If we were to believe a survey by McKinsey Product Management Index, Product Managers spend their time on a diverse set of tasks and responsibilities. 1/3rd of PM’s time goes into defining product strategy (18%) and collaboration activities with tech and design (15%).
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Kidding not, defining a product strategy that can win in the market is hard - you need to know deeply about your customers, data, industry and your own company. Also, working with designers and coders, who live to master their art and are particularly skilled (as compared to generalists that PMs are), and getting them to believe, contribute and work towards your product strategy is not an easy task either.
That is why, in today’s issue - we untangle this chaos that Product Management career is, and bring to you step by step explanation of how you can grow in your PM role. Whether you're an Associate PM with dreams of becoming a Product Manager, or a Director of Product Management eyeing that VP position, this issue got you covered.
Before we begin, do checkout our partners Storylane.io for today’s free Productify issue:
Agenda for today’s issue:
Should you start as PM or PO?
How to get promoted from APM to PM?
How to get promoted from PM to Sr.PM?
Group PM vs. Principal PM - which one to choose next?
How to get promoted from Sr.PM to Group PM?
How to get promoted from Sr.PM to Principal PM?
How to get promoted from Group PM to Director PM?
How to get promoted from Director PM to VP of Product?
Career Growth Equation
Should you start as Product Manager (PM) or Product Owner (PO)?
There are two kinds of companies out there.
One who believe PM and PO are same roles, and a PM should be expected to carry out PO tasks if any. Second who believe that POs are distinct from PMs, and hence both are different roles. As per 2021 Product Management Industry Survey these two types are quite equally distributed.
In my career (Booking.com and Gojek), I have mostly seen the first type. But as a product professional, knowing the difference between the two is important. Here are three criteria to check whether you should start as a PM or a PO (or for a company to know if they should hire a PO or a PM):
Scope: If you’re someone who like to solve for the "how" of building features within a specific product more than you like to solve for the what and why (How>What/Why), then PO is a good start. Many features/products are stuck in an organization and POs can be great to get shit done, and not get entangled in strategy drama. On the other hand, Product Managers would increasingly focus on the "what" and "why" behind product development while leaving the how to the team of designers and engineers (What/Why>How). At Meta for example, engineers write user stories and run sprints (and not the PMs)
Time Horizon: If you’re someone who first wants to get good at working with a team and create certain immediate outputs, often dealing with immediate sprint planning and execution, PO is a good start. Product Managers are often zooming in and zooming out at the same time -looking at the overall product strategy success while making sure execution is in line with it. Again, the role that a company should hire for - depends on the urgency + certainty of the work that needs to be done.
Stakeholder Interaction: Product Owners primarily interact with the development team and design team and that in itself is not easy, while Product Managers interact with a broader range of stakeholders, including customers, executives, and cross-functional teams - also leave a lot of user stories and sprints to engineers and designers.
Looking at above criteria, PM might seem fancier and more ‘strategy stuff’ than PO, but trust me - lot of companies just want to get shit done and POs are great at that - when the market bet is already in place. But, versatile PMs can also do drive product with PO mindset and can switch from strategy to execution when needed. In that sense, PO is essentially a skillset built over certain good agile rules.
I like how Melissa Perri says it:
“Product Owner is a role you play in a Scrum team. Product Manager is the job.”
Have something to say about PO or PM role, do share your thoughts:
How to grow from Associate PM to Product Manager
Skills that Associate PMs have:
Project Management
Communication
Problem-Solving
Time Management
Skills they are missing to move to Product Manager role:
Strategic Thinking
Product Strategy
Market Research
Leadership
How can they build these skills:
Volunteer for strategic projects.
Shadow experienced Product Managers.
Conduct market analysis and share findings.
Lead cross-functional teams on small tasks.
How to grow from PM to Sr.PM
Skills that PMs have:
Product Management
Leadership
Stakeholder Management
Decision-Making
Skills they are missing to move to Sr. Product Manager role:
Strategic Planning
Team Management
Data Analysis
Budgeting
How can they build these skills:
Collaborate on long-term product roadmaps.
Mentor junior PMs and provide guidance.
Analyze product metrics and propose changes.
Participate in financial planning processes.
Do you agree so far with the assessment? share your thoughts:
As a Sr.PM, should you next aim for Group PM or Principal PM role?
As a Sr.PM, you will know by now whether you’re good as an individual contributor or as a (aspiring) people manager.
If you like to continue as an individual contributor, you could contribute to organizational goals as a senior product resource, by becoming a Principal PM or PPM.
Generally, PPMs are most hard working and skilled individual contributors of product team and often own the most difficult product scope, something that needs area or domain expertise.
On other hand, you could also get into management track - that is by moving into Group PM role - where then you oversee PMs and their product areas.
