Where does a Product Analyst fits in the equation of product management?
Someone currently working as a Product Analyst at a series B startup (125+ employees). Fundamentally he is a part of the analytics team here where he spends almost 90% of his time writing SQL and making product metrics dashboard. He is kind of confused about his role now, what is he actually doing, is this what being a Product Analyst looks like? Would love to hear from you folks, what does a Product Analyst do in your team?
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That sounds about right… In the last, I’ve had product analysts to help me understand the results of A/B tests or to compile business cases. Once you’re comfortable you can try making recommendations based on the data you’re seeing. If you were looking to manage small products or to participate in roadmap setting that’s more like APM territory.
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Just like with PMs, I’d expect that the PA role looks different at different companies. I’m about to hire a PA, and here’s basically what I’m looking for:
Diagnose problems using available data. Spot trends, help come up with hypotheses, and work to prove/disprove them.
Measure success of products and features. Work with PMs to ensure that we have a feasible measurement plan in their specs. Develop new metrics when needed.
Design, run, and interpret experiments and A/B testing. Basically, help to answer the “launch or not” question.
Identify new data needs. Help PM and Eng identify prioritize changes to ETL and other data infrastructure.
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Currently a product analyst myself, however my role is quite different. I am focused on market research, competitive analysis, creating business processes, and developing requirements for different products/features. Guess it is more of an APM/BA role but called product analyst. Our org is 2 PAs to 3 PMs.