AMA: HubSpot Director of Product, Jesse Tremblay on Product Management Career Path

This can vary from organization to organization, so take the specific examples with a little bit of a grain of salt. However, the rough frame is how I might think about it broadly. The way that we think about our management track here at HubSpot is, you have your typical IC roles from APM to PM to SPM, and then from there, there's kind of a decision that you want to make to either jump into a management track or to continue down the IC path. If you're going down that management track, there's a ...Read More

I think the most important thing to think about when you think about influence is you can only influence people based off of things that they actually care about. So how do you figure out what people care about? You can watch how the organization behaves, you can read past information, you can also just go out and talk to people and to find out what do people actually care about in the organization, what are they focused on, what are their goals, what are they worried about and things like that. ...Read More

I think the most important thing when you're trying to decide your career path or a path in Product Management is to really understand two things 1) is what are the paths and what are different about each? What are their unique strengths? What are their unique qualities? What are the unique things that you would do in each that are different from one another? For example, the IC PM path means that you are more directly solving problems with UX, engineering and other partners. It affords the abil ...Read More

These are two great questions, so I'll address them separately. First, getting promoted... I think the most important philosophy is to focus on what you can control - delivering impact, building relationships, and growing your skills. When business opportunities arise, you'll be a natural choice because you've already demonstrated the capabilities needed at the next level. The things you can control are Drive Business Impact: Consistently deliver measurable value aligned with business goals whil ...Read More

I'll be honest - this is something I still struggle with. While I try to establish clear ownership boundaries between my responsibilities and my teams', overlap is inevitable since we're all working toward the same goals at different altitudes. When conflicts arise, like when my work overlaps with a direct report's area, I consciously position myself as a peer rather than a manager. I never want my team making decisions just because I have an opinion, especially when I've empowered them as the e ...Read More

While my direct experience with FAANG product managers is limited, I've worked extensively with PMs from entrepreneurial backgrounds, including my own experience in early-stage startups and SMBs. The main advantage I've observed with entrepreneurial PMs is their versatility. They don't just excel at product development - they bring a comprehensive understanding of the entire business ecosystem. This includes expertise in go-to-market strategy, positioning, distribution channels, team building, b ...Read More

I believe it's crucial to do both. Internal promotions are essential because they create a growth culture and clear career paths within the organization. These internal candidates bring valuable institutional knowledge about our product and business that's hard to replicate. At the same time, bringing in external talent is equally important as they inject fresh perspectives and new ideas that can help shape and evolve our organization. Rather than favoring one approach over the other, the key is ...Read More