Often, as Group PM, you could move away from core product work since managing people and resource management across teams takes a lot of time away from core product work, and many Sr.PMs do not like that change. This was the biggest downside I saw once I started managing PMs - you never get back into core product work ever again - it is more about product strategy, its execution with people + resource management.
Irrespective of where you want to go, here’s what you need for Group PM or PPM role respectively:
How to grow from Sr.PM →Group PM
Skills that Sr. PMs have:
Product Strategy
Cross-Functional Influence
Large-Scale Project Management
Executive Communication
Skills they are missing to move to Group Product Manager role:
Strategic Leadership
Team Development
Portfolio Management
Stakeholder Engagement
How can they build these skills:
Collaborate on defining strategic initiatives.
Coach and mentor other senior PMs.
Manage multiple product lines or portfolios.
Interact with C-suite executives regularly.
How to grow from Sr.PM → Principal PM
Skills Senior PMs are missing to move to Principal Product Manager role:
Visionary Leadership of their specific product area
Strategic Planning of their product domain
Innovation in their product area
Complex Problem Solving that is specific to an area of expertise
Influencing multiple stakeholders without them reporting to you
How can they build these skills:
Publish thought leadership articles or papers.
Attend industry conferences and workshops
Initiate cross-functional initiatives that influence wider organisation towards your product area
Participate in high-level strategy sessions
How to grow from Group PM → Director of PM
Skills that Group PMs have:
Strategic Leadership
Portfolio Management
Stakeholder Engagement
Business Acumen
Skills they are missing to move to Director of Product Management role:
Organizational Leadership
Strategic Vision
Team Building and Development
Business Strategy and Growth
How can they build these skills:
Shape and communicate a compelling product vision.
Present to and influence senior executives/board.
Build a high-performing product management team.
Identify and pursue strategic growth opportunities.
Do you agree with the growth path from Sr.PM → GPM → Director PM? Do share your thoughts:
How to grow from Director PM - > VP of Product
Skills that Director of PMs have:
Organizational Leadership
Visionary Leadership
Strategic Planning
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Skills they are missing to move to VP of Product role:
Strategic Vision
Executive Presence
Team Building and Development
Business Strategy and Growth
How can they build these skills:
Shape and communicate a compelling product vision.
Present to and influence senior executives/board.
Build a high-performing product management team.
Identify and pursue strategic growth opportunities
Product Career Growth Equation
While it may seem like (from this article), you only need to fill skill gaps to get promoted - but it is not the full picture. A bit of luck and opportunity also plays a big role.
So, what else can help you to ‘stay lucky’? Across my experience at Gojek and then later at Booking.com I could verify it, I found that the right mindset is to optimize for:
(Scope x Complexity)^(Influence)
(Assuming you would perform as per the owned goals, and culturally you’re a company fit. We do not go deeper into these two aspects)Where, Scope = scale and/or importance of your domain/work within the organization
Complexity = characterized by variables involved in the workstream that make the task/problem challenging (people, tech, constraints, trade-offs)
Influence = Radius of impact within the organization (i.e impact outside your own team)
In order of sequence, I always go for first solving for scope. But the order is your personal choice. Ensure that you take the most impactful work (possible at your level) at your organization. This is characterized by how concerned your customers or key senior stakeholders are about the problem at hand.
Then solve for influence... how can you make sure that you communicate to stakeholders what you're aiming for and why.. get their buy-in and keep them updated on progress and achievements. Organize workshops and sessions to share successes and learnings as needed to maximize your circle of influence and build credibility, ownership and accountability towards your goals. Also, find out how you can move metrics for other teams too, not just your own. A lot of PMs who get promoted fast often were able to "do impactful work that touches multiple other teams" and not just their team.
Then we come to complexity. It is often hard to find complexity, but it often makes itself visible: many variables and unknowns, unsolved problem since a long time, too many stakeholders, tough stakeholders, high risk and so on. If you're not able to find a good "scope"... then go for complexity. Complexity often leads to influence because you're solving a tough problem.. but make sure you practice the principles of creating influence.
Coming back to (Scope x Complexity)^(Influence), Note that Scope and Complexity multiply each other.. so a small scope with high complexity also works... or a important/large scope with low complexity also works.. the multiplication of the two should be a healthy outcome that is important to the organisation. But often PMs still miss out on promotions/growth opportunities when their work is not visible.. hence "Influence" exponentially improves your chances of growth.
Pitfall to avoid: Trying to "create influence" without having a strong scope and/or complexity product work at hand. This just gets you visibility but over a longer time, everyone around you realises the relatively low importance of the problem you're tackling.
I hope this framework helps you to know which areas to improve upon to maximize your chances of career growth, skill growth and promotions. Remember, it is not only a great mindset to level up in the product management ladder, but it also makes it easier for you to explain to your manager why you deserve to.
Do you agree or disagree with career growth equation, leave your thoughts: