Why Product Managers Are Quitting In Droves (And What To Do About It)

The product management role is topping the charts for all the wrong reasons. According to the latest Payscale report, 66% of senior product managers plan to quit within the next six months—making it the #1 profession people want to leave despite commanding high salaries. For a role that’s supposed to be deeply fulfilling and influential, this kind of exodus is alarming.

What’s driving this wave of attrition? It’s not a lack of passion for the work itself. Product managers often enter this field excited to drive impactful change, create exceptional products, and solve meaningful problems for their customers. But over time, the demands of the role—combined with inadequate support systems—have pushed many to their breaking point. From data access and customer insights to managing competing stakeholder priorities, PMs are often left to tackle an unsustainable workload alone.

So, how can we reverse this trend? The answer may lie in establishing dedicated Product Operations (ProdOps) teams. These teams are designed to empower PMs by providing the tools, data, and frameworks they need to thrive—letting them focus on strategy and innovation rather than scrambling to set up their own processes. Let’s look closer at the challenges PMs face today and how a robust ProdOps team could relieve them, creating a healthier, more sustainable environment.

The Pressures Pushing Product Managers to the Brink 

In modern organizations, product managers are often asked to do it all: 

• Making data-informed decisions with precision prioritization 
• Creating and executing outcome-based roadmaps 
• Building alignment as diplomats among stakeholders 
• Driving collaboration with engineering and UX teams 
• Serving as the “voice of the customer” 

These demands don’t just require skill; they need intentional support structures often missing in fast-paced product environments. Being data-driven means seamless access to sales and customer support data. Developing customer empathy requires structured opportunities for problem discovery. Leveraging insights from product experiments demands a centralized, accessible knowledge base. Cohesive, outcome-driven roadmaps depend on unified tools and processes that all teams can adopt. Without these enablers, Product Managers are stretched thin, manually piecing together data and reports to meet basic expectations. 

The result? BURNOUT. Even the most resilient PMs might find themselves overextended, and when there’s no relief, it becomes clear why this field ranks highest in job dissatisfaction despite the appealing salaries. 

Why Product Operations Could Be the Solution to Burnout 

A dedicated Product Operations team can provide targeted support in areas that often overwhelm product managers. Rather than each PM juggling their own frameworks and struggling to find data, Product Ops streamlines and standardizes these processes, addressing specific bottlenecks that slow down productivity. The goal isn’t to take over the PM’s responsibilities but to build an infrastructure that enables PMs to focus on high-impact work, free from the weight of logistical and operational tasks. This partnership empowers product managers to perform at their best without the distractions of routine hurdles. 

Here’s what a well-rounded ProdOps team can bring to the table: 

1. Instant Access to Critical Business Data

Being data-driven is essential in modern product management, but managing data access can be a significant drain on a PM’s time. Product Operations helps by simplifying and centralizing the pathways to essential information, empowering product managers to make informed decisions without getting bogged down by data logistics. By providing easy access to crucial insights, Product Ops allows PMs to focus on impactful work rather than operational roadblocks.

2. Facilitating Customer and Market Insights

Truly understanding customers requires structured opportunities for meaningful problem discovery, gathering feedback, and staying current on market trends. ProdOps supports these efforts by aggregating insights, streamlining customer engagement tools, and even facilitating discovery processes. With this backing, PMs can prioritize high-value customer interactions and market optimization without getting sidetracked by logistical hurdles. 

3. Streamlined Roadmaps and Tooling 

Roadmaps are important to keeping product development on track, yet they’re often a chaotic patchwork when each PM operates independently. Without a standardized approach, teams risk creating conflicting roadmaps that lead to inefficiency and confusion. A dedicated ProdOps team can unify these processes, implementing consistent tools and frameworks across the board. The approach streamlines planning and prevents the “Frankenstein roadmap” problem, where conflicting tools and strategies make alignment difficult and drain everyone’s time. 

4. Supporting Experimentation and Leveraging Learning

Experimentation is critical for innovation, but Product Managers often lack the time and resources to design, execute, and analyze experiments effectively. ProdOps not only sets up frameworks and tools to make experimentation smoother but also establishes a centralized knowledge base for sharing and leveraging insights from experiments. This ensures PMs can focus on driving strategy and product learning while the operational components are expertly handled. 

Building the Backbone for Product Teams 

A dedicated ProdOps team can benefit the entire organization. By removing low-impact operational tasks from product managers’ workloads, ProdOps allows them to focus on driving customer satisfaction, fostering innovation, and promoting growth. This change can boost productivity and create a strong strategic advantage. ProdOps allows product managers to do what they do best: create and refine exceptional products by offloading the operational burdens that often consume a PM’s day. 

The impact is far-reaching: 

• Retention and Engagement: Supported product managers are less likely to burn out and more likely to remain engaged in their roles, reducing the costly churn associated with hiring and training new PMs. 

• Scalability: As organizations grow, ProdOps helps frameworks and processes grow with them. This prevents the ad hoc “band-aid” solutions that crop up when product managers are left to handle operational tasks independently. 

• Higher-Quality Product Decisions: By providing streamlined data access, organized customer insights, and a consistent experimentation process, ProdOps help PMs make well-informed decisions backed by evidence and aligned with the organization’s broader strategy. 

Investing in the Future of Product Management 

Organizations are at a pivotal moment. With PMs reporting record-high levels of burnout and an intention to leave their roles, now is the time to make a change. A dedicated Product Operations team isn’t just a short-term fix but rather a long-term investment in the health and sustainability of your product teams. When you invest in ProdOps, you’re investing in an environment where, ideally, product managers can thrive, data is accessible, roadmaps are aligned, and experimentation is encouraged. This foundation enables PMs to do what they’re passionate about—building products that truly make a difference—without the constant risk of burnout. 

Let’s Keep Product Managers Where They Belong 

High turnover among product managers isn’t inevitable. With the proper support structure, we can create a workplace where product managers feel engaged, valued, and empowered to succeed. By embracing Product Operations, we can address the burnout crisis head-on and hopefully build a resilient product management practice that can sustain our teams, products, and organizations for years to come. 

So, if you’re a product leader, consider the difference a dedicated Product Operations team could make. Your product managers will thank you, and your organization’s future might just be a bit brighter.