Product Management Career Path

Typically, promotions are the result of an individual's performance and business needs. In other words, it's hard to make a case for becoming a Director if your area can be covered by a single Sr PM,

This is a mix of both seniority as well as working at a high-growth private company but clarifying R&Rs to ensure teams are built to maximize impact while minimizing management overhead is somethi

A few of things: Know what, when and how to delegate. Delegation has such a negative connotation in industry (being seen as letting garbage flow downhill) but I believe this is because so many manage

Leadership levels require a broad set of skills and experience, as well as a strong commitment to leadership, team mentoring and cross-functional collaboration.  A lot of time is spent in deciding the

Let me break it down by covering 3 different levels of PMs: Associate PM -- the bar here is that you have great critical thinking, clear communication, energy, and a mix of CS and business degree.  S

Let's take a look at common milestones of a product management career, and which skills you need the most on each level. This not an exhaustive list, but you can see the trends of how the skillset evo

For a PM or Sr. PM, the skills needed are: Strategic thinking and ability to develop product roadmaps that align