Find out how to Write a Principal Product Supervisor Resume


Principal product managers are in excessive demand in immediately’s job market. Their means to point out management and unite groups underneath a shared imaginative and prescient for brand spanking new merchandise makes them a lot wanted.

{The marketplace} is aggressive, so your resume should stand out out of your friends when making use of for a principal product supervisor function.

This information to writing a resume helps you keep one step forward of your opponents and provide you with a head begin when discovering your dream function as a principal product supervisor.

 

Writing a Principal Product Supervisor Resume

Your resume is the place you pitch your self for the job. It’s your first alternative to point out why you need to get the possibility to interview for the function of principal product supervisor, so making a very good impression counts.

Retaining your resume concise and related to the principal product supervisor function on the firm you’re making use of to works in your favor. It takes 10 seconds for a hiring supervisor to resolve whether or not or not you’re a viable candidate for the emptiness of principal product supervisor.

And keep in mind, writing your principal product supervisor resume is a first-rate alternative to point out off your written communication abilities.

Conduct Analysis

Your resume should be related to the corporate you’re making use of to and its market. Subsequently, earlier than writing your resume, analysis your potential employer, uncover their firm imaginative and prescient and prime clients, and perceive their market area of interest.

Then conduct market analysis to know their place out there, their opponents, and what makes them stand out of their trade.

Senior administration appears to be like for this understanding when studying your resume, so making certain that every little thing in your CV is related to the principal product supervisor function you’re making use of for is important.

Perceive your Viewers

Use this person analysis when writing your resume to point out that you simply perceive your viewers. Present the hiring senior administration staff that you recognize their goals, objectives, and product technique, and show the way you match into that imaginative and prescient.

The hiring supervisor is trying to consider your problem-solving abilities and talent to steer product technique and implement a product imaginative and prescient to make sure that your CV solutions these questions.

Show the “How” As Properly Because the “What”

To face out out of your opponents, you might want to spotlight your skilled expertise relevant to the function of a principal product supervisor and use compelling examples that show this expertise in your resume.

Briefly, don’t simply present a possible employer with “what” you’ve executed in earlier product administration roles, however show “how” you probably did it and what the outcomes had been.

For instance, as an alternative of claiming you “have a confirmed observe file of managing product characteristic releases,” say that you simply “managed the discharge of a brand new product characteristic that led to a 20% enhance in gross sales and 15% enhance in buyer satisfaction.”

This second instance demonstrates the results of the motion you took and the advantages supplied to the corporate in elevated gross sales and improved buyer satisfaction.

Embrace particular examples in your resume and showcase how your work has helped inner and exterior clients.

Keep away from Generalities and Promote Your self

A typical mistake made by people making use of for principal product supervisor roles is that they use generalities and empty phrases that everybody makes use of.

For instance, keep away from phrases similar to “glorious analytical abilities,” “engaged on a number of product strains,” “collaborating with staff members,” and “working in a high-paced surroundings.” The hiring supervisor sees these feedback on each resume, and yours goes to affix them within the recycling bin.

That is one other golden alternative so that you can promote your self to the senior management staff on the hiring firm by demonstrating that you simply perceive what they’re searching for.

It is best to embody issues that:

  • Demonstrates an understanding of product administration ideas
  • Exhibits your means to steer giant product design tasks
  • Reveals information of tips on how to construct enterprise circumstances for brand spanking new merchandise
  • Demonstrates your mission administration expertise detailing your understanding of lean and agile methodologies
  • Signifies the way you carried out product technique
  • Exhibits your success in main a product roadmap by means of the whole product lifecycle
  • Reveals the way you established high quality management measures
  • Demonstrates your communication abilities within the main of cross-functional groups
  • Exhibits your expertise in working with inner and exterior clients, together with as a technical liaison
  • Reveals a strong understanding of data product homeowners require

 

What’s the Finest Format for a Principal Product Supervisor Resume?

The three greatest methods to jot down a principal product supervisor resume are:

  • Reverse chronological order – This shows your work expertise in chronological order with the newest jobs first
  • Mixture – That is an ATS-compliant methodology of making a product administration resume
  • Practical – It is a non-ATS-compliant means of constructing a resume.

