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

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 ability to go deep in product craft to deliver across the entire lifecycle. Whereas a management path means you are influencing the product through other people. Some of those people you coach and manage, and some of that influence by convincing the business to make investments you may not own yourself. 2) The other is what do you like doing in your career? What do you get energy from on a day-to-day basis? What are the things that excite you to do? And also what are your goals? What do you want to do long term? Like when you look out into the future a couple of years, what are the things that you value? Is it being able to solve problems deeply? Is is being strategic and influencing executives? Is it coaching, growing & managing people? Is it compensation? Is it work-life balance? Each of these paths comes with specific benefits, risks & tradeoffs, just like building product! I think the most important thing before you decide any of those paths is to understand what's important to you and what is it about the roles and the paths that are uniquely different. Then look at what you value and what the paths offer and the decision becomes more in focus.

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 couple of key things that we want to see before you move into management roles. So we have kind of a glide path from SPM into those manager roles. Right after SPM, we have a Product Lead role that is kind of player/coach where you still own IC scope in one area, but manage in another. Then that moves into a GPM role up into Director, and then beyond that senior director, VP, etc. One of the reasons why we have that glide-path is there are couple of key things that we want SPMs to start showing as they move up into that management track. 1. People Leadership & Team Development: One of the first things is on the people management and people leadership side of things where when you go from being an IC to managing people, there are a lot of things that you need to do that are completely new to that role and new to things that you don't actually learn as a PM. And so one of the skills that we want to see early on from like an SPM perspective are SPMs that are coaching and mentoring other PMs to learn new skills, to become better product managers, and helping them work through tough interpersonal problems and stuff like that. So I think that's like probably the number one area is like in that kind of people leadership and team development side of things is leaning into, you know, in the early days mentorship and coaching and things like that. 2. Vision, Strategy & Influence: I think another thing that we want to see is the ability to navigate scope more broadly than just like the particular area that you operate in. And that looks like beyond just the areas that you technically own. So here at HubSpot, SPMs largely own pretty large scope. Sometimes that scope can be a little bit disconnected from one another, but it's usually, you know, within the context of like a group or a product line or something along those lines. As you start to move into some of these more, you know, GPM or director level positions, what we try to look for are people who can lead through influence, not just on the people leadership side of things, but also how are you influencing things to happen in the org that you may not actually own yourself. So I think the big thing there is to try to think about how you can deliver or not necessarily deliver but how can you influence strategic things within the org that can have outsized value for even things that you don't own. So I think being able to develop skills around strategy, storytelling, influence and things like that are really important to develop as well. So yeah, I think those are probably some of the skills that you're going to want to lean into a lot no matter where you are if you want to move from an IC role into a manager role.

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 while taking initiative on high-impact opportunities beyond your scope. Do the role, before being promoted into the role. * Build Strong Relationships: Be a force multiplier by collaborating effectively across teams and creating positive experiences that make others want to advocate for you. * Own Your Growth Path: Clearly communicate growth aspirations to your manager and proactively pursue the skills needed for your next role. Focus less on arriving at that next role, and more on learn and growing new skills & expanding your scope & impact. * Position Yourself for Opportunities: Stay aligned with business needs while building visibility for your work, so you're the natural choice when opportunities arise. Each time I've been promoted it's been a culmination of all of those things. Promotions are a culmination of work rewarded + growth trajectory. In terms of advocating for others, I think it's important to understand what they want. So, start there. Then, I think the best ways to support them are: * Sharing your experience working with them, especially to their manager. Tell them what you like about working with them, the impact they make and how they create leverage beyond their current role. * Celebrating their impact publicly. It can be really powerful to highlight peoples work in places like Slack, Zoom meetings and elsewhere that others might see. And do it regularly with consistency. * Help them develop the skills they are trying to develop

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. Because if you treat the organization the same way that we try to treat customers from as a product perspective, it actually helps you understand how to actually how to speak to them, how to solve their problems and things like that. And at the end of the day, after that, influence becomes pretty easy and trivial because then you understand how to speak their language, how to solve problems that they care about that you can help solve with, how to help them reach their goals and those sort of things. So I think that might be just one giant recommendation, but I think it's probably the most important one.

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 finding the right balance between internal growth and external hiring to build the most effective organization possible.

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, budgeting, and financial management. They've often had to wear multiple hats and solve diverse challenges, which gives them a unique ability to see both the forest and the trees. That said, the value of this broad experience really depends on what your specific role requires. If you need someone who can operate effectively across multiple business functions and adapt quickly to changing circumstances, an entrepreneurial PM might be your best bet. Their breadth of experience makes them particularly valuable in environments where flexibility and cross-functional understanding are crucial.

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 experts. I regularly check my effectiveness through both observation and direct feedback, knowing it's a constant balance that requires ongoing adjustment. For instance, right now one of my direct reports and I are working on overlapping areas of our product. When we share ideas that aren't perfectly aligned, I deliberately position myself as a peer rather than a manager. I want to avoid influencing their decisions simply because I have an opinion, especially since I've empowered them to be the expert in their domain.