Challenges of Product Managers in Saudi Arabia's ICT Industry

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Geneva Business School
Master Program in International Management
Challenges of Product Managers
in ICT Industry in Saudi Arabia
Submitted by:
Abdulsalam Mohammed Ghaleb, 237
Supervisor: Prof. Mokhtar Al Hashmi

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Declaration of Authorship
“I hereby declare:
 That I have written this work on my own without other people’s help
(copy-editing, translation, etc.) and without the use of any aids other
than those indicated;
 That I have mentioned all the sources used and quoted them correctly
in accordance with academic quotation rules;
 That the topic or parts of it are not already the object of any work or
examination of another course unless this has been explicitly agreed
on with the faculty member in advance;
 That my work may be scanned in and electronically checked for
plagiarism.”
Name: Abdulsalam Ghaleb
Signature: Abdulsalam

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Acknowledgements
In the acknowledgment of “Challenges of Product Managers in ICT Industry in
Saudi Arabia” Thesis, I would like to thank and reflect on the people who have
helped and supported me in the research and throughout master period
First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my master thesis advisor
Prof. Mukhtar Al-Hashimi, for kind support throughout my research period, and
his patience and motivation. His guidance helped me in all the time of research
and writing of this thesis, and
My sincere thanks also go to Geneva Business school lecturers & staff
especially to the program director Dr.Janos Petnehazi, for their excellent
support.
In the least, I would like to thank my family and my close friends for spiritually
supporting to me throughout my master study.
Many thanks’
Abdulsalam Ghaleb

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Table of Contents
Declaration Of Authorship ............................................................................................................................................2
Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................................................3
Abstract..........................................................................................................................................................................7
Chapter 1: Introduction..............................................................................................................................................8
1.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................................................8
1.2 Background Of The Study ..............................................................................................................................8
1.3 Research Model .............................................................................................................................................10
1.4 Statement Of The Problem:..........................................................................................................................10
1.5 Objective Of The Study:................................................................................................................................10
1.6 Research Questions:.....................................................................................................................................10
1.7 Significance Of The Study:...........................................................................................................................11
1.8 Structure Of The Thesis................................................................................................................................11
1.9 Scope, Assumptions, And Study Limitations ...........................................................................................11
1.10 Definition Of Terms......................................................................................................................................12
Chapter 2: Literature Review...................................................................................................................................13
2.1 Introduction .....................................................................................................................................................13
2.2 Saudi Arabia’s Ict Industry............................................................................................................................13
2.3 Product Intro ...................................................................................................................................................14
2.4 Product And Related Concepts ...................................................................................................................15
2.4.1 Product Development..........................................................................................................................15
2.4.2 New Product Development.................................................................................................................16
2.4.3 Product Portfolios.................................................................................................................................17
2.4.4 Product Roadmap ................................................................................................................................17
2.4.5 Product Life Cycle................................................................................................................................17
2.5 Product Management:.................................................................................................................................19
2.6 Product Management Aspects...................................................................................................................19
2.7 Product Management Scope........................................................................................................................21
2.8 Role Of Product Manager.............................................................................................................................22
Chapter 3: Methodology ...........................................................................................................................................24
3.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................24
3.2. Research Method..........................................................................................................................................24
3.3. Research Design Technique.......................................................................................................................24
3.4. Population & Sampling.................................................................................................................................24
3.5. Questionnaire Design...................................................................................................................................25
Chapter 4: Presentation Of The Study Data.....................................................................................................26

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4.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................26
4.2. Sampling Analysis ........................................................................................................................................26
4.2.1 Respondents’ Job Title:.........................................................................................................................26
4.2.2 Respondents’ Age:.................................................................................................................................27
4.2.3 Respondents’ Education Background:................................................................................................27
4.2.4 Respondents’ Education Level:............................................................................................................28
4.2.5 Respondents’ Experience:....................................................................................................................29
4.2.6 Respondents’ Organization Size:.........................................................................................................29
4.2.7 Respondents’ Organization Field:........................................................................................................30
4.2.8 Product Type:..........................................................................................................................................30
4.2.9 Respondents’ Yearly Target For Their Products: ..............................................................................31
4.2.10 Respondents’ Reporting Line:............................................................................................................31
4.2.11 Respondents’ Monthly Salary And Bonus:.......................................................................................32
4.2.12 Respondents’ Benefits: .......................................................................................................................34
4.2.13 Respondents’ Professional Certifications:........................................................................................36
4.2.14 Respondents’ Satisfaction: .................................................................................................................36
4.2.16 Respondents’ Biggest Challenges: ...................................................................................................39
4.2.17 Respondents’ Activities/Responsibilities: .........................................................................................40
Chapter 5: Analysis Of Data.................................................................................................................................44
5.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................44
5.2. Statistical Analysis........................................................................................................................................44
5.3. Data Reliability ..............................................................................................................................................44
5.4. Reliability Statistics.......................................................................................................................................44
5.5.1 Participants’ Profile ................................................................................................................................45
5.5.2 Participants’ Satisfaction .......................................................................................................................47
5.5.3 Participants’ Professional Certificates.................................................................................................48
5.5.4 Participants’ Benefits .............................................................................................................................49
5.5.5 Participants’ Responsibilities ................................................................................................................50
Chapter 6: Discussion And Interpretation Of Findings ................................................................................54
6.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................54
6.2. Finding............................................................................................................................................................54
6.2.1. Most Important Challenges Of Product Manager.............................................................................54
6.2.2. Rewards/Benefits That Product Manager Gets ................................................................................55
6.2.3. Product Manager Satisfaction Vs Future Plan..................................................................................55
6.2.4. Product Manager Responsibilities ......................................................................................................56
Chapter 7:Conclusion And Recommendations ..............................................................................................58

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7.1. Conclusion .....................................................................................................................................................58
7.2. Recommendations........................................................................................................................................58
Bibliography...............................................................................................................................................................59
Appendix: ...................................................................................................................................................................60
Study Questionnaires...........................................................................................................................................60
Figures List
Figure 1 the Product Life Cycle Stages........................................................................................................................17
Figure 2 Respondents’ Job Title ...............................................................................................................................26
Figure 3 Respondents’ Age ........................................................................................................................................27
Figure 4 Education Field (Background)........................................................................................................................28
Figure 5 Respondents’ Education level........................................................................................................................28
Figure 6 Product Management Experience .................................................................................................................29
Figure 7 Respondents’ Organization Size:..................................................................................................................29
Figure 8 Respondents’ Organization Field ..................................................................................................................30
Figure 9 Product of Type.............................................................................................................................................31
Figure 10 Respondents’ yearly Target for Their Products ...........................................................................................31
Figure 11 Respondents’ Reporting Line......................................................................................................................32
Figure 12 Respondents’ Monthly Salary......................................................................................................................32
Figure 13 Respondents’ Bonus ..................................................................................................................................33
Figure 14 Respondents’ Benefits.................................................................................................................................34
Figure 15 Respondents’ Professional Certifications ...................................................................................................36
Figure 16 Product manager satisfaction with work environment ..............................................................................37
Figure 17 Product manager satisfaction with his manager .........................................................................................37
Figure 18 Product manager satisfaction with his yearly result....................................................................................38
Figure 19 Product manager satisfaction with his current salary .................................................................................38
Figure 20 Respondents’ Plan of Future .......................................................................................................................39
Figure 21 PM Responsibilities: Business activities.......................................................................................................41
Figure 22 PM Responsibilities: Go-To-Market activities.............................................................................................42
Figure 23 PM Responsibilities: Technical activities .....................................................................................................43
Figure 24 PM Responsibilities: Sales activities ............................................................................................................43
Figure 25 Question orders (Participants’ satisfaction) ................................................................................................48
Figure 26 Question orders (Participants’ Professional Certificates)...........................................................................49
Figure 27 Question orders (Participants’ Benefits).....................................................................................................50
Tables List
Table 1 Saudi Arabia’s ICT industry sub-sectors ..........................................................................................................14
Table 2 Summary of Participants’ Demographic Data................................................................................................47
Table 3 Participants’ satisfaction.................................................................................................................................47
Table 4 Participants’ Professional Certificates ............................................................................................................48
Table 5 Participants’ Benefits ....................................................................................................................................49
Table 6 Participants’ Bonus .........................................................................................................................................50
Table 7 Participants’ Responsibilities ..........................................................................................................................52

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ABSTRACT
Saudi Arabia is the largest ICT market in Middle East countries. Billions of
dollars is a yearly spending in ICT products with continue growing every
year. Behind each product in ICT market, a product manager who carries
all hassles related to his product. The product manager plays a main role in
Product Management. As the “mini-CEO” for the products, he leads all
cross-functional teams to achieving the product’s strategic goals. As the
product management new concept in the Saudi market, there is still no clear
vision to product manager roles and his responsibilities inside the ICT
organizations.
The outcome of the study, the most challenges that surrounded the product
manager inside ICT companies in the Saudi market, the relationship
between the product performances and rewards/benefits that product
manager gets, the satisfaction of product manager vs his future plan, and
product manager responsibilities with areas of career development.
Keywords: product manager, product life cycle, role and responsibilities,
rewards and benefits, challenges, marketing, product management

