How to Write a Director of Product Resume
Need to write a director of product resume but have no idea where to start? You’ve come to the right place.
In this post, we’ll help you gain a top resume score by helping you create your own resume.
If you want to land your dream job, your director of product resume must show your ability to take a product from the development stage to market.
With director of product positions, you need to focus on actual achievements tied to metrics and amounts rather than generic skills. You also want the hiring manager to be aware that you know how marketing operations work.
It’s essential to fit all your experience on one page. Most recruiting managers won’t look twice if it’s more than one page.
You’ll want to avoid using resume templates as they won’t help you to stand out among candidates. A resume builder helps, but use the basics taught here to guide you through.
It’s not easy, but certain tricks and tips are helpful. That’s where this director of product resume guide will assist you with your job applications.
This post discusses the format, the correct content to include, and how to put it together in your resume.
We’ll also discuss the following points:
- Examples of product manager skills on a resume
- The abilities and skills needed to include on your resume
- The traits to set yourself apart from other candidates
- Resume tips for director of product managers, including what to include and what not to include
How to Write a Director of Product Resume
Imagine your professional resume being a product and the recruiting manager being a user. Now try and sell your product to the user. Ensure that your information is relevant, to the point, helpful, and clear.
Bear in mind when drawing up your resume that the recruiting manager evaluates how skilled you are at problem-solving and market analysis.
Many applicants waste their time putting down generic skills like:
- Market research
- Working on many projects
- Collaborating with different teams
- Business analysis
- Product launch
- Client relations
- Oversee development
- Product planning
Because these skills are so common, employees find them boring. If you’re like everyone else, you won’t stand out. It’s known that the director of product works with customer feedback, so avoid stating the obvious.
So, how do you make a point of showing yourself off? Here’s what recruiters look for on a resume:
- Great communication skills
- Problem-solving abilities
- Strategic planning
- Decisiveness
- Leadership skills
- Ability to think out-of-the-box
- Comfortable with failure
Be specific and talk about products that you have brought to market.
What Is The Best Director of Product Resume Format?
Choose one of the three best ways to write a resume for a director of product position.
- Functional (Non-ATS compliant)
- Combination (ATS compliant)
- Reverse chronological (Last job first)
It’s best to make your resume ATS compatible, as 98% of Fortune 500 companies use an applicant tracking system. All resumes are first put through an ATS scanner and only get accepted if they have the correct keywords.
Read the job description if you want your resume to pop up when the recruiting manager uses an ATS. Include words and phrases like “product lines, agile methodologies, user stories, and product roadmap” in your skills and work history sections.
A professional and organized resume format with the correct keywords is an excellent way to make your resume stand out.
What Sections Should You Put on Your Director of Product Resume?
Here is a list of which sections to include in your resume. Let’s take a look at them one by one.
Director of Product Professional Header
This includes your job title (e.g., director of product), full name, phone number, LinkedIn profile, email address, and city. It’s also the place you link to your online product portfolio.
Display your differences. List your professional work history in date order, from most recent to first.
You might have a lot of knowledge and experience with a specific type of niche, but it may not be relevant to the job you are applying for.
Make it simple for hiring managers by adding details and being clear about where you want to go in the future. Remember the four principles:
- Relevant
- Concise
- Helpful
- Clear
Note your experiences in reverse chronological order. The recruiting manager wants to see your current job to know when to schedule an interview. Also, not every job needs to be present on your resume.
Include only your most relevant and recent work history and follow this with prior relevant positions. Think about the following:
- Is what you did essential to the job you want?
- How many years did you work in that role?
- Do you have previous experience in the position you’re applying for?
The last one is huge. You might have five years of experience in another position and only one year of director of product experience. Make sure you allow space on the resume for your product management experience.
Let’s glance at some resume examples along the employment road.
Junior Director of Product Resume Examples
As a junior director of product, you’ve worked on many different projects and answered to senior managers.
But you only worked for 11 months. You may wonder if that’s enough to put on your resume. Well, it is. Even if you have been part of cross-functional teams, it’s important to display this on your resume.
But, how do you present this in a way that will make the manager want to hire you?
Well, here’s a way. Add the following:
- The problems that you solved (including product strategy)
- The impact that they had on customer lifetime value
- Tools that you used (e.g., Jira, Confluence)
- Certifications and community contributions
- Knowledge of marketing collateral
- Good partner relationships
- Your customer retention figures
If your problem-solving abilities led to the company making money, saving money, and saving time, then your experience is valid. Any employee who makes a difference in a short period is a great catch, and it also shows that you’re seeking career growth opportunities.
