Product Manager Resume Skills: What to Include and How to Stand Out

Use a simple, clean format that highlights your skills and experiences. Focus on readability by using bullet points and short phrases to present your skills. Properly organize your resume into education, experience, and skills sections.

“Adding a skills section to your resume is a great way to draw the recruiter’s attention to your most relevant strengths and competencies.”

– Ashley Watkins, NCRW, NCOPE, Job Search Coach

For example, a product manager’s bullet points might look like this:

• Collaborated with sales teams to develop training materials, resulting in a 20% increase in sales productivity.
• Facilitated daily stand-ups, sprint planning, and retrospectives, improving cross-functional team communication and collaboration.
• Implemented a streamlined product development process, resulting in a decrease in development costs.

Hitting all the top job requirements with your skills list will help you rank highly for a keyword search within an applicant tracking system. But don’t stop there. Add context for every skill elsewhere in your work experience. If a recruiter is excited by product management skills in your skills section, the first thing they’ll do is skim your work experience to figure out when, how, and how much you used that skill.

As a product manager, you must emphasize your skills and major accomplishments in the work experience section of your resume. This will make you stand out to potential employers and show them you possess the expertise they seek.

“For soft skills, it’s often more effective to demonstrate them in the context of your past work experience. Instead of merely stating “excellent team player”, you are better off saying “collaborated with a cross-functional team of 6 on a new product launch that boosted sales by 30% in one year”. Examples of specific accomplishments or business outcomes speak louder than buzzwords.”

– Ana Lokotkova, Career Coach and Advisor

Instead of saying,

“Managed product lifecycle from concept to launch.”

You could say,

“Steered product lifecycle from concept to launch, achieving a 35% boost in user engagement and contributing to a 20% increase in revenue.”

This demonstrates your expertise in the product manager skills you listed, giving recruiters more reasons to be interested in you as a candidate.

If you’re applying for a role requiring a broad skillset, categorize your skills.

“If you opt to include a designated skills section on your resume, include up to 10 of your core competencies. Excessive skills lists are overwhelming and sometimes confusing to the reader.”

– Kelli Hrivnak, Marketing and Tech Recruiter

For instance, someone applying for a product manager role might benefit from segmenting their skill lists as follows:

Product Development Skills

• Product roadmap creation
• Agile methodologies
• Design collaboration

Marketing and Sales Skills

• Multi-channel marketing campaigns
• Sales strategy development

Leadership and Communication Skills

• Cross-functional team collaboration
• Stakeholder engagement
• Conflict resolution

By categorizing your skills in this manner, you make it easy for potential employers to quickly assess your diverse range of expertise as a product manager

Use numbers to quantify your achievements wherever possible. This helps potential employers understand your abilities and the impact you can have on their organization.

“Recruiters and hiring managers are looking for relevancy of how and when you applied those skills, so provide examples of this in your experience section. Bonus tip: Don’t just insert the skill like a task–include results.”

– Kelli Hrivnak, Marketing and Tech Recruiter

Instead of saying,

“Managed the development of a new product feature.”

You could say,

“Led the development of a new product feature, resulting in a 30% increase in user engagement and a 15% boost in customer retention.”

Using numbers gives hiring managers a better sense of your value and demonstrates your expertise in the product manager role.

Quantifying your achievements makes your resume more compelling and effectively communicates the impact you can have on a potential employer’s organization.

Read the description carefully and emphasize the relevant skills and experiences. Highlight the skills that the employer seeks and provide examples of how you’ve used those skills in your previous roles. Doing so can demonstrate that you’re a strong fit for the position and increase your chances of being invited to an interview.

“The ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach doesn’t work when it comes to your resume. For every job application, tailor your skill set to match the job description. Most companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that filter candidates based on keywords and skills listed in the job description. So, research the role you’re applying for and distill the skills required.”

– Ana Lokotkova, Career Coach and Advisor

In order to do this, “you must first understand what skills are most important for the target role,” says Ashley Watkins.

Here’s an example of how to tailor a product manager resume to a job description:

Job Title: Product Manager at a SaaS Company

Requirements: Experience with product lifecycle management, strong collaboration skills, data-driven decision-making, and knowledge of agile methodologies.

Tailored Resume Description:

• Led product lifecycle management for a successful SaaS product, resulting in a 35% increase in user engagement and a 20% boost in revenue.
• Fostered cross-functional team collaboration to develop and launch innovative product features, driving a 15% improvement in customer satisfaction.
• Utilized data-driven insights to inform product decisions, optimizing performance and achieving a 10% increase in customer acquisition.

“Focus on the sought-after and in demand skills. A great way to figure out what is currently in demand is by researching current job openings from your preferred companies and reading through the posting. Pay close attention to the preferred requirements section and build your skills section based on this list.”

– Chelsea Jay, Career & Leadership Development Coach – Seasoned and Growing

By tailoring your resume to the job description, you can showcase your expertise in the skills required for the product manager role and make your resume stand out to potential employers.

Start each bullet point with an action verb. An action verb expresses an action, such as “create,” “build,” “manage,” “lead,” or “implement.”

Action verbs grab the reader’s attention and paint a vivid picture of your work accomplishments.

Action verbs make your resume more interesting to read. They also show the kind of can-do attitude that employers are looking for.