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
This research aim to explore the challenges that surrounded and facing the Product
manager in ICT industry in Saudi Arabia, those challenges related to Market,
Organization, and Product manager himself challenges.
The introduction chapter allows readers to put the scope of the research into
perspective. Besides, it will explain the purpose of research.
1.2 Background of the Study
Saudi Arabia has experienced fast economic growth. This growth reflected on the
increased adoption and use of “Information and Communications Technologies” (ICT) in
businesses, government organizations, and homes, the resulted of increased spending
on ICT products or services. According to CITC report, this spending reached SAR
111.79 billion ($29.90 billion), during few years, The telecommunications and hardware
sector got the most share of spending at Saudi market by 65%, ICT spending by 23%,
8% for IT services, and software for the remaining spending by 4%, Saudi Arabia’s
position as the largest ICT market in the Middle East. “The local ICT market is expected
to maintain its healthy growth to reach nearly SAR 138.48 billion ($36.95 billion) by
2017”. (Saudi Arabia CITC, 2015)
Around the half of ICT spending in Saudi market, doing by individuals, the increasing in
this segment driven by demand increasing of mobile and portable devices
(smartphones, tablets, laptops, computers and other accessories). As was informed by
CITC’s within the Mobility ICT Report, “a significantly high proportion (82%) of mobile
users in Saudi have access to either smartphones or tablet computers. currently Saudi
has nearly 8 million Facebook users, over 1 million LinkedIn users, over 5 million Twitter
users, and over 90 million YouTube videos viewed daily, with explosive growth using
social media and applications”. (Saudi Arabia CITC, 2015)
Behind each product in ICT market, there is a product manager who carries all hassles
related to his product.
The product manager plays a central role in Product Management. As the “mini-CEO”
for his product, he leads all cross-functional teams to achieving the product’s strategic
objectives.
Product look like as a small business inside of a bigger business. Sometimes, the
organization has one product or several, and all of these products managed through the
Product Management business unit. (Steven Haines 2009)
Product manager select, investigates and drives products development in the
organization, monitoring all performing activities related to product and considering

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some factors like an intended target, other competitors offered, and how the product fits
with the company business model. Generally, the product manager manages tangible or
intangible products. (Greg Geracie, 2010)
The product manager takes care to his product during all product life cycle.
The product can use to describe all goods, knowledge or services that can be sold. The
product is a bundle of attributes (benefits, features, functions, and how to use) it can be
tangible or intangible or can be a mix of the two.
The product is not a single; usually there is products and services hierarchy within the
company. The product can be bundled with group of products or included in the same
portfolio. (Steven Haines 2009)
Many people are thinking that product should be tangible, but the product can be
anything that can offer to the market for satisfying customer want or needs, including
services, experiences, persons, places, information, properties, organizations, physical
goods, and ideas. (Philip Kotler, Kevin Lane Keller, 2012)
Generally, it is easy to say that the responsibility of product manager to ensure that
everything go smoothly.
Steven Haines defined the product manager in his book as a person who responsible
for defining and answering the ‘why’, ‘what,’ and ‘when’ of the product that development
team will build. Product manager is the CEO of his product -- which means he lead
cross-functional teams from a product's conception through to launching. (Steven Haines
2009)
The product manager oftentimes do market analyses, competitive situations and
defining the vision of his product and delivering unique value based on the
requirements of customer. The product manager role spans across numerous activities
from strategic to tactical and leadership of cross functional within the organization.
(Gorchels, 2000)
The product manager responsibility should have a number of distinct experiences in:
 Managing Cross-functional team
 Making a decision
 Financial planning and business analysis
 Evaluating the industry and market competition
 Marketing segmentation and targeting, reconnaissance the customer needs
 Sales forecasting
 Developing new products and marketing strategies
 Planning Go-to-market and execution
 Managing the product life cycle

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1.3 Research Model
This research hypothesizes a relationship between product performances and benefits
that Product Manager gets it, and the relationship between product manager
satisfaction in his department, manager, and salary with product manager plan in future
and his responsibilities.
The study will investigate in each item and present the results and recommendations
from data analysis.
1.4 Statement of the problem:
Despite the growing importance of product manager as the main player in ICT
companies in Saudi Arabia, there is still no clear vision to product manager roles and
his responsibilities inside the ICT organizations, because the product management is a
new concept in the Saudi market.
During this research, the researchers will study the ICT companies in Saudi Arabia to
explore the current situation of product manager job in the Saudi market and the
challenges that surrounded his efforts to achieve success.
The finding of this study will assist Organization to defined responsibilities of Product
manager position. In addition, it will assist the product manager to develop his skills and
type of professional certification related to his responsibilities.
1.5 Objective of the Study:
The aim of this study is to discover the current situation of product manager job in the
Saudi market and the challenges that surrounded his efforts to achieve success. also,
the research will explain the following objectives:
1. To identify the most important challenges that face product managers inside ICT
industry in Saudi Arabia
2. To determine the relationship between the product performance and
rewards/benefits that Product Manager gets.
3. To identify relationship between product manager satisfaction in his current
position with his plan in future
4. To describe the product manager responsibilities and areas of career
development
1.6 Research Questions:
This study is the first study that focusing on product managers who works in Saudi
market in ICT industry, by answering following questions:-
1. Which are most important challenges that face product managers inside ICT
industry in Saudi Arabia?

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2. What is the relationship between product performances and benefits that Product
Manager gets it?
3. What are the product manager responsibilities?
1.7 Significance of the Study:
This study will enhancing and promoting roles of product managers inside ICT
companies in Saudi Arabia. This study will also be beneficial to the product manager to
know the clear responsibilities related to his job and how to improving his work quality,
and it will be beneficial to corporate management when they plan to employ effective
product managers and when they plan to create their product management department
structure.
By understanding company’s needs, market, and product managers, it will add
competitive advantages to the proactive product manager.
Furthermore, the research will provides some recommendations on how to pass the
challenges in Saudi market by product managers.
1.8 Structure of the Thesis
This study organized into seven chapters:-
 Chapter 1, introduce the background of study with the motivation behind of it,
objectives, questions, significance and the scope of research.
 Chapter 2, introduce the review of literature relevant to the research scope.
 Chapter 3, present the research methodology including research design,
sampling plan, data collection and data analysis methods. Chapter 4, presents
the analyzed data that collected
 Chapter 5, describe the tools that used in the empirical literature
 chapter 6, discuss and interpret the study finding
 Chapter 7 includes the conclusion and recommendations.
1.9 Scope, Assumptions, and Study Limitations
The scope of this research to study the challenges that surrounded product managers
inside ICT industry in Saudi Arabia.

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The assumptions in this research are:
 The study sample will represent to the product manager's inside ICT industry in
Saudi Arabia.
 The study sample will be 100 respondents in minimum.
 The respondents will answer truthfully
on our survey
 The challenges source that
researcher will study related to:
o Market Challenges
o Organization Challenges
o Product manager himself
challenges
This study has following limitations:
 The researcher focused only on
product managers who working ICT
sector with Saudi companies – that
means anything out of this sector is
out of study scope
 The researcher focused only on product management roles
 The scarcity of information - there is no previous research related to this subject
in Saudi Arabia and around the world.
1.10 Definition of terms
Term Definition
ICT information and communications technology
CITC Communications and Information Technology Commission
NPD new product development
Market
Challenges
Organization
Challenges
Product
manager
himself
challenges

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
This chapter reviewing the literature relevant to the research subject and classified into
five thematic areas related to; Saudi Arabia’s ICT industry, Product and its related
concepts, Aspects of Product Management, Scope of Product Management, and Role
of Product Manager. Discuss these areas in details by using results of previous
literature and work experiences.
2.2 Saudi Arabia’s ICT industry
Saudi Arabia has the largest space in the Arabian Peninsula, it's located in southwest
Asia, at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa; Saudi Arabia extends from the
Arabian Gulf in the east to the red sea in the west. Bordered from the north by Jordan,
Iraq, and Kuwait, on the east by the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain, and on
the south by Yemen and Oman.
As mentioned in the Vision 2030 of Saudi "at a time of shrinking oil revenues, the
government has identified ICT as a key driver of smart, cost-effective solutions for
government and commerce alike, and as a major pillar of the Kingdom’s long-term
development strategy".
The ICT is refers to all services and equipment’s related to telecommunications,
broadcasting, computing and technology.
In last few years, ICT industry has worldwide developed because concatenation of new
technologies, equipment’s and applications that have invented and marketed speedily.
This development has reinforced ICT’s role as an enabler for other industries.
Telecoms’ over-the-top (OTT) services, gaming, mobiles, mobile platforms, mobile
applications, big data, wearable devices, smart cities, internet social media, E-health
services, E-commerce ,cloud computing, internet of things (IoT) and the internet of
everything (IoE) concepts now defining an industry structure. (CBBC, 2015)
As Saudi Arabia’s ICT industry covering enormous range of products and services, the
study will focusing on four sub-sectors at ICT industry: IT services, Telecommunications
services, Hardware and Software, with range of sub-sectors as shown in (Table 1)

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ICT Sub-sectors
Telecommunications Hardware Software IT services
 Basic service and value-
added services
 Telecommunications
equipment
 OTT
 Mobile virtual network
operators (MVNOs)
 Computers
 IT network equipment
 Storage devices
 Consumer electronics
 Wearable devices
 Smart phones
 Data centers
 Software products
 System integration and
support
 Embedded software
 Software-related IT
consulting
 Design and development
 Big data
 Cloud computing
 Applications
 Network services
 System integration
 IT outsourcing services
 Maintenance and support
services
 IT consulting services
 Education and training services
 IoT services
 E-commerce
 Consultancy services
 Managed services
Table 1 Saudi Arabia’s ICT industry sub-sectors
Saudi Arabia is largest ICT market in Middle East. The local ICT market is expected
to reach around SAR 138.48 billion ($36.95 billion) by the end of 2017 with 15%
yearly assumed rate of the spending growth until 2025. The telecommunications and
hardware sector got the most share of spending at Saudi market by 65%, ICT
spending by 23%, 8% for IT services 8%, and software for the remaining spending by
4%. According to CITC report, “this scale of expenditure is due to the investment in
infrastructure for the Next-generation Networks, and 4G mobile networks, and the
adoption of electronic services (E-government, E-health, e-education, e-commerce,
etc.) as well as spending on information security”. The demand for
telecommunications market and information technology will continue growing in
future. (Saudi Arabia CITC, 2015)
2.3 Product intro
The production function is a part of any organization, which is concerned with the
transformation of a range of inputs into the required outputs (products) depending on
quality level.
Production defined as the steps of conversion of one form of material into another form
through the chemical or mechanical process to create or enhance the utility of the
product to the user. Thus, production is a value addition process. At each stage of
processing, there will be a value addition. Edwood Buffa defines production as “a
process by which goods and services are created”.( s.anil kumar,2006)
Product Management function is becoming important for marketing. With the passage
of time, product management has undergone many changes. Effective product
management is “a practical, purposeful and positive approach to improving the
company results, through the efforts of a competent and committed team, coordinating
manufacturing, marketing, and sales. In short, it can be said that product management
involves” (Nigam, 2012)

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Product management in ICT industry is fundamentally about making sure that ICT
product effectively serves target customers and accomplishes the business objectives.
2.4 Product and related concepts
The word “product” can defined in many ways. The definitions differ from each other
depending on the connotation in which it is being used
Technically, a product is the item offered for sale, a product could be a service or an
item. It can be physical or virtual or cyber form. A product is “anything that is produced,
whether as the result of generation, growth, labor, or thought, or by the operation of
involuntary causes; as, the products of the season, or of the farm; the products of
manufactures; the products of the brain”. In manufacturing, product purchased as raw
materials then sold to customers as finished goods.
In project management, “the product is a formal definition of the project deliverables
that make up or contribute to delivering the objectives of the project”. In marketing, “a
product is anything that can offer to a market that might satisfy a customer want or
needs”. (Nigam, 2012)
From all the above connotations, generally we can say, “Product may refer to a single
item or unit, a group of equivalent products, a grouping of goods or services, or an
industrial classification for the goods or services” (Nigam, 2012)
The world of products has many important concepts related to it that are very popularly
prevalent in the industrial world over. Let us understand each of them one by one.
2.4.1 Product Development
Product development is some processes related to designing, creating and marketing
of the new product or service to providing customer with benefit, and the discipline
focused on developing systematic methods for guiding all the processes involved in
building a new product to market.
Product development is highly focused on the “value add to cost” within product
generation by increasing competency on the physical product building. Manufacturing
activities or product testing that performed on a dependency on the cost.
Within these phases, the frame of product development costs is determined. In the
sensitization within organization and support of involved stakeholders and employees
for operational work in the early development, phases lie high potential to increasing
the quality of the creative works’ outcome.
Product development aims at creating products that preserve increase customer
value while achieving major reductions in resource and environmental impacts.

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Therefore, it requires the higher levels of innovation and creativity in product
development/design processes.
The key aspects of sustainable product development include economic
competitiveness, environmental friendliness, and resource conservation in products
design and development. To achieve economic competitiveness, products should
have better functionality, higher quality, lower cost, shorter delivery time and more
features that are desirable. For environmental and resource requirements, the criteria
are often interrelated. For example, “minimal environmental impact requires the
minimization of resource consumption, waste generation, pollution, energy usage
and so on, which directly related to resource conservation. to maintain or increase
value to the customer with these conflicting goals of product design, a new type of
design is required to handle changeable product design requirements over the
product life cycle”. (Alain Bernard, 2010)
2.4.2 New Product Development
Long-term success is dependent on the ability to compete with others. One of the most
important conditions for achieving this is to ensure that company’s products are
superior to the competition, by
adding new competitive products to
the product portfolio. The traditional
new product development (NPD)
model involves the following
stages: idea generation, idea
screening, concept development
and testing, business analysis,
product development and testing to
ensure that product features meet
all requirements, test marketing,
commercialization to launching
products in market, and reviewing
the performance of market.
Figure 1. New Product Development (NPD) Stages

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2.4.3 Product Portfolios
In some organizations, especially large companies, several product lines are grouped
into related collection called product portfolio depending on the markets that products
focus on and the type of product.
Portfolio can be mixture of some existing products, which in different life cycle phases,
or new (Haines, 2009)
2.4.4 Product Roadmap
A product roadmap is a management document, this plan content short and long terms
business goals with specific solutions of technology that meet goals of business. it use
separately to communicate progress and direction to internal or external stakeholders,
it shows the high-level ideas and planned steps. . (Kelly, A., 2004)
Creating a product roadmap is continuous process during the product lifecycle. Many
parties including customers, support, partners, sales, engineering, operations,
management and product management should generate the roadmap requirements.
(Kelly, A., 2004)
2.4.5 Product Life Cycle
Like human, product is born; it growing up and eventually it die. We divide the life of a
product into five major stages or phases: Product development, Product introduction,
Product growth, Product maturity and finally Product decline.
Figure 1 the Product Life Cycle phases
These phases can be split up into smaller ones depending on the product and must be
considered when new product introducing into the market since they dictate the

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product’s sales performance, those phases are existing and applicable to all products or
services . (Ferrell and Hartline, 2005)
The product life cycle has five stages; each has its own characteristics that mean
different things for business.
• Development Stage: usually it begins with a product concept, including some
components as followings:
1. Understanding the specific benefits of a new product that targeting
customer’s needs.
2. Description of the product, including its benefits and potential uses.
3. The potential for creating product line completely.
4. Feasibility analysis of “the product concept, including such issues as sales,
required return on investment, time to market introduction, and length of
time to recoup the investment, Unfortunately, over of 80 percent of all new
products fail. This unfortunate fact of underscores the need to identify
target customer needs before developing the product strategy, through
effective test marketing, the firm can gauge customer response to the new
product before full launch. New products that closely match customers’
needs and have strong advantages over competing products are much
easier to market as the new product enters the introduction stage of its life
cycle”. (Ferrell and Hartline, 2005)
 Introduction Stage: In this stage company, carry many of expenses to product
the product. During this stage, sales grow slowly, it usually not make profit
because costs of Research-and-development (R&D) and advertising expenses
that cutting from the revenue. In this stage, price maybe high to cover an
incurred expenses or low to increase and acquisition number of customers.
 Growth Stage: In this stage, sales growing swiftly with increasing in profit.
Companies working to boost customer loyalty to it’s brand, earning a target
market segment to acquisition good share in the market.
 Maturity Stage: usually this stage is longest phase in product life cycle. During
this stage, Sales reach the highest point then it’s begin to decline with tight
margin of profit, enter for New competitors to the market with fierce price
competition, raises the cost of earning new customers . in this point some
companies deciding to reinvesting in enhancing the product and doing some
marketing activities to make product more liveliness and attractive by new
customers
 Decline Stage: this stage comes as a result of no corrective action to sales
decline in maturity stage, in this stage, some companies like to kill the current
product to develop newer product.

