Introducing the State of Product Leadership: U.K. Edition

With a new office in London and team in Sheffield via Pendo’s acquisition of Receptive, we are excited to begin contributing to the product management community in the U.K. We hope you’ll check out the first annual State of Product Leadership: U.K. Edition.

Pendo annually surveys 300 product leaders in North America to compile the State of Product Leadership report, published in February 2019. But this year, we expanded the survey to include 100 product leaders from companies of all sizes across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. In the report, launched today, we begin to unveil a portrait of what product management looks like across the pond. While there are many similarities between U.K. and North American product leaders, we also uncovered some surprising differences:

U.K. product teams are more closely aligned with business metrics

U.K. product teams seem to be organized differently from their North American counterparts. Our study found that 41 percent of product managers in the U.K. report to individual lines of business, while only 21 percent of North American PMs said the same. A larger proportion of product leaders in the U.K. also listed revenue as a primary metric they are measured against.

Product leaders in the U.K. say their ideal job is the one they have now

PMs in the U.K. are very satisfied with their jobs, reporting an overall NPS score of 43. In contrast, North American PMs gave their role an NPS score of 3. Consequently, the vast majority of U.K. product leaders say their ideal role is either the one they have now or one closely related to it. Fewer than 10 percent want a different job.

Other notable findings from the report include:

• Product managers in the U.K. are even more likely than North American PMs to make decisions based on data. This data is also more continuous in nature, reflecting today’s fast pace of product development.
• U.K. product teams are more comfortable using newer tools for experimentation, product analytics, and onboarding than PMs in North America.
• A majority of U.K. respondents said their previous role was in project management, followed closely by marketing and consultancy.

We present even more findings and analysis in the full report. Dive into it now to discover the current state of product leadership in the U.K.