Here are the keywords and skills that appear most frequently on recent Product Owner job postings. In other words, these are the most sought after skills by recruiters and hiring managers. Go to Sample Templates ↓ below to see how to include them on your resume.
Remember that every job is different. Instead of including all keywords on your resume, identify those that are most relevant to the job you're applying to. Use the free Targeted Resume tool to help with this.
Does your resume contain all the right skills? Paste in your resume in the AI Resume Scan ↓ section below and get an instant score.
Paste your resume below and our AI will identify which keywords are missing from your resume from the list above (and what you need to include). Including the right keywords will help you get past Applicant Tracking Systems (i.e. resume screeners) which may scan your resume for keywords to see if you're a match for the job.
Go through the Product Owner posting you're applying to, and identify hard skills the company is looking for. For example, skills like Agile Methodologies, Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and User Stories are possible skills. These are skills you should try to include on your resume.
The following word cloud highlights the most popular keywords that appear on Product Owner job descriptions. The bigger the word, the more frequently it shows up on employer's job postings. If you have experience with these keywords, include them on your resume.
Here are examples of proven resumes in related jobs and industries, approved by experienced hiring managers. Use them as inspiration when you're writing your own resume. You can even download and edit the resume template in Google Docs.
Companies seeking experienced product managers will be looking for demonstrations of effective leadership, and this resume works for that purpose. If your past accomplishments speak for themselves, this format will help you illustrate that you have navigated the field for a while - and that you are prepared for and willing to take on even greater challenges.
The 10-year experience of this product manager is the main thing that this resume focuses on, and with the results it outlines, it should be. The jobs that are detailed demonstrate responsibilities and productivity that scale appropriately with the applicant’s increased knowledge, indicating that they can bring even better results to their next company.
Having a solid list of bullet-pointed technical skills at the bottom of the page gives the sensation that this product manager has mastered a range of relevant, data-centric abilities that have enabled them to succeed thus far (and will enable them to handle any future assignments).
Product managers who have less experience but sufficient education can remain in the running if they can incorporate their affinity for product manager skills in their resume. If you have similarly taken on related responsibilities (such as management of civic projects), or have relevant skills (which could lend well to international companies), make sure to include these in your resume.
Applicants who can show that they have a capacity for worldliness may rise to the top through their affinity and ability to work with people from international backgrounds. This resume not only includes additional educational training in London, it also references the applicant’s fluency in other languages - a great asset for global companies.
If your background is in technical skills, IT work, and working with data, you can relate this using a similar format that emphasizes your ability to put technical skills to use for a range of purposes. The clear use of organizational ability and numerical affinity are present in this resume, highlighting a data-based background.
Product managers who have a technical-based skill set and background should employ a focus on numerical results to best indicate what they are capable of. With data clearly driving this product manager’s work, the hiring company can expect measurable quantitative results.
While the resume contains a lot of relevant content, the product manager breaks it down into digestible pieces by using bullet points and sub-levels. This prevents the hiring manager from being overwhelmed and enables each valuable section to stand out on its own.
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.
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.
A growth product manager is tasked with finding innovative ways to maximize sales and customer retention by analyzing and adjusting the product to make it more desirable for customers. This may be as simple as slightly changing the price to attract more customers and revenue. This is a pretty technical position and requires strong analytical, research, and interpersonal skills. You must have extensive knowledge of consumer behavior and the market you are operating in. Your tasks may include developing a strategy to attract customers, using testing to gain data on whether or not the strategy is successful, analyzing the data, and applying those strategies that show themselves to be successful. It is important that your resume reflects your experience doing all of the above tasks, and that the skills section equally reflects the skills and tools needed for all of the listed tasks. This is a good example of a successful growth product manager resume.
Because this position is product-based, it would be essential to specify which industries you are experienced in. The growth product management of laptops is very different from fresh milk.
The whole point of growth product management is to maximize customers and therefore revenue. To help inch you above your competitors, dazzle recruiters with figures showing how successful your tests are, how much extra money your strategies netted the company, and how your work introduced new efficiencies.
Some effective Product Owner skills you can add to your resume include:
While the keywords above are a good indication of what skills you need on your resume, you should try to find additional keywords that are specific to the job. To do this, use the free Targeted Resume tool. It analyzes the job you are applying to and finds the most important keywords you need on your resume.
It is personalized to your resume, and is the best way to ensure your resume will pass the automated resume filters.
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.