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2.5 Product Management:
The organizational structure within a business that managing the development,
marketing and sale of a product or set of products throughout the product life cycle,
encompasses a broad set of activities required to get the product market and to support
it thereafter. (Business dictionary. 2011)
Product management has objectives of maximizing market share, sales revenues, and
profit margins.
Product management process links to the type of company that works for. There may
be companies that are:
1. Technology-driven
2. Company driven
3. Sales-driven
4. Market-driven
Product Manager’s primary role serves as the “voice of the customer”. Thus, product
management includes indirect management and collaboration with other members of
various groups.
The day-to-day work revolves around executing main tasks: Developing the document
of market requirements, managing the product features, Coordinating activities with
cross-functional groups, and Participating in the marketing launch activities for a
product.
The goal of products management is to:
 Establish competitive and profitable pricing models
 Ensure a market-driven product offering
 Create effective marketing promotions to generate revenue.
 Ensure the support of product distribution (Nigam, 2012)
2.6 Product Management Aspects
Depending on the organization size, the department of product management has many
of roles and functions. Sometimes there is product manager, sometimes there is others
tote the roles of a product manager. Frequently, profit and loss (P&L) is the key to
evaluating the performance of product manager. In some companies, “the product
management function is the hub of many activities around the product. In others, it is
one of many things that need to happen to bring a product to market”. (Nigam, 2012)

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2.6.1 Product Planning
Product Planning is ongoing processes of the market requirements identity that define
a product’s features .it requires understand the corporate strategic goals. Some of the
long-term visions have an implicit statement of the company future and its product
offerings; product manager has to understand the product role-play in company vision.
It is not an enough to know the profits percentage of new product, the product manager
must know what new technologies, new markets, and new directions that should
incorporate into the long-term of product plan.
2.6.2 Product Marketing
Product marketing deals with “4P’s” of marketing, which are, Place, Price, Promotion,
and Products. Product planning, “as opposed to product management, deals with more
outbound marketing tasks”. Product marketing based on anticipating, identifying the
customer needs to get customer satisfaction through profitable and effective products.
It including market research, distribution, promotion, customer care, pricing, branding
and much more. (Nigam, 2012)
Product Marketing is an activity that aimed to generate product awareness, make a
differentiation, and market demand. There are three principal methods of achieving this
goal. Each of those methods concentrates on one of the various aspects of the product:
method of price emphasis called “Price Competition”. The method of features that
called “Comparative Marketing”. The value method that called “Value Marketing”.
Product manager should know how to build a marketing plan; the marketing plan for the
product is a functional support plan from the marketing department. its purpose is to
identify explicit activities and deliverables to support the product at various phases of
its life cycle, both domestically and internationally. For new products or product
enhancements, this marketing plan maps the product’s pathway to the market.
In addition, product manager should Setting marketing and sales objectives follows the
identification of problems and opportunities. Frequently a product manager given a
financial sales goal and his job is to design a marketing program to make it happen. In
other cases, the product manager must present the sales forecast to management with
a justification or rationale. Typically, there is some combination of the two approaches.
Finally, it is up to the product manager to know how the marketing function is organized.
This is important because there may be sections of the product Marketing Plan that
may require input or support from other marketing sub-functions, including:- competitive
intelligence, Industry analyst relations, Corporate marketing, Solutions marketing,
Creative organizations, Public relations, Event planning, Global marketing, Strategic
marketing, Alliance marketing, and Marketing policy. (Nigam, 2012)

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2.7 Product Management Scope
Product management has prevailed by include customer management and analysis of
value chain, evolving into a more holistic position. The product manager
responsibilities is to integrate several segments of business into a strategically
focused; maximizing the product value by coordinating the “production” of marketing
offers with the market needs understanding. To accomplish this, a product manager
needs a broad knowledge of virtually all aspects of a company along with much
focused knowledge of a specific product or product line and its customers. Product
managers manage not only products, but projects and processes as well.
Product management is a matrix organizational structure in which product manager
charged with the product success or product line but has not a direct authority over
other teams. Much of the work of the product manager is through different departments
and cross functional, almost as if the product manager were operating a business
within business. (Steinhardt, 2010)
The product manager roles are complex, challenging, and misunderstood in
sometimes. The product manager title used to describe duties and responsibilities in
different ways.
The product manager’s job is to oversee all aspects of a product/service line to
create and deliver superior customer satisfaction and providing a long-term value to
the company. To accomplish this, there will be various short-term and long-term
activities. Ideally, day-to-day activities providing the foundation for the product
manager job and usually absorb 40–55 percent of a product manager’s time; 20–30
percent of the time is utilized on short-term activities; and 15–25 percent is used in
long-term tasks. These percentages are goals. Unfortunately, the reality is that many
product managers spend too much time “putting out fires,” to the exclusion of
strategic planning.
Time management is crucial for all product managers, a significant proportion of
product managers spent much time responding to sales force requests, expediting
products through other departments and to attending some meetings, they wish to
spend less time on those activities. (Gorchels, 2000)
Day-to-Day Duties
On a day-to-day basis, a product manager might have the following
responsibilities:
• Motivating the sales team and distributors.
• Collecting marketing information, including customer expectations,
benchmarks of competitive, market trends and opportunities,

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• Acting as a liaison between production, research, sales and other
departments.
• Controlling product budget and achieving sales goals.
A short-term Duty
A product manager might have the following responsibilities:
• Participate in the marketing plan and forecasting.
• Work with advertising departments/agencies to implement
promotional strategies.
• Coordinate trade shows/conventions.
• Initiate regulatory acceptance.
• Participate in development teams for a new product.
• Manage the competitors’ actions.
• Modify product by reducing costs to increasing the value.
• Recommend line extensions.
Long-term Duties
A product manager might have following responsibilities:
• Create a product long-term competitive strategy.
• Identify new product opportunities.
• Recommend product enhancement plan. (Gorchels, 2000)
2.8 Role of Product Manager
The product manager plays an utterly important role in an organization. Being at a very
responsible position, he has to lead a team that charged with a product line related
business unit to increasing product profitability and to developing new products
reflected business goals.
According to Pichler “the product manager builds products from existing ideas and
helps to develop new ideas based on the industry experience and his contact with
customers and prospects. He possesses unique blend of business and technical
practical understanding; a big-picture vision and the drive to make that vision a reality.
He spends time in the market to understanding customer problems, finds innovative
solutions for the broader market; also he has to communicate with all areas of the
company, like working with an engineering to defining product requirements, and with
marketing communications to defining go-to-market strategy, make sure that
communications team have full understanding of product positioning, key benefits, and
target customer”. (Pichler, Sutherl, and Queener, 2010)

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A product manager’s key role is strategic not a tactical. The key of product manager
responsibilities may include:
 Managing the life cycle of product or product line.
 Specify customer needs related to product by using market research
 Driving a product with cross-functional teams (primarily
engineering/development, and marketing communications).
 Develop and implementing a go-to-market plan then working with all related
departments to execute the plan.
 Analyzing product potential partner and make some relationships
 End to end managing of product lifecycle from concept to the product phasing
out.
 Keeping the customer interests in mind at all times.
 Be an expert in the product and keeping to update with technological advances.
 Development and execution of the product roadmap.
 Perform business analysis with subject matter experts and customers.
 Identification of new opportunities; product enhancements; and line extensions.
 Documentation development to support product-designing, development, and
launching.
 Identification of new targeting markets.
 Definition and implementation product marketing mix.
 The launch strategy development and implementation.
 Facilitate development of high-impact sales tools.
 Developing and execution sales channel training to understand the about
products and solutions.
 Monitoring the market, customers, and other competitors.
 Joint presentations, relationship management with sales for key customers.
 Product awareness at industry events, seminars. (Pichler, Sutherl, and Queener,
2010)

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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1. Introduction
This section introduces the method that used in this research, followed by sampling,
design the questionnaire, data collection method, and finally explain the statistical
analysis tools.
3.2. Research Method
The research approach for this study is a mix of both qualitative and quantitative.
The quantitative approach is used to determine the relationship between the product
performance and the rewards/benefits that Product Manager got, to discovering clarity
of roles and responsibilities in the job of product manager.
The qualitative approach is used to study the challenges that surrounded product
managers in ICT industry in the Saudi market and the reflection of it on his behaviors
to carry out all roles and responsibilities related to his job.
Survey and sampling method used for collection data and analysis, secondary data
was there as a support tool. Survey and interviews were used to collecting the
required information for the study sample.
3.3. Research design technique
The tools to generate the primary data for the quantitative approach will be
questionnaire and survey. This survey is established which challenges that
surrounded product managers in ICT industry in the Saudi market and the reflection of
it on his behaviors to carry out all roles and responsibilities related to his job.
In addition, interviews conducted to obtain the necessary information to discover the
relationship between the product performance and benefits that Product Manager gets
it.
3.4. Population & Sampling
A population is “a group of individuals or organizations who have the same
characteristic”. A sample is “a subgroup of a population that participates in a study and
provides data for the study”. (Plano Clark and Creswell, 2010)
The sample for the study including:
 Product Management Director
 Product Management and Development Manager

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 Product Management Manager
 Product and Marketing Manager
 Service and product Manager
 Head/VP Product
 Product Marketing Specialist
 Product Specialist
 Product Sales Manager
 Senior Product Manager
 Product Manager
In various ICT companies in Saudi Arabia. Study survey contains an open and close-
ended question to obtain a general idea of challenges of product manager, the
reflection of it on his behaviors to carry out all roles and responsibilities related to his
job.
The decision about “the size of the sample requires taking into account the time and
cost, the need for precision, and a variety of further considerations”. (Bryman and Bell,
n.d.)
Due to the limitation of time and costs, the sample of study changed to targeting
employees in product development and management department in STC and Mobily,
moreover, some LinkedIn subscribers who work in ICT field and related to study aim.
Because to time and resource constraints, the sample size that chosen is a 100-
product manager.
3.5. Questionnaire Design
Yin has determined “five traditional methods of gathering and analyzing data in social
sciences research”. It includes experiments, surveys, archival analysis, histories, and
case studies. (Yin, 2003)
The study used the survey as a primary research method for data collection, that
collected through designed questionnaires. The secondary data gathered through
reviewing some books, community sites, and professional articles.
In this survey, open and close-ended questions defined. The study questionnaire
shown in (Appendix 1).

