Digital product owner
Digital product owners lead a team of specialists to build online products and services for customers.
What you'll do
Day-to-day tasks
As a digital product owner, you'll:
- work closely with your teams
- look at user feedback to help improve the product
- work with designers to make the product easy to use
- develop business cases and user stories for new features
- work with the design team to draft versions of your product or service
- keep people informed about your product's development
- manage relationships between teams, partners and customers
Working environment
You could work in an office or at a client's business.
Career path and progression
With experience, you could apply for a more senior jobs, such as head of product or senior product manager.
Some product managers also become self-employed consultants.
What it takes
Skills and knowledge
You'll need:
- knowledge of computer operating systems, hardware and software
- to be thorough and pay attention to detail
- customer service skills
- the ability to use your initiative
- the ability to work well with others
- the ability to monitor your own performance and that of your colleagues
- excellent verbal communication skills
- analytical thinking skills
- to be able to use a computer and the main software packages confidently
How to become
You can get into this job through:
- a university course
- an apprenticeship
- working towards this role
- specialist courses
You could do a degree or postgraduate qualification, then start on a graduate training scheme with an employer. Most subjects are acceptable, for example:
- project management
- business management
- business analytics
- marketing
Entry requirements
You'll usually need:
- 2 to 3 A levels, or equivalent, for a degree
- a degree in any subject for a postgraduate course
More Information
You could apply to do an apprenticeship, such as:
- Digital Product Manager Level 4 Higher Apprenticeship
- Project Manager Level 6 Degree Apprenticeship
These can take between 2 and 4 years to complete.
After finishing your apprenticeship, you'll need to get experience working in digital delivery teams before getting a job as a product owner.
Entry requirements
You'll usually need:
- 4 or 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C) and A levels, or equivalent, for a degree apprenticeship
More Information
You could start out in a junior or assistant role. Employers will set their own requirements, though an understanding of some of the following might be helpful:
- product marketing
- customer experience
- user research
- business change management
- agile project management methods like Scrum, Kanban and Lean
If you do not have work experience, there are some things you can do, such as:
- develop skills in data analysis
- study online about the role of digital product management
- take a specialist course in product management
- join online product management communities for tips and networking opportunities
Further information
You can find out more about working in the digital industry from techskills.
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