Room for Improvement: Local Women In Product Survey
Late last month, the Cincinnati Chapter of Women In Product held a Survey Reveal session, complete with lots’o’data and discussion.
The purpose of the Survey? Understand the state of Product Management in the greater Cincinnati Area. The Initiatives Committee took on this effort after the topic was identified as an area of interest at the very first meeting held by the Chapter.
With the Gender Pay Gap widely reported for many careers, and with formalized Product Management as an Industry in its infancy, people wanted to know: What should my compensation be and where am I in comparison to my peers?
We set out to answer this question through a local survey loaded with questions to help us gain some insight.
So why is there “Room for Improvement” as the title of the article states?
While the survey results did not report any major surprises, which is to say, it’s just about what is expected, it provided some key, leverageable insights so we can continue our work toward closing gaps in compensation and general industry make up.
A few quick demographics about the most frequent respondent:
· White females between the age of 36–45 years old with at least a Bachelor’s Degree
· See themselves having at least some technical expertise
· In their Mid- (6–15 years) to Late- (16–30 years) Career which is consistent with the Age profile, but are in their early years (1–5 years) of their Product Career
· Work at a medium size company (600–4,999) located in Downtown Cincinnati where there is a Product Organization between 50–100 people
And data on the Company Profile of the frequent respondents:
· More than half are in a Product-related role reporting to a Product Department
· A third are Product Managers
· These Product employees mainly support B2B product markets
· 72% work within a B2B market, of which 34% also serve a B2C market
· 79% support Software related-products, of which 20% support Software and Data products and another 15% support only Software products
· 60% work on Data-related products
How can this help you?
The data pointed out a few key insights and actions.
· 46% of respondents are within the $100,00-$149,999 Salary Bracket
Action: If you are making less than this amount, then leverage this detail during salary negotiations.
· Respondents who have degrees in Business, Information Systems, or have degrees across multiple disciplines have higher salaries
Action: When considering continuing education, think about diversifying your degrees.
· Identifying as “Somewhat” to “Very” Technical does have an impact among $50,000-$99,999 earners. Technical skill level appears to make the most difference among the $100,000-$149,999 salary band.
Action: Technical skills might mean more as you break into the Industry. Find learning opportunities to help close perceived technical skill gaps.
· If you are at a medium sized company (600+) middle-tier salary bands ($75,000-$99,999) are more common
Action: Deliberately seek opportunities and make career plans to acquire experiences at different sized companies.
The other “Room for Improvement” as called out in the headline is in our approach to the Survey. We would like to keep this going, have even more participation, and survey the questions to which you would love to have the answers. Take a look at this year’s results for inspiration and please come to one of our events, follow us on Twitter or Facebook, and stay connected to participate in a future greater Cincinnati area Product Industry survey.