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CHAPTER 4: PRESENTATION OF THE STUDY DATA
4.1. Introduction
This chapter presents the collected data during study period through online survey
service, face-to-face interview and telephonic interviews, by available resource the
data collected in a questionnaire form; the sample size is 104 respondents. All
collected data used regardless the channel of the collection to one poll then applied
with analysis tools on it.
4.2. Sampling analysis
4.2.1 Respondents’ Job Title:
The job title is one of the factors of this study, as the product manager is a new concept
in Saudi market, part of ICT companies use the titles that covered by our research, but
other using different job titles who deal as product manager for the product, statistics
are shown in below chart (Figure 3).
Figure 3 Respondents’ Job Title
The statistics refer to that the majority of the interviewees (74%) were expatriates use
the job titles related to product management, while (26%) of respondents deal as a
product manager and do all his activities and responsibilities, even part of their daily
tasks, with a job title like:
 Business development manager  Commercial Director

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 Country Sales and Service
Supervisor
 Key Account Manager
 Marketing Manager
 Marketing planning specialist
 Partnerships Manager
 Consultant
 Product application specialist
 Sales Manager
 Project Manager
 Supply Chain Director
 Technical Engineer
4.2.2 Respondents’ Age:
Age is one of the factors of this study, it’s reflected experiences level and sometimes to
the salary and job title and level. The respondent's age as shown in below, chart (Figure
4).
Figure 4 Respondents’ Age
The statistics refer to that the majority of the interviewees (54%) their age below 30,
(32%) their age between 30 and 40, and the rest of sample (15%) their age is over 40.
4.2.3 Respondents’ Education Background:
As background education is a major factor to product manager to understand
information, telecommunication and IT services and products and to developing perfect
products related to this targeting field.

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Figure 5 Education Field (Background)
The respondents in study sample are working in ICT sector and deal as product
manager (Refer figure 5), the majority of respondents (54%) have IT background
Sciences or engineering degree, (37%) with Business Background, and (9%) are very
different with background in Education, Humanities and Other.
4.2.4 Respondents’ Education level:
Sometimes the education level reflected a product manager position level, about that
we asked our sample of their education level.
Figure 6 Respondents’ Education level
Study respondents (Refer figure 6) we find that the majority (50%) with a master degree
in Business or engineering, (47%) with Bachelor degree, and (3%) with a doctorate
degree.

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4.2.5 Respondents’ Experience:
One of a major factor in product management field is the experience, especially in ICT
sector.
Figure 7 Product Management Experience
In study respondents (Refer figure 7), the majority (34%) have between 6 and 10 years’
experience, (32%) have between 3 and 5 years of experience, (22 %) have below that
3 years of experience ,and only , (13 %) have over that 10 years’ experience in ICT
sector .
4.2.6 Respondents’ Organization Size:
There is a relation between organization size and product manager position levels,
salary, report line and the job activities/responsibilities. About that, we asked the
respondents in this study about their organization size (Refer figure 8),
Figure 8 Respondents’ Organization Size:
The majority (30%) are working in companies with more than 1000 employees. (18%)
working in companies with number of employees between 500 and 1000. (26%) working

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with a number of employees between 50 and 500, and (24%) working in companies with
less than 50 employees.
4.2.7 Respondents’ Organization Field:
The respondents in this study working in companies that working or supporting ICT
sector in Saudi Arabia (Refer figure 9), the majority of (33%) are working in
Telecommunications companies. (25%) working in IT & E-Business Services field.
(12%) working in Manufacturing field. (11%) working in Enterprise/Consumer Hardware
and Software field. (10%) working in E-Commerce and E- Learning field. (8%) working
in Consulting services field. (2%) working in IT Governance field and only (1%) working
in Media/Entertainment field.
Figure 9 Respondents’ Organization Field
4.2.8 Product of Type:
Product type means a grouping of similar kinds of tangible goods or services.in our
study, it means the type of product that product manager work on it, fight to get a
market share and looking to generate revenue from this product. The products that
related to ICT sector shown below in (figure 10).

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Figure 11 Respondents’ yearly
Target for Their Products
Figure 10 ICT Product of Types
The majority of respondents (22%) are working in Telecommunications products. (15%)
their product is a Solution. (13%) have Hardware products. (14%) have a Software and
Support products. (15%) have an IT Services and Security products. (10%) have
Hosted/Cloud Services and E-commerce products. (7%) have Consulting products.
(3%) have M-2-M and IOT products, and (4%) their product defined as Professional
Services.
4.2.9 Respondents’ yearly Target for Their Products:
The majority of study respondents (76%) have a yearly target for their products and
around (24%) they don’t have target as shown below in (figure 11).
4.2.10 Respondents’ Reporting Line:
Reporting line used to refer the way that employees have a manager, that manager is
the responsibility of another manager, etc. (Cambridge Dictionary, 2017)
As we mentioned during this study, the product manager is a new concept in Saudi
market regarding of this the product manager report to different reporting line as shown
below in (figure 12) depending on the organization size and its structure.

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Figure 2 Respondents’ Reporting Line
The majority of respondents (31%) reporting to Sales Manager/ Director. (14%)
reporting to Product Management. (14%) reporting to VP /Director of Engineering.
(12%) reporting to Marketing Management. (12%) reporting to General Manager
(Product Line). (2%) reporting to Chief Operating Officer (COO), and (17%) reporting to
Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
4.2.11 Respondents’ Monthly Salary and Bonus:
Monthly salary is “traditionally the cornerstone of executive compensation. On it,
employers layer benefits, incentives, and perquisites all normally conferred in proportion
to base pay”. (Dessler, 2000)
Monthly salary is one of the factors of this study, it’s reflected employee satisfaction and
his efforts. The respondents’ monthly salary as shown in the chart (Figure 13).
Figure 3 Respondents’ Monthly Salary

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The majority of respondents (29%) their monthly salary is between SR 15000– SR
25000. (28%) their salary between SR 25000– SR 55000. (20%) their monthly salary is
between SR10000– SR15000. (10%) their monthly salary is more than SR 55000 and
(13%) their monthly salary is lower than SR10000.
The salary usually depends on the jobs required skills and education level, safety
hazards, the degree of responsibility, and so on all factors you assess through job
analysis. Depend on the salary the employee get some benefits like Bonus and End of
Service Award (Dessler, 2000)
Related to the respondents’ Bonus shown in below chart (Figure 14). The bonus is “an
additional compensation given to an employee as a reward for achieving specific goals
set by the organization management, or for dedication to the company”. (Dessler, 2000)
Figure 4 Respondents’ Bonus
The majority of respondents (52%) they get Less than 3 basic salaries as a bonus in
last year. (37%) their bonus is between 3 and 5 basic salaries. (10%) their bonus is
between 6 and 8 basic salaries, and (2%) their bonus is More than 8 basic salaries.

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4.2.12 Respondents’ Benefits:
Some respondents in this study get some benefits from their companies (Refer figure
15), also some of them looking to get other benefits.
Figure 5 Respondents’ Benefits
The benefits that covered through this study are in following:
 Health insurance
Hospitalization, health, and disability insurance help protect employees against
hospitalization costs and the loss of income arising from off-the-job accidents or
illness. (Dessler, 2000)
The majority of respondents (81%) have a good health insurance.
 Ongoing Professional Development, (41%) of respondents are getting an
professional development training, whereas the majority of respondents (59%)
their organizations do not take care the ongoing professional development
 Flexible Work Schedule: (49%) of respondents have a flexibility in work time,
whereas (51%) haven’t.
 Tuition Reimbursement: (13%) of respondents, working in companies that do
tuition reimbursement for any development courses or any education degree, but
(87%) didn't.

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 Kids School Reimbursement, (23%) of respondents, working in companies that
give the employee his Kids School expenses, but (77%) didn't.
 Employee Stock Purchase Program, (13%) of respondents, working in
companies that give the employee an ability to purchase some company stocks,
but (87%) didn't.
 Health Club Membership/Discount
(19%) of respondents, working in companies that have a discount program and
give the employee an ability to get discounts like health club membership and
other, but (81%) didn't have a discount program.
 Discount on Company Products
(28%) of respondents, working in companies that give the employee a discount
on the company products, but (72%) didn't.
 Onsite Meals: (9%) of respondents, their companies provide them with onsite
meals, but (91%) didn't.
 Onsite Doctor/Nurse :( 7%) of respondents, working in companies with onsite
doctor/nurse, but (93%) didn't.
 Commission and Bonus, Depend on the product performances (14%) of
respondents are getting a Commission, whereas (86%) get Bonus depending on
specific criteria.
 Professional Training: (48%) of respondents, get professional training in their
companies, but (52%) didn't.
During the study interview, the researcher asked the respondents about the benefits
that they looking for a product manager, in following points the summarization of their
replies:
 Fair salary and benefits
 Bonus and Increments
 Flexibility in working hours, support and connection
 Motivation from the management
 Percentage of the revenue
 Product performance based incentives
 Career growth and Promotions
 Recognition and More Empowerment.
 Responsibility. Commensurate with experience and skill set