Senior Director of Product Resume Examples
Directors of product managers have worked with many different groups, like your product development team, product management team, users, sales teams, marketing team, engineering team, graphic designers, and other stakeholders.
A director of product has a team of at least one entry-level product manager and junior product developers, each of whom has a different job.
They all work together like a well-oiled machine. Running a product management department and teaching junior staff how to run with a product management lead is all part of product management.
Before working on your resume, consider the following:
- Don’t list all your responsibilities and accomplishments.
- Keep your experience relevant to the job that you are applying for.
- Keep your title consistent.
Senior director of product managers may put many things on their resumes. Remember, relevancy is essential, so whatever you include, make sure that it is important.
Make minor alterations to your cover letter and resume for each job you apply for. You must have the following on your resume as a high-level manager.
- The number of people who reported to you
- Your method for delegation and in what setting (e.g., Agile methodologies, scrum)
- The impact your work had on revenue
- Collaboration tools that you use (e.g., Jira, Confluence)
- Relevant certifications and contributions to the community
- Your ability to scope projects and meet or exceed timeline expectations
- How you advocate for the director of product role
- How you conduct market research to get qualitative and quantitative data
Listing Product Manager Skills
When you list your director of product management skills, ensure they are under each position’s bullet points. Don’t make them a separate section.
Recruiting managers want to see how you use your skills. You have only one page to convince them that you’re the best candidate for their project manager opening.
Here are some of the skills to add to your relevant positions.
- Leadership skills
- Team building skills
- Creative ability
- Empathy
- Hiring and onboarding new team members
- Strategy (shows entrepreneurial skills)
- Public relations (shows interpersonal skills)
- Leadership Skills
Leadership skills are essential in any managerial position, especially for a director of products. This is because the director of products handles keeping the whole product development team motivated.
- Team Building Skills
The success or failure of the product boils down to how well the team worked together. This means that the recruiting manager wants a candidate with excellent team-building skills. You must show how your team worked like a well-oiled machine to achieve maximum efficiency.
- Creative Ability
Your creative ability is what allows you to troubleshoot. If you think outside the box, you have an immediate edge over your competitors. You are good at product marketing and familiar with relevant marketing programs.
- Empathy
This is a champion skill. It allows you to see and understand your customers’ desires and fears. This, in turn, enables you to develop a better product. The ability to get inside your customers’ heads and hearts gains appreciation.
- Hiring and onboarding new team members
Hiring junior team members is part of your senior product manager duties. You need to assess people and choose the best for your team.
- Strategizing
Again, your ability to think out of the box allows you to solve problems and think of good strategies. Having an understanding of business administration and some familiarity with marketing, business strategy, and business development.
You must know how to perform competitive analysis and have excellent knowledge of product strategies. You should also have the ability to formulate in-depth business plans.
Listing Director of Product Education
Only list diplomas and degrees that are relevant to product management. If your educational background doesn’t match the position, don’t list it.
Instead, speak about your academic achievements and subjects relevant to product management.
Listing Director of Product Certifications
Similar to how certifications help you to stand out from the crowd, they also help you on the road to getting hired.
Be sure to list any agile methodologies and agile development skills you have learned.
Certifications show that you want to improve your skills and are one step ahead in a cut-throat job market. This is why they’re essential. Recruiting managers see certifications as reliable, enhancing your chance of landing the job.
Here are some of the more well-known certifications that help you shine.
- CPO certificate
- CSM certificate
- CCE certificate
- PSM certificate
The important thing here is that the hiring manager sees that you want to grow in your career and are taking positive steps toward furthering your knowledge and skill base.
Listing Director of Product Achievements
So, what differentiates you from other people?
Your skills, certifications, and qualifications only matter if they’ve resulted in noteworthy achievements for previous employers. The candidate who gets the best results is the one who gets hired.
You need to show specifics, including amounts and metrics. Put as much relevant detail per successful product as possible. You need to incorporate how you saved your previous employer time and money.
There are many director of product resumes that say generic things like:
“Worked with a team to develop products.”
Hiring managers often sigh and roll their eyes when reading that. These things are essential, but there are no specifics here. Use relevant numbers and metrics, so the hiring manager sees your worth in measurable figures.
A hiring manager cares more about how you made a difference to your company. They don’t care as much about the tools you used to do it.
You’ll need to have a reason for putting those figures down on your resume. Make sure that you use figures that make the difference. Think of relevance.
Here are some great examples:
- Led a marketing campaign for “Miss Morgan’s Lotion,” resulting in a 20 percent increase in sales and over $500,000 in additional yearly revenue.
- Developed “x” product resulting in a 10 percent decrease in advertising costs, saving the company thousands of dollars in revenue.