Most Fortune 500 firms use Applicant Monitoring Software program (ATS) to scan resumes and discard people who aren’t price taking ahead. The ATS scans every resume and is programmed to seek out people who include specified key phrases.

This protects the hiring supervisor effort and time from having to undergo tons of of resumes themselves, lots of that are solid to the aspect right away.

The easiest way to make sure your product supervisor resume passes an ATS scan is to learn the job description intimately and embody any phrases and phrases relevant to the function you’re making use of for.

Along with serving to your CV move an ATS scan, it demonstrates to the hiring supervisor that you’ve got learn and understood the job description. This permits it to face out from the competitors.

 

What Sections Should be Included in Your Principal Product Supervisor Resume

Issues you should embody in your product supervisor resume embody:

Principal Product Supervisor Resume Header

This part is on your private particulars, together with:

  • Full Title
  • Job Title (principal product supervisor)
  • Contact phone quantity
  • E mail tackle
  • Metropolis and state
  • LinkedIn profile
  • Hyperlink to your on-line portfolio if in case you have one

Work Expertise

That is the part the place you start to promote your self and show why the hiring supervisor should interview you.

Checklist your skilled expertise in descending order by date, beginning with the newest place, and solely checklist roles that add worth to the job you’re making use of for.

For instance, suppose you had a job on the native grocery store fish counter whereas learning at college. In that case, this has no relevance to the function of a principal product supervisor, so don’t embody it.

Certainly, a number of the expertise you’ve constructed up as a part of a product administration staff in different roles could not apply to the place you’re making use of for, though it’s associated to the product administration space.

For instance, if a few of your expertise makes a speciality of software program improvement, however you’re making use of for a task within the aviation trade, bear in mind to not embody examples which might be too software-focused.

Be particular about how your expertise provides worth to the hiring supervisor, make it straightforward for them to know why you need this function, and hold your work expertise examples concise, clear, and related to the product supervisor job you’re making use of for.

The essential data that should be included within the work expertise part is:

  • Your job title
  • How lengthy had been you in that function?
  • What expertise did you acquire in that place that’s essential for the job you’re making use of for?
  • Do you’ve earlier expertise as a principal product supervisor?

This final level is important, particularly, if you happen to hung out deputizing for a principal product supervisor or a short lived secondment. This expertise offers you a bonus over contenders with out experience.

Junior Product Administration Examples

Enthusiastic about your earlier expertise within the product administration world is properly worthwhile.

Even when your first expertise in a junior function as a part of a product administration staff got here greater than a decade in the past, some experience gained throughout that point applies to your software for a principal product supervisor.

This is a superb alternative to showcase your proactive nature from the start of your profession and supply examples of taking the initiative and exceeding expectations.

You should definitely embody:

  • The way you displayed problem-solving abilities
  • The outcomes of your actions
  • The targets set by the staff and the way you exceeded these expectations
  • Software program and instruments that you simply gained expertise in utilizing

Good examples are these wherein your actions led to elevated income, product enhancements, or glorious buyer suggestions—displaying the constructive impression you made in your product administration staff and their outputs from the earliest alternative show your ambition and want to climb the profession ladder by means of skilled development.

These are successful qualities that hiring managers search for in resumes all through a candidate’s profession.

Senior Product Administration Examples

In the event you’re making use of for a Senior Product Administration function, a number of the expertise gained in additional junior roles might be neglected in your resume. Nonetheless, expertise gained in working alongside senior management, inner and exterior clients, and examples of the place you’ve proven management should be included.

This exhibits that you’re prepared to step up, even in junior roles, and transcend what was anticipated of you in a junior place.