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4.2.13 Respondents’ Professional Certifications:
The respondents in this study have some professional certifications related to their work
responsibilities, the study sample certifications showed in below (figure 16).
Figure 6 Respondents’ Professional Certifications
The most of the product managers have certifications or experiences related to:
Business Analytics, Product Management, Project Management, Leadership, Marketing
Management, Contract Management, Channel Management and Strategic Marketing.
4.2.14 Respondents’ Satisfaction:
In human resource terms, employee satisfaction means employees are contented with
their work and position, they enjoy much on their work with available resources in the
comfortable work environment, and they feel management is fair and cares about them.
Employee satisfaction can be understood in terms of its relationship with other drivers
such as loyalty, commitment/engagement, business performance, paying salaries,
legally benefits, and level of satisfaction customers have with products. (Zeuch, 2010)
Employers can enhance their attractiveness when recruiting and retaining personnel
while improving their customer service (poor service is a direct result of low levels of
employee satisfaction). (Reed and Bogardus, 2012)

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In this study, we focusing on product manager satisfaction with work environment, his
management, his salary, and his planned result
Product manager satisfaction with work environment
The majority of respondents (91%) are satisfied with the work environment / current
department, (7%) are somewhat satisfied and, (2%) are not satisfied, see (figure 17).
Figure 7 Product manager satisfaction with work environment
Product manager satisfaction with his manager
The majority of respondents (81%) are satisfied with their current manager, (12%) are
somewhat satisfied and, (9%) are not satisfied, see (figure 18).
Figure 8 Product manager satisfaction with his manager
Product manager satisfaction with his yearly result
The majority of respondents (91%) are satisfied with the work environment / current
department, (7%) are somewhat satisfied and, (2%) are not satisfied, see (figure 19).

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Figure 9 Product manager satisfaction with his yearly result
Product manager satisfaction vs. current salary
The majority of respondents (71%) are satisfied with the work environment within
current department, (21%) are somewhat satisfied and, (8%) are not satisfied, see
(figure 20).
Figure 20 Product manager satisfaction with his current salary
As result of employee satisfaction with his current employer, employee building his
vision for next few years.
In this study, we asked the respondents to the question “Where you see yourselves in
the next four years?”, (figure 21) shown the result of this question
The majority of respondents (54%) like to work with same employer organization,(40%)
of them want to work in the same department with higher-level role , (6 %) want to work
in similar role within same department and, and (8 %) want to shift to different
department within the organization.

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(19%) of respondents looking to starting their own business after 4 years and use their
experiences to generate more benefits.
(27%) of respondents, they have a plan to transfer to a different company in ICT sector
to get a high salary or better position than in the current company
Figure 21 Respondents’ Plan of Future
4.2.16 Respondents’ biggest challenges:
During the study interview, researcher asked the respondents about the big challenges
that they face it during their working day as product manager
Actually, a huge list of respondent’s pains and comments come as an output of this
interview, in following the summarization for this list of challenges:
 Balancing conflicting priorities and product expectations between product, sales,
marketing and executive committee
 Budget constraints
 Converting the idea to Reality by quick development time
 Capturing Market Share with a consideration of Change the market need from
specified product to new product
 Changing the working habits and the acceptance of telework for females as a
norm in doing business.
 Competitive activity & benefit, which they provide it to the customers
 Convince the management to change direction, based on market research and
customer feedback.
 Mentalities of direct manager and stability of organization
 Customer acceptance and customer loyalty for long time relationship with win to
win strategy
 Driving transparency and consensus on why certain product decisions are made

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 Managing market risks with taking into consideration the Economy issue, to
generate new leads and open new opportunities for the product
 Understanding the User Experience and his expectations
 Get a truth information about the competitors in the market through marketing
research to build a nice product and avoid the high competition and price war
 Good communication with cross-functional teams inside the organization
 To handle cross-functional teams, keep teams motivated and make product
successful
 Lack of control over other business functions e.g. Sales and Field Operations
 Leading marketing team to do necessary activities that can help product to
achieve goal
 Achieving go to market timeline
 Market maturity, price war, absence of official market researchers
 Meeting customer end requirements with low cost with high quality and reliability.
 Meeting targets and make service/product growth
 Clear definition of job responsibilities
 The efforts are not recognized within organization management
 The long processes in making decisions
 Rapid changes in the Technology development market
4.2.17 Respondents’ Activities/Responsibilities:
Responsibility means a duty or obligation to finish perform or complete a task with
fulfillment, and which has a consequent penalty for failure, the main duties and
responsibilities related the position should be mention in the job descriptions. (Reed and
Bogardus, 2012)
Depend on many interviews; the good product manager is the one who has knowledge
and experience in his product by covering:
 Business activities, related to his product and its market.
 Go-To-Market activities, with good knowledge in marketing.
 Technical activities, with deep information about the product and it's featured.
 Sales activities, to reach success with good communication with sales team by
supporting them to understanding more about the product, market competitors
and push them to increase the sales activities.
The responsibilities of product manager are distributed in those four areas.In this study,
we focused on these areas to explore the good definition for product manager
responsibilities and activities.

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4.2.17.1 Business activities
The respondents in this study doing daily business activities related to their work
responsibilities, as shown below in (figure 22).
Figure 10 PM Responsibilities: Business activities
 (46%) of respondents have a decision on what should go in products.
 (60%) of respondents understanding market problems and it’s opportunities.
 (37%) of respondents doing an end-to- end management of product lifecycle.
 (53%) of respondents know how to preparing good business cases.
 (47%) of respondents know how to doing competitive analysis and market size.
 (45%) of respondents can defining market segments
 (37%) of respondents can defining product distribution strategy.
 (43%) of respondents have experiences on managing product portfolios.
 (29%) of respondents can creating and updating product business plan.
 (35%) of respondents experts on setting and maintaining pricing.
 (27%) of respondents, they can make buy, build or partnership decisions.
 (30%) of respondents experts on tracking the profitability of the product.
 (34%) of respondents, they can analyze product performance in weekly/ monthly
or yearly basis.
 (40%) of respondents understanding the sales process.
 (34%) of respondents managing product roadmap.
 (33%) of respondents can defining and managing product processes.
 (33%) of respondents experts on managing cross-functional teams.

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4.2.17.2 Go-To-Market activities
The respondents in this study doing daily Go-To-Market activities related to their job
Figure 11 PM Responsibilities: Go-To-Market activities
 (57%) of respondents experts in creating and implementing products go-to-
market strategies.
 (32%) of respondents can defining marketing plans related to their products.
 (24%) of respondents planning and managing marketing programs.
 (23%) of respondents experts on measuring the ROI of marketing programs.
 (22%) of respondents defining market messages and content.
 (25%) of respondents experts on defining and building awareness campaigns.
 (25%) of respondents building customer acquisition plans.
 (24%) of respondents building customer retention plans.
 (41%) of respondents experts on the planning of product launching.
 (41%) of respondents, they creating marketing materials for external and internal
audiences.
 (40%) of respondents experts on lead generation.
4.2.17.3 Technical activities
The respondents in this study doing daily Technical activities related to their job
 (49%) of respondents experts on performing competitive analysis.
 (52%) of respondents maintaining the roadmap.
 (40%) of respondents, they managing innovation activities related to their
product.

Page | 43
 (41%) of respondents writing product requirements and detailed specifications.
 (42%) of respondents monitoring product milestones.
 (31%) of respondents defining use scenarios and doing a technically testing for
the product to ensure the availability of all required features.
Figure 12 PM Responsibilities: Technical activities
4.2.17.4 Sales activities
The respondents in this study doing daily activities/responsibilities to supporting sales,
as shown below in (figure 25).
Figure 13 PM Responsibilities: Sales activities
 (29%) of respondents performing technology assessment.
 (36%) of respondents managing product testing and doing product soft
launching.
 (46%) of respondents creating presentations, demos and training materials.
 (36%) of respondents providing sales channel with full training sessions to
understanding the product and how to sell it.
 (35%) of respondents going on sales calls.
 (23%) of respondents staffing seminar and trade show events related to the
product.
 (42%) of respondents, they have a good communication with the sales team and
answering their questions through email or phone call.

