Parity founder and director Victoria Butt said product managers at banks, insurers and super funds have traditionally had either a commercial or marketing focus without necessarily combining those skills.
“The market is now moving towards hiring a hybrid role, which has equal attention on customers as well as commercial considerations,” Ms Butt told InvestorDaily.
Around half of all new enquiries for recruiting product manager roles now explicitly ask for someone who is as competent looking at a profit and loss sheet as they are at understanding customers, she said.
“But to find the right candidate who has the balance of both is exceptionally hard, so we’re looking at more creative hiring, where we’re hiring people from different asset classes or product areas and cross training them,” she said.
In theory, product managers will have a balance of skills across both areas, but in reality they are often skewed to one side. But with pressure on head count so tight now, senior hiring managers are looking for a genuine balance of both – “which is where they’re looking further afield, and more laterally at market opportunities, or opportunities with people outside of their market,” Ms Butt said.
A year ago you would see someone moving from superannuation to insurance or investment management, but now the market is looking at potentially taking people from the retail banking side as well, she said.
There has been some movement from companies such as telecommunications groups into retail banking, but it’s still unheard of to go from a telco to a wealth management firm due to the product complexity and regulatory influence, she added.
Headcount pressure is “definitely the main factor” driving the shift because businesses have less tolerance for bloated headcounts and consequently, for individuals who are not multi-skilled, Ms Butt said.
“Product areas are more competitive, with drivers for new channels and direct distribution, which is encouraging a new mindset. We’re doing things so differently to how we used to,” she said.
“The change in the market has meant product teams have had to realign their thinking and their processes.”
However, despite the pressure for individuals to be able to do more, this has not filtered through to have a positive impact on salaries, she added.
