, and strong organization skills.
Tailoring your resume to each role you’re applying for is essential. This doesn’t have to be time-consuming — including the specific job title at the top of your resume is an easy way to get past any ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems). When listing your work history, stick with your most relevant experience, like experience as a product owner, agile coach, or project manager.
Where possible, you should list hard numbers in your bullet points to quantify exactly what you achieved. Including metrics like “35% increase in yearly revenue” or “provided training support to over 60 teams” provides additional context that will help your resume stand out to a hiring manager.
Like any other product owner, you will be in charge of developing and enforcing product roadmaps and strategizing. What sets you apart is an in-depth knowledge of the technical aspects of product development and your ability to create product roadmaps that are in line with the company’s technological limitations. Your resume needs to show a strong tech background as well as great communication and leadership skills. Here is a resume sample.
The title of product owner is based on Agile methodology. As such, there is an expectation that you will be Agile certified or able to show that you use Agile methodology. So ensure you list all Agile-related skills and experience in your resume.
Entry-level product owners largely offer support to more senior product owners. These professionals are sometimes also called junior product owners. You will still need to show that you are Agile certified or at least knowledgeable and that you have a good grasp on the product development cycle; especially in the industry you are applying.
Most times you will not have a lot of direct experience as an entry-level employee. So getting relevant certification which in this case is Agile-related certification, is a way to get recruiters to take note of your resume and may give you an edge over your competition.
To cover your lack of direct experience for this role, include projects that show your skills in process and development. This applicant has included two projects with clear transferable skills.
We spoke with hiring managers from top companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft to get their insights on what makes a great product owner resume. Based on their feedback and our own expertise, we've compiled a list of tips to help you craft a compelling resume that showcases your skills and experience. Whether you're a seasoned product owner or just starting out in your career, these tips will help you stand out from the competition and land your dream job.
Employers want to see that you have hands-on experience managing products from ideation to launch. Use specific examples to showcase your expertise:
Avoid vague or generic statements that don't provide concrete details:
A resume summary is an optional section that goes at the top of your resume, just below your contact information. It's a brief overview of your qualifications, skills, and experience that highlights why you're the best candidate for the job. While a summary is not required, it can be a useful way to provide additional context about your background and career goals, especially if you're changing careers or have a lot of experience.
Avoid using an objective statement, which focuses on what you want from the job, rather than what you can offer the employer. Instead, use your summary to showcase your most relevant skills and accomplishments, and tailor it to the specific Product Owner position you're applying for.
Your work experience section is the heart of your resume. It's where you show a hiring manager how you've applied your skills to create an impact for previous employers. In this section, we'll cover what to focus on in your work experience section as a product owner.
Hiring managers don’t care about the job duties you’ve performed — they want to know what you actually accomplished. The best way to show this is by starting each bullet point with a strong action verb. Product owners need both hard and soft skills, so try verbs like Developed or Built to show off your technical skills, while verbs like Collaborated and Managed to highlight soft skills like leadership and communication.
When choosing your action verbs, stick to accomplishments that are most relevant to the job you’re likely to be doing. This means choosing verbs that emphasize your ability to see a product through from start to finish, focusing more on high-level functions than responsibilities that are only relevant to one part of product creation. Following up your action verbs with specific metrics is a great way of illustrating your achievements to a recruiter, especially when it comes to soft skills.
For more related action verbs, visit IT Action Verbs.
For a full list of effective resume action verbs, visit Resume Action Verbs.
Including skills on your resume is important for any position, but especially for roles like product owner that require specific technical skills. Not only does including specific keywords help your resume make it past ATS, it will also make it more likely to stand out on a hiring manager’s desk.
You can list skills on your resume in one of two ways. The first is in a dedicated skills section. This is perfect for hard skills like programming languages, software programs, and product management frameworks. If you want to emphasize soft skills, like teamwork and communication, you should include these instead in your bullet point accomplishments, with metrics to back them up. To find out exactly what keywords your product owner resume needs, read the job description carefully and check out our list of skills and keywords.
You can include the above skills in a dedicated Skills section on your resume, or weave them in your experience. Here's how you might create your dedicated skills section:
This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Product Owner job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more 'important' it is.
You should use bullet points to describe your achievements in your Product Owner resume. Here are sample bullet points to help you get started:
Led five developers to establish client's ERP system; identified $1.5MM in cost savings, and secured $1MM+ in additional work for Accenture
Developed go-to-market strategy for ~$100 million B2B market segment; led cross-functional team of 15+ internal stakeholders to prepare new product offering
Streamlined the implementation process and reduced the average product delivery time from 10 days to 4 days by redefining responsibilities and improving accountability of employees
Managed a cross-functional team of 10 in 3 locations (London, Mumbai and New York), ranging from entry-level to Ph.D. analysts, and closely collaborated with business development, data analysis, operations and marketing teams
Led multi-disciplinary 7 person team to design, develop, and launch online e-commerce store; prioritized and resolved 45+ new features and bug fixes
For more sample bullet points and details on how to write effective bullet points, see our articles on resume bullet points, how to quantify your resume and resume accomplishments.
Always start your bullet points with strong action verbs such as “Identified”, “Implemented”, and “Owned” to show that you held an active role. Include numbers and metrics to quantify exactly what you achieved.Owned the product roadmap and met 96% of all feature deadlines, delivering the product to market six months ahead of deadline.
Executed Agile ideation plan; collecting and implementing feature suggestions from 35+ engineers and senior staff, resulting in an increase of product adoption by 15%.
Thank you for the checklist! I realized I was making so many mistakes on my resume that I've now fixed. I'm much more confident in my resume now.
