Do You Need An MBA To Be A Successful Product Manager?

Product Manager or Product Marketing Manager is a key post in most companies. A question that pops up in the minds of those with manufacturing or engineering background is whether they need an MBA for the post.

The jury remains divided on the question as some of the best known names in the sector like Ben Horowitz did not have an MBA but went on to write one of the first books on Product Management, ‘Good Product Manager, Bad Product Manager.’

Sundar Pichai, Chief Executive Officer of Google Inc. who had once led product management in the company and Bradley Horowitz, VP, both have engineering background.

Susan W, SVP at Google for AdWords comes from an MBA background. Jeff Weiner, now CEO of LinkedIn was Lead Product Management in Yahoo. He started in tech after his MBA.

When the question whether an MBA was needed for the Product Managers role was posed in Quora, it evoked responses that some sectors did indeed consider MBA as a necessary qualification. But lots of others did not insist on a business school degree.

Google recruits MBAs with engineering background for a Product Manager role. But almost all its Associate Product Managers are from engineering programs.

Microsoft has the Program Manager filling the role and almost all of them are engineering graduates and not MBAs. Facebook too hires from engineering to fill such roles. Most of the start-ups in Silicon Valley do not insist on MBA degree. However, several others like Adobe do insist on a business school qualification.

Amazon does not insist on MBA for all product management positions, though it is usually desired. The company hires product managers with several years of industry experience in the post or from MBA programs.

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MBAs and those without technical experience are usually assigned roles in the retail category teams–tools, sporting goods, baby products etc. MBA’s or industry product managers with technical experience are put in technology sector including Website Platform, Retail Customer Experience and Traffic.

Now, what are the advantages of having an MBA degree? Firstly, it offers an instant modicum of credibility with fellow degree holders and some credibility with non-MBAs.

MBA provides a strong grasp on all the business related functions such as accounting, finance and marketing along with developing leadership qualities that enables you to assume such roles to control and coordinate between different sections and sectors and resolve issues at short notice.

Expertise in strategy, valuations, leadership and general management also acts to boost your career, especially at senior levels. (Image Courtesy : Flickr )