Take into consideration the next:

  • Write down your successes and accomplishments in additional junior roles and choose people who apply to the Senior Product Administration function on your product supervisor resume. Discard these that don’t apply.
  • Guarantee your resume is ATS-compliant
  • Maintain your job title constant together with your LinkedIn profile

As with every resume, relevancy is essential. Every function’s necessities differ, so tailor your product supervisor resume in accordance with the wants of every function. Nonetheless, you should embody sure issues on your resume to get by means of the sift:

  • Variety of direct experiences you handle
  • Which product administration methodologies do you’ve expertise utilizing (e.g., Agile, Scrum, Kanban)
  • How has your work impacted income
  • Which collaborative instruments do you’ve expertise utilizing (e.g., Micro, Figma)
  • Related certifications and {qualifications}
  • Examples of aggressive evaluation and market analysis and the way it’s benefitted your product administration supply
  • How do you scope tasks and ship towards deadlines and meet buyer satisfaction

Itemizing Product Administration Abilities

Many candidates make the error of itemizing their product administration abilities in a separate part of their principal product supervisor resume. Itemizing phrases in bullet factors underneath the heading “key abilities” doesn’t impression the hiring supervisor.

Checklist your essential product administration abilities as a bullet level underneath every function in your product supervisor resume and make sure you embody context. Bear in mind, you’ve a single web page inside which to persuade the hiring supervisor that you simply’re the candidate to resolve their wants, so each single level counts.

Examples of tips on how to checklist abilities which you can contextualize to underline the impression you’ve had embody:

  • Stakeholder administration – how your product administration technique has improved buyer satisfaction
  • Onboarding new staff members – how your induction program has elevated employees retention charges
  • Product administration technique – how you’ve carried out a product technique that meets the top person’s product imaginative and prescient
  • Steady Enchancment – how your use of Agile methodologies has delivered tangible efficiencies and enhancements to the product roadmap

Don’t be afraid to blow your personal trumpet and promote your self. Use persuasive language to underline your abilities and achievements to point out how indispensable you might be.

Itemizing Product Administration Training and {Qualifications}

Noting your instructional achievements is important. It exhibits potential employers that you simply’re a forward-thinking particular person who needs to get forward and obtain in your profession.

As soon as once more, relevancy is essential. Itemizing instructional achievements and certifications that don’t apply to product administration isn’t going to push your case for the job.

In the event you majored in Historical past of Artwork at college, this isn’t one thing that provides to your distinctive worth proposition. So, don’t waste house in your principal product supervisor resume by together with it.

As a substitute, give attention to certifications and {qualifications} that add worth to your software as a principal product supervisor. Displaying a starvation for fixed studying and private improvement helps you stand out out of your friends when the hiring supervisor opinions the checklist of CVs.

Embrace any acknowledged product administration {qualifications}. For instance, the AIPMM Licensed Product Administration Credential by the Affiliation of Worldwide Product Administration and Advertising and marketing (AIPMM), is among the world’s largest product administration organizations.

The advantages of worldwide acknowledged skilled {qualifications}, such because the AIPMM credential, are that they construct confidence in your credentials as a principal product supervisor and open up the potential for working abroad.

Different relevant certifications that increase your employability as a principal product supervisor embody:

  • Skilled Licensed Marketer (PCM)
  • Licensed Scrum Product Proprietor (CSPO)
  • Mission Administration Skilled (PMP)
  • Grasp Mission Supervisor (MPM)
  • Licensed Product Supervisor (CPM)

Embrace the date the certification was accomplished to spotlight your dedication to private {and professional} development all through your profession.

Product Manager Certification

Itemizing Product Administration Achievements

As essential as product administration {qualifications} are and are important, the a part of your principal product supervisor resume that persuades a hiring supervisor to give you an interview is the way you stand out from the opposite candidates.

The chances are high that your skilled expertise and {qualifications} are much like many different candidates. So, exhibiting you’ve a confirmed observe file of implementing a profitable product roadmap requires proof.

For each bullet level in your product supervisor resume that shows a ability, embody a numerical metric that exhibits the worth of your work.

There are a number of measures to make use of to point out your worth and constructive impression:

  • Improved income technology
  • Elevated employees retention
  • Fewer help requests
  • Diminished variety of product bugs

It’s straightforward to slide into banal generalities like “confirmed observe file in working with cross-functional groups to ship a profitable product roadmap.” however this provides no perception into the tangible impression your collaborative nature delivered to the hiring supervisor.

Take into consideration how you’ve demonstrated success in product rollouts. What worth did you add to your staff and firm? Are you able to quantify this in a means that jumps off the web page?

There are lots of methods to show your worth; be sure you decide the appropriate ones.