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CHAPTER 5: ANALYSIS OF DATA
5.1. Introduction
This section of study, research presented the sample analysis results. The SPSS data
processing results presented by using tables and charts with data analysis. The aim of
this part is to defining the relationship between search methodology elements and the
study topic “the challenges product manager”.
5.2. Statistical Analysis
The survey outputs were analyzed by using descriptive analysis technique.
Descriptive research describes the characteristics of objects, people, or organizations.
This study used the SPSS software to analyze the exploratory factors.
SPSS “Statistical Package for the Social Sciences”, is the most widely used statistical
software in business-related research, it's given the scales of items for a construct, the
Cronbach’s alpha’s that help to find the calculation reliability of those items.
5.3. Data Reliability
Reliability defining by Zikmund as “an indicator of a measure’s internal consistency.
Consistency is the key to understanding reliability, a measure is reliable when different
attempts at measuring something converge on the same result; the concept of reliability
revolves around consistency”. (Zikmund, 2000)
From the population sample, the study survey got only 124 completed feedbacks.
5.4. Reliability Statistics
Cronbach's Alpha N of Items
.709 84
To measuring the reliability, Cronbach’s alpha used to calculate it for survey items. If
Cronbach’s alphas greater than 0.6 that means the accepted reliability. This research
reliability only 0.709, which is accepted.
5.5. Frequencies

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5.5.1 Participants’ profile
The first part of the questionnaire includes some demographic questions about the 124
participants regarding their Job Title, Age, Monthly salary range, Education Level (last
academic degree), Education field (Background), years of experience in Product
Management in ICT sector in Saudi, Industry type, Product type, Number of employees
working in their organization and Reporting line.
In the table (2) the summary displayed.
Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
Job Title
Product Manager 33 31.7 31.7
Product Specialist 5 4.8 36.5
Director of Product 5 4.8 41.3
Head/VP Product 3 2.9 44.2
Product Development Manager 5 4.8 49
Product Management Manager 7 6.7 55.8
Product Marketing Manager 5 4.8 60.6
Senior Product Manager 14 13.5 74
Other 27 26 100
Total 104 100
Age
Between 26 and 30 20 19.2 19.2
Between 31 and 35 36 34.6 53.8
Between 36 and 40 20 19.2 73.1
Between 41 and 45 13 12.5 85.6
Between 46 and 50 8 7.7 93.3
Less than 26 4 3.8 97.1
Over 50 3 2.9 100
Total 104 100
Monthly salary
Range
10000 SR – 15000 SR 21 20.2 20.2
15000 SR – 25000 SR 30 28.8 49
25000 SR – 35000 SR 14 13.5 62.5
35000 SR – 55000 SR 16 15.4 77.9
55000 SR – 85000 SR 5 4.8 82.7
Less than 10000 SR 13 12.5 95.2
More than 85000 SR 5 4.8 100
Total 104 100
Education Level
(last academic
degree)
Bachelor 49 47.1 47.1
Master 52 50 97.1
Doctorate 3 2.9 100
Total 104 100

Page | 46
Education Field
(Back ground)
Business 38 36.5 36.5
Education 5 4.8 41.3
Engineering 39 37.5 78.8
Humanities 1 1 79.8
Sciences 17 16.3 96.2
Other 4 3.8 100
Total 104 100
Product
Management
Experience
< 2 Year 23 22.1 22.1
> 15 Yeas 9 8.7 30.8
11-15 Years 4 3.8 34.6
3-5 Years 33 31.7 66.3
6-10 Years 35 33.7 100
Total 104 100
Industry Type
Consulting 8 7.7 7.7
E- learning 3 2.9 10.6
E-Commerce 7 6.7 17.3
Enterprise/Consumer Hardware 5 4.8 22.1
Enterprise/Consumer Software 6 5.8 27.9
IT Governance 2 1.9 29.8
IT Services & E-Business 26 25 54.8
Manufacturing 12 11.5 66.3
Media/Entertainment 1 1 67.3
Telecommunications 34 32.7 100
Total 104 100
Product Type
Consulting 7 6.7 6.7
E-commerce 6 5.8 12.5
Hardware 13 12.5 25
Hosted or Cloud Services 4 3.8 28.8
IT Services 11 10.6 39.4
M-2-M or IOT 3 2.9 42.3
Professional Services 4 3.8 46.2
Security 3 2.9 49
Software 10 9.6 58.7
Solution 16 15.4 74
Support 4 3.8 77.9
Telecommunications 23 22.1 100
Total
104 100

Page | 47
Number of
employees work
in the
organization
100-500 employees 17 16.3 16.3
25-50 employees 8 7.7 24
500-1000 employees 19 18.3 42.3
50-100 employees 10 9.6 51.9
Less than 25 employees 19 18.3 70.2
More than 1000 employees 31 29.8 100
Total 104 100
Reporting Line
CEO 18 17.3 17.3
COO 2 1.9 19.2
GM (Product Line) 12 11.5 30.8
Marketing 12 11.5 42.3
Product Management 15 14.4 56.7
Sales Manager/ Director 32 30.8 87.5
VP / Director Engineering 13 12.5 100
Total 104 100
Table 2 Summary of Participants’ Demographic Data
It seems that the dominant participants in the questionnaire are in not high position,
which is 66.3% whereas 7.7% are in high position as decision-makers. Moreover, it is
obvious that 50% are Masters Holders that are the most dominant, then the Bachelor
holders that obtain a percentage of 47.1 % while the PhDs are only 2.9%. It reveals the
matter the business. The participants with age below 40 years old are 73.1%, 49% of
their salary is below 25000 SR, 44.2% of participants with experience below 6 years,
and 47.1% their experience between 6 and 15 years.
5.5.2 Participants’ satisfaction
Questions
Extremely
Satisfied
Very
Satisfied
Satisfied
Somewhat
Satisfied
Not
Satisfied
Mean
Standard
Deviation
Order
General
Trend
Number Number Number Number Number
% % % % %
Satisfied with the
department
18 36 35 9 6
3.49 1.061 2
Very
Satisfied17.3% 34.6% 33.7% 8.7% 5.8%
Satisfied with
current manager
25 29 29 12 9
3.47 1.222 3
Very
Satisfied24% 27.9% 27.9% 11.5% 8.7%
Satisfied with a
yearly result
17 42 36 7 2
3.63 0.905 1
Very
Satisfied16.3% 40.4% 34.6% 6.7% 1.9%
Satisfied with the
current salary
9 16 49 22 8
2.96 1.014 4 Satisfied
8.7% 15.4% 47.1% 21.2% 7.7%
Table 3 Participants’ satisfaction

Page | 48
In (Table 3), the question no.3 (Satisfied with a yearly result?) ordered the first one on
mean 3.63 with general trend “Very Satisfied”. Then (Satisfied with the department) with
mean 3.49.
Figure 26 Question orders (Participants’ satisfaction)
5.5.3 Participants’ Professional Certificates
Questions :
No Yes
Mean
Std.
Deviation
Number Number
% %
Business Analytics
78 26
0.25 0.435
75% 25%
Data Analytics
99 5
0.05 0.215
95.2% 4.8%
Product Management
59 45
0.43 0.498
56.7% 43.3%
Project Management
65 39
0.38 0.486
62.5% 37.5%
UX (User Experience )
96 8
0.08 0.268
92.3% 7.7%
Scrum/Agile
98 6
0.06 0.234
94.2% 5.8%
Leadership
71 33
0.32 0.468
68.3% 31.7%
Marketing
63 41
0.39 0.491
60.6% 39.4%
Strategic Marketing
82 22
0.21 0.41
78.8% 21.2%
Partnerships & Alliances
93 11
0.11 0.309
89.4% 10.6%
Channel Management
93 11
0.11 0.309
89.4% 10.6%
Contract Management
96 8
0.08 0.268
92.3% 7.7%
Content Management
99 5
0.05 0.215
95.2% 4.8%
Table 4 Participants’ Professional Certificates

Page | 49
In (Table 4), we asked study participants to defined the type of professional certificates
that they have, The choice no.3 (Product Management) ordered the first one on mean
0.43.Then (Marketing) with mean 0.39.
Figure 147 Question orders (Participants’ Professional Certificates)
5.5.4 Participants’ Benefits
Questions
No Yes Mean
Std.
Deviation
Number Number
% %
Health insurance
20 84
0.81 0.396
19.2 80.8
Ongoing Professional Development
63 41
0.39 0.491
60.6 39.4
Flexible Work Schedule
55 49
0.47 0.502
52.9 47.1
Tuition Reimbursement
95 9
0.09 0.283
91.3 8.7
Kids School Reimbursement
84 20
0.19 0.396
80.8 19.2
Employee Stock Purchase Program
95 9
0.09 0.283
91.3 8.7
Health Club Membership/Discount
87 17
0.16 0.372
83.7 16.3
Discount On Company Products
78 26
0.25 0.435
75 25
Onsite Meals
100 4
0.04 0.193
96.2 3.8
Onsite Doctor/Nurse
102 2
0.02 0.138
98.1 1.9
Commission
89 15
0.14 0.353
85.6 14.4
Bonus
16 88
0.85 0.363
15.4 84.6
Professional Training
55 49
0.47 0.502
52.9 47.1
Table 5 Participants’ Benefits

Page | 50
In (Table 5), we asked the participants to select the type of that they get, The choice
(Bonus) ordered as the first one on mean 0.8.Then (Health insurance) with mean 0.81.
Figure 28 Question orders (Participants’ Benefits)
Related to the Bonus we asked Participants’ about the quantity of this bonus by
measured it with the basic salaries.
Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
3 to 5 basic salaries 38 36.5 36.5
6 to 8 basic salaries 10 9.6 46.2
Less than 3 basic salaries 40 38.5 84.6
More than 8 basic salaries 2 1.9 86.5
No bonus 14 13.5 100
Total 104 100
Table 6 Participants’ Bonus
5.5.5 Participants’ Responsibilities
Questions
No Yes
Mean
Std.
Deviation
Number Number
% %
Creating And Executing Go-To-Market
Strategies For Products
48 56
0.54 0.501
46.2 53.8
Deciding What Should Go In Products
60 44
0.42 0.496
57.7 42.3

