Member-only story
The Challenges of Product Manager Incentive Compensation
Product managers deserve uncapped bonus potential
6 min readJun 3, 2019
Successful product manager incentive compensation plans are hard to put in place. Incentive compensation plans are one of the ways that enterprises express their value and priorities. Unfortunately, most product manager incentive compensation plans fail to do that. Bonuses tend to fall into the category of ‘“it’s nice to have”. They rarely inspire product managers to perform at the highest levels.
Product Manager Incentive Compensation Basics
An annual survey from the Pragmatic Institute does a good job of painting a picture of product manager compensation:
- 81% of Product Managers Eligible for Bonus
- Average Annual Base Salary: $105,400
- Average Bonus: $14,800 (14% of base salary)
- Factors for Calculating Bonus (% Bonus Eligible PMs Reporting)
- 89% Company Revenue/Profit
- 61% Personal Objectives
- 34% Product Revenue/Profit
- 5% Market Visits
- 9% Other
Around 60% of product managers are eligible to receive some type of equity, like stock options…