For instance:

  • Managed a product launch that delivered 20% extra income than anticipated and led to $3 million in new orders from the top person
  • Delivered steady enhancements to the product roadmap by means of Agile processes that created $450,000 financial savings over 12 months whereas growing margin by 15%
  • Created a brand new onboarding technique for brand spanking new starters that led to a 50% enhance in employees retention charges over three years

 

Resume Dos

There are some easy steps to ship a superb principal product supervisor resume that grabs any potential employer’s consideration.

These embody:

Masking Letters

Take the time to jot down a separate cowl letter for every principal product supervisor function you apply for. Tailor each to talk to the hiring supervisor you’ve despatched it to. Doing this creates a constructive first impression in your potential employer.

Inform them why you wish to work for his or her firm, what units you aside from the competitors, and show the analysis you’ve undertaken on them. It additionally underlines your glorious communication abilities and talent to work with individuals.

Maintain Your Principal Product Supervisor Resume Up to date

No two job descriptions are the identical. Two jobs with the identical title differ relying on the required expertise and acceptable tasks.

It’s a good suggestion to tailor your principal product supervisor resume to the job you need and, when making use of to a number of positions, alter it to satisfy the outline of every one.

For instance, necessities for a principal product supervisor function at a software program improvement firm differ from these of the identical job title at an engineering manufacturing agency. Tweaking your resume to match the particular trade necessities of the completely different roles helps your software progress.

Candidates who spend time making certain their cowl letters and resumes are customized for every job function obtain extra constructive consideration from hiring managers.

Proofread Earlier than Submitting

As apparent because it sounds, many candidates ship resumes with out taking the time to proofread. Ask somebody reliable to look by means of it and level out any apparent spelling errors or something that doesn’t make sense. Ask them to verify that it stays related to the function you’re making use of for.

As well as, run your principal product supervisor resume by means of a grammar and spell verify. Obtrusive and obvious errors are causes sufficient for rejecting your CV earlier than the hiring supervisor has taken the time to absorb your undoubted expertise and skillset for the function.

 

Resume Don’ts

There are equal advantages to avoiding these frequent pitfalls that many individuals fall into when making a resume.

Issues not do together with your principal product supervisor resume embody:

Don’t Write a Resume Abstract

Many candidates start their resume with a abstract, or private assertion, on the high of the web page.

Your principal product supervisor resume summarizes your related skilled expertise for the function of a principal product supervisor.

You could have a web page to wow the hiring supervisor, don’t waste a paragraph price of house with an pointless abstract of a abstract.

Don’t Embrace a Headshot

A headshot is one other facet that seems in resumes on occasion and provides nothing greater than wasted house in your CV.

It provides the hiring supervisor no context concerning your product administration expertise, nor does it add some other worth to the hiring course of. In the event that they wish to discover out what you want, a easy LinkedIn or Google search offers them the reply.

Don’t Embrace Outdated Expertise

By the point you end up making use of for a principal product supervisor function, you’ll have been a member of a product administration staff for a few years.

Whereas a few of your junior expertise applies to the function you’re making use of for, most of it gained’t be. Methodologies and software program have moved on throughout these years, and hiring managers have an interest within the worth you’ve added in latest instances.

Spotlight the place you are actually in your product administration journey slightly than six years in the past.

 

Abstract

Writing a principal product supervisor’s resume is a frightening activity. Promoting your self is a tough ability to excellent. Nonetheless, following these easy steps go an extended option to making your CV stand out throughout the sift and takes you thru to the subsequent stage of the recruitment course of.

  • Maintain relevancy in thoughts. Don’t be tempted to incorporate expertise or abilities that don’t add worth to your software.
  • Keep in mind the KISS mannequin (Maintain It Quick and Easy). Be concise and hold your resume to at least one web page.
  • Use the appropriate key phrases to move an ATS verify.
  • Proofread your resume earlier than submitting your software.

It takes time to excellent a really perfect principal product supervisor resume, however when you get that decision inviting you to interview, the funding has paid off.

Josh Fechter

Josh Fechter is the co-founder of Product HQ, founding father of Technical Author HQ, and founder and head of product of Squibler. You’ll be able to join with him on LinkedIn right here.