Page | 51
Understanding Market Problems And
Opportunities
46 58
0.56 0.499
44.2 55.8
End To End Management Of The Product
Lifecycle
69 35
0.34 0.475
66.3 33.7
Preparing Business Cases
51 53
0.51 0.502
49 51
Performing Competitive Analysis And Market
Size
58 46
0.44 0.499
55.8 44.2
Defining Market Segments To Target
62 42
0.4 0.493
59.6 40.4
Defining Product Distribution Strategy
70 34
0.33 0.471
67.3 32.7
Managing Product Portfolios
62 42
0.4 0.493
59.6 40.4
Creating And Updating The Business Plan
77 27
0.26 0.441
74 26
Setting And Maintaining Pricing
73 31
0.3 0.46
70.2 29.8
Making Buy, Build Or Partner Decisions
80 24
0.23 0.423
76.9 23.1
Tracking Product Profitability
76 28
0.27 0.446
73.1 26.9
Analyzing Product Performance
73 31
0.3 0.46
70.2 29.8
Understanding The Sales Process
66 38
0.37 0.484
63.5 36.5
Managing Product Roadmap
73 31
0.3 0.46
70.2 29.8
Defining And Managing Product Processes
74 30
0.29 0.455
71.2 28.8
Managing Cross-Functional Teams
75 29
0.28 0.451
72.1 27.9
Defining Marketing Plans
75 29
0.28 0.451
72.1 27.9
Planning And Managing Marketing Programs
82 22
0.21 0.41
78.8 21.2
Measuring The ROI Of Marketing Programs
85 19
0.18 0.388
81.7 18.3
Defining Market Messages And Content
86 18
0.17 0.38
82.7 17.3
Defining And Building Awareness Campaigns
82 22
0.21 0.41
78.8 21.2
Building Customer Acquisition Plans
82 22
0.21 0.41
78.8 21.2

Page | 52
Building Customer Retention Plans
82 22
0.21 0.41
78.8 21.2
Launch Planning
65 39
0.38 0.486
62.5 37.5
Creating Marketing Material For External And
Internal Audiences
63 41
0.39 0.491
60.6 39.4
Lead Generation
65 39
0.38 0.486
62.5 37.5
Performing Competitive Analysis
56 48
0.46 0.501
53.8 46.2
Maintaining The Roadmap
53 51
0.49 0.502
51 49
Managing Innovation
64 40
0.38 0.489
61.5 38.5
Writing Product Requirements And Detailed
Specifications
65 39
0.38 0.486
62.5 37.5
Defining Use Scenarios
76 28
0.27 0.446
73.1 26.9
Monitoring Product Milestones
64 40
0.38 0.489
61.5 38.5
Performing Technology Assessment
79 25
0.24 0.429
76 24
Managing Product Testing And Soft
Launching
72 32
0.31 0.464
69.2 30.8
Providing Sales Channel Training
71 33
0.32 0.468
68.3 31.7
Creating Presentations , Demos And Training
Materials
60 44
0.42 0.496
57.7 42.3
Going On Sales Calls
71 33
0.32 0.468
68.3 31.7
Staffing Seminar And Trade Show Events
84 20
0.19 0.396
80.8 19.2
Answering Sales Questions By Email Or
Phone
63 41
0.39 0.491
60.6 39.4
Table 7 Participants’ Responsibilities

Page | 54
CHAPTER 6: DISCUSSION AND INTERPRETATION OF
FINDINGS
6.1. Introduction
This section used to present the study findings and feedback. In addition, it's explaining
the study results, and discussing the implications.
6.2. Finding
Depend on the purpose of this study, the finding related to most important challenges
that face product managers inside ICT industry in Saudi Arabia, relationship between
the product performances and rewards/benefits that Product Manager gets relationship
between product manager satisfaction in his current position with his plan in future, and
product manager responsibilities with areas of career development.
6.2.1. Most important challenges of product manager
These challenges can summarize as followings:
 To reach the target of sales for his product.
 To develop a product that can make revenue for the organization by matching
the customer needs
 To managing many products and developing others in same time
 Workload vs working hours and No clear definition of task responsibilities
 To make sure that all development stages follow the timeline
 To handle across functional teams, keep teams motivated and make product
successful
 To develop product manager skills and to be a star in his department by proving
his self
 To achieving go to the market timeline and introducing the product to market in
right time.
 To get a truth marketing research information about the competitors in the market
 To get benefits from the rapid changes in the Technology market
 To get rewards/benefits from the organization management depend on product
performance
 To keep his information updated to improving himself through continuous
education and learning

Page | 55
6.2.2. Rewards/benefits that Product Manager gets
As study respondents answered, there’s no relationship between the product
performance and rewards/benefits that Product Managers get. The respondents are
doing their best efforts to ensure the high performance of their products and monitoring
all aspects related to products. In another hand, Product Managers do not get an
expected appreciation and respect from their companies as they dreaming on, they get
a lots of psychological pressures to moving forward and achieving management target
with no special benefits to the employee himself “the product manager”, in the same
time the most benefits goes to some people who have a good relation with the higher
management especially friends or family, regardless of their performance or results.
In following the list of benefits that some of the respondents looking for:
 Fair salary related to market price and other companies offers.
 Good bonus and increments related to the product profit.
 Better package with fair benefits.
 Flexibility on work schedule.
 Management believing and support.
 Career pathway.
 Motivation with clear vision.
 Tuition reimbursement.
 Kid’s school reimbursement.
 Professional training through continually improving.
6.2.3. Product Manager Satisfaction Vs Future Plan
As respondents are doing best efforts and they did not get the benefits that they looking
for, the plan of them future can summarize as following:
 Some of them looking to working in a higher-level role within the same
department at the current company, because they satisfied with current
management and they have a good relation that can support them to be in upper
position.
 Some of them looking to moving to other companies because they unsatisfied
with current management or the current salary or current position.
 Some of them looking to starting their own business in ICT field because they
feel that they have an enough experience and it’s time to start making a profit for
their own business.
 Some of them looking to working within the same company but at a different
department because of the unsatisfied with current management and they feel if
they move to another department their opportunities to career pathway will
increases.
 Many of product managers looking for good income depending on the growth in
ICT market and opportunities within the industry

Page | 56
6.2.4. Product Manager Responsibilities
As product manager working with different departments across the organization and
handling cross-functional teams.
The product manager responsibilities should cover Business, Technical, Sales, and Go-
To-Market activities as following’s:
Business responsibilities
 Deciding what product should go in.
 Understanding weakness and opportunities of the market.
 End-to-End management of the products lifecycle
 Preparing business cases
 analysis market size and competitive
 Defining market and target segments.
 Defining strategy for product distribution
 Managing products portfolio
 Creating/updating and executing business plan
 Defending Cost and setting the pricing
 Making decisions of partner
 Tracking and monitoring the profitability of product
 Analyzing product performance
 Understanding the process of sales and other across-functions
 Managing product roadmap
 Defining and managing product processes
 Managing cross-functional teams
Technical responsibilities
 Performing competitive analysis
 Follow up product roadmap to ensure that everything moves smoothly
 Managing innovation
 Defending the product requirements
 Understanding product specifications
 Defining the scenarios of product testing and using
 Monitoring timeline and milestone of the product
Sales responsibilities
 performing and assessment the technology
 Managing product testing and soft launching

Page | 57
 Doing training sessions to related sales channels
 developing presentations, demos and training materials
 Staffing seminar and trade marketing events
 Answering questions of sales through email and phone
Go-To-Market responsibilities
 Defining marketing plans and activates
 Planning and managing marketing programs
 Measuring the marketing programs ROI
 Defining marketing content messages
 Defining and building awareness campaigns
 Building plans for customer retention and acquisition
 Launch planning
 Creating marketing material for external and internal audiences
 Lead generation
 Creating and executing products go-to-market strategies

Page | 58
CHAPTER 7:CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
7.1. Conclusion
The main aim of the research study to providing a better understanding of the
challenges that surrounded the product manager inside the ICT organizations because
the product management is a new concept in the Saudi market.
To avoid employee turnover and losing the expert staff, organizations should attention
on their staff satisfaction by giving them a fair salary, attractive benefits, and career
growth up opportunities.
The expert product manager have knowledge about his product also he have
knowledge about staff salaries with competitors and if he does not get appreciate from
his management with salary increment, professional training, and change to career
growth, in this point, the expert product manager will get his decision to move other
company, to get good salary or good position.
Furthermore, the product manager should improve his skills by getting knowledge
related to his role activates. He should get training courses in (Business Analytics, Data
Analytics, Project Management, Leadership, Marketing, Strategic Marketing,
Partnerships Management, Content Management, and Product Management) to
increase his value in ICT market. He should invest allot on his self by getting degrees or
professional certificates.
7.2. Recommendations
The organization should have clear KPIs to a fair evaluation of product manager's
performance, with motivation system of salary and benefits. The companies should
maintain qualified staff; the risk of losing qualified product manager it reflects the
product performance and profitability.
Product managers should have a professional community to supporting each other, and
saving their rights in the long terms.
The product manager should be smart and keeping his eyes open for any opportunities
inside the current company or with any competitors in the market. He should look to his
self as a product to developing his skills and experiences.

Challenges of Product Managers in Saudi Arabia's ICT Industry

Challenges of Product Managers in Saudi Arabia's ICT Industry

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