AMA: LaunchDarkly Head of Product, Karishma Irani on Product Management Career Path

This is somehow the simplest and toughest question on here 🙂 Your typical PM career path can look like: PM: Responsible for a KPI or set of features Senior PM: Responsible for a product area end-to-end Staff/Group PM: Responsible for a product end-to-end Principal/Director PM: Responsible for a business unit VP PM: Responsible for multiple business units CPO: Responsible for the entire Product org ...but I personally don't find that framing helpful because it varies so much from company-to-compa ...Read More

For early career IC product managers, success is measured consistently with how you manage the product lifecycle, pace of delivery, the value of features you deliver to users, and how they contribute to growing the overall business. For me, I added 2 unique criteria to evaluating my success as a PM: GSD-ness and Catalyst. GSD-ness is your 'getting sh*t done' meter. When executives have a complex project that needs to be done on an aggressive timeline, do they think of you as the person who can g ...Read More

Managing products in a new space provides the perfect balance of applying existing expertise you have about your craft (product management, in this case) and acquiring a new set of skills by overcoming challenges that test the limits of what you thought you knew about the product and business. Personally, I love breaking out into new domain areas and think every PM should find an opportunity to do this (preferably at their existing company) every 2-3 years. It also helps build your portfolio to ...Read More

I love this question because as an interviewer who's looking at 100s of resumés each week, I'm also trying to figure out what makes candidate x stand out over candidate y. I'd suggest doing two things: Modify the standard resumé template to include a section for "The kind of PM I am" v/s "The kind of PM I'm not", and be really honest about what you enjoy doing day-to-day in your ideal role v/s what would demotivate you and bring you down. For example, "I love talking to customers every day as an ...Read More

This assumes that you have the ability to choose what you work on in your first PM role, which is great if true, but rare since businesses already have a specific idea for "what needs to be worked on" before they make a PM hire. But let's assume that you've just landed your first PM role and you're looking to get some quick wins under your belt in the first 60 days. I would suggest pursuing one or more of these paths: Interview engineering, product, and design leaders across the organization and ...Read More

This might not be the answer you're looking for, but the top first thing that comes to mind is grit. To me, the ability for someone to overcome obstacles and achieve their goals despite hardship is extremely impressive and way more valuable than any prior work experience on a resumé. So when hiring, I look for PMs who: were part of a team at a tough time in the company's trajectory and learning how/if they overcame it successfully launched new initiatives or products because that's full of obsta ...Read More