- Revamped old products leading to a 20 percent increase in product usage time in six months.
Listing Interests
Employers generally don’t bother to look at this section. They care about your achievements at work and how well you serve the company.
It’s best to leave this section out.
Listing Languages
Most jobs require that you speak and write English. However, if you are fluent in another language, you immediately make an impression. Many businesses want to expand globally and may need someone who communicates in other languages.
Director of Product Resume Example
Here’s an example of an excellent one-page resume layout. 
Every line on this resume says the value the candidate has to offer. In addition, they don’t waste resume space by including an objective, a separate skills section, or any other information that isn’t relevant.
Director of Product Application Experience
Every line should say how you help the company. Don’t waste resume space by including a separate skills section or irrelevant information. Keep paragraphs short and use bullet points for easy readability.
Put your skills, relevant experience, and knowledge of software into your work details.
You’ve applied to jobs, and you’re not getting any feedback. It doesn’t matter how many certifications or degrees you have. If your resume is not professional, you won’t get results. You may even get results like this when applying for your first director of product position:
- Applied for more than 100 jobs in the past three months
- 50 turn-downs
- No interviews
You may be asking yourself why you aren’t getting any response.
If this is the case, change your approach. Spend time looking at the company’s positions, and tailor your cover letter and resume for each application. Then you’ll see results like this:
- 50 resumes sent out
- 17 turn-downs
- First round – 4 interviews
- Second round – two interviews
- Last round – one interview
- One job offer
This may seem like a low conversion rate, but it’s not. Compare it to your previous numbers. You’ll get noticed as a potential director of product manager and get that job. This makes your resume more comprehensive the next time you apply for a similar position.
How Many Pages Should a Director of Product Resume Have?
This is important enough to repeat. Keep things as simple as possible. Your director of product resume must not be longer than one page. Why? The ten-second rule.
Hiring managers glance at a resume for ten seconds before deciding whether that candidate is worth pursuing.
Five Director of Product Manager Resume Tips
Here are five tips that help your resume to stand out.
Cover Letter
Your cover letter is unique to the job you are applying for. Every position you apply for calls for its own cover letter. This is why you must tailor it to the company’s role.
Up to Date
If you have a lot of experience, you’ll have quite a few different job descriptions and roles. Make changes to your resume according to the job you want. The more you tailor your cover letter and resume to the position you are applying for, the more attention you’ll get from hiring managers.
Link to Content Portfolio
Link to a simple portfolio hosted in Google Drive. A list of products developed and brought to market by your efforts, along with figures and metrics, gives specific information on your achievements. Link to relevant social media accounts as well.
Work History
You need to prove everything on your resume. Make sure you have definite facts and figures to support your product lines. Don’t put down every job if you have held down quite a few, only the ones relevant to the position you are applying for.
Proofread
Make sure that there are no errors in your resume – you want to present yourself as a sharp and business-minded individual. Your attention to detail is essential to your job, regardless of your ability level.
Director of Product Resume Don’ts
There are also a few things to avoid when creating your resume. It’s a good idea to have a complete and detailed resume ready if needed, but use your short resume when sending in applications.
Summary
Your one-page resume is a summary, so include only relevant information and state that further information is available on request.
Headshot
No need for a headshot. The hiring manager focuses on your abilities and your achievements. Not on how you look.
Old Experience
Make a point of highlighting your recent experience, not what you did in college.
Where to apply with your director of product resume?
Use your professional resume to apply for positions on LinkedIn, Indeed, or any currently booming job boards and marketplaces.
Where To Apply with Your Director of Product Resume
Use your professional resume to apply for positions on LinkedIn, Indeed, or any currently booming job boards and marketplaces.
The most effective marketing tool you have now for landing high-paying jobs is your resume.
You have the chance to apply for UX writing jobs posted on the job boards and international freelance marketplaces listed below, including:
- Fiverr
- Upwork
- Indeed
- Glassdoor
- Monster
Key Takeaways and Summary
We’ve looked at how to write a director of product resume. Here’s a summary of the whole post:
- Be relevant and use a reverse timeline
- Tailor-write your cover letter and resume for each job
- Use the right ATS keywords
- Proofread
- Use the sniper rather than the shotgun approach
Writing a resume for a director of product position is both challenging and rewarding. Writing the perfect resume may take you anything from a day to an entire week.
Do not rely on a generic resume because of the intense competition in the job market these days. Don’t forget to include facts and figures. You want to hire managers to notice you.
After using this guide to write the perfect director of product resume, you’ll land a job in no time. Best of luck with your job hunting!
