Track: Engineering Education

Abstract

Recent years have shown some pioneering and advanced academic study areas required for the diversified business environment. These modern academic programs are prepared and offered to meet the market demands and needs. Product management is one of the innovative fields which is getting importance and growing rapidly in the recent years. The study focused that which academic program will help and guide the SMEs and business enterprises for the better prospect for their business? Unfortunately, a lack of qualified and certified product managers or product developers has also been observed in the recent past. Nevertheless, Product managers have become vital to business success because of their choices, decisions, and actions inherent to the attainment or failure of business growth. However, undergraduate programs are not equipped with proper certificate courses for product management, product design, or product development. This complicates the students in opting and joining any academic major to become a professional product manager. Thus, the basic issue is about which academic discipline is better suited for the development of successful product managers. Hence, the basic purpose of the study is to investigate the academic study disciplines that best serve the product manager career. In addition, the study explores whether an academic program such as Bachelor's, Master or Ph.D. degree is essential and helpful for product managers. A thorough literature review, analysis of workforce databases, and questions asked by key product executives are used for the current study. The study's approach is descriptive and exploratory to assess and evaluate the collected data. It uses a cross-sectional survey method for data analysis purposes. The findings indicate that a bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, computer science or engineering, and information technology are the most popular specializations for product managers. The study also discussed the market needs and demands to distinguish between different job professions to better understand the academic requirements for product managers. Additionally, it was found that competent product managers after gaining substantial expertise in their field quite often pursue a master's in business management, business administration (MBA), or leadership.