Product Manager Resume Example & Writing Guide

Why use this product management resume example?

This example of a digital product director is excellent because it utilizes a comprehensive yet simple and clean resume format. The introduction is strong and focused on skills, achievements, and business success. This is important because you need to keep your summary short and to the point, but you want to highlight your great experience and areas of expertise. It is also critical to insert some things that show you can get things done and are successful.

The examples “areas of expertise” section has a great list of skills that are relevant to product management. You should keep your list short and list the skills that best match up with the job position you are applying for. The career experiences in the example are detailed but high-level enough to keep them concise. Notice, also, that more space is spent on accomplishments and business results than the job responsibilities. This is very important because hiring managers understand what product management is about. They are much more interested in what you have done and have been successful at.

Since the resume covers over ten years of experience, the older experience is moved to an additional experience section and given an abbreviated description. This is standard practice on resumes to keep them short. You generally do not want your resume to be more than a page or two, at most. This also applies to your education, training, and certifications. Employers don’t care much about things you learned over a decade ago, with exceptions being major degrees or professional certifications that are still valid (not expired).

How to write a great product management resume

Your resume is what gets you in the door, so it has to knock their socks off. Hiring managers look at lots of resumes, so grabbing their attention with your resume is no small task. The first thing you need to do is make sure it showcases your expertise. 

For example, product management can be a very complicated business, and good product managers know how to solve problems. You need to convey that you can break down a complex problem, prioritize the use cases, and come up with a great solution. It is also important to demonstrate that you can define clear and measurable goals, and utilize data to analyze the problems in a structured process. The best way to demonstrate this on your resume is with an example of an issue you overcame, including quantifiable results showing how you helped the business.

Keep your focus on accomplishments and positive business outcomes. We saw this on the example resume, and it bears repeating because it is the most important thing that recruiters and hiring managers look for. They want people that get results. And remember to include specific, tangible results from the products and features you delivered, with metrics and numbers to clearly explain the benefits. 

It’s also crucial to get all the basics right. Proofread your resume very carefully. Don’t commit the cardinal sin of having misspellings or grammatical errors. This will immediately turn off the reader. Keep your resume very concise and simple. Don’t get fancy with your formatting or fonts, and don’t use a bunch of graphics. Keep in mind that an ATS (applicant tracking system) will screen your resume first. These automated reviews do not care about formatting or graphics. Keep it clean and easy to read, this alone will earn you some points.

Which key skills are relevant for a product management resume?

Jobs in the product management space require a variety of skills and qualifications. Product-related skills like management and development are at the top of the list for obvious reasons. Other basic and key skills are related to working with people (collaboration, customer service, communication, and team leadership). Digital and technical skills are also valuable in product management, as well as managing money and teams. You can’t go wrong including any of these skills, but make sure you can back them up with demonstrated results.

Here’s a selection of the most valuable hard and soft skills you should include on your product management resume:

• Product management

• Product development

• Collaboration

• Customer service

• Communication

• Problem-solving

• Digital product management

• Continuous process improvement

• Financial planning and analysis

• Team development

Product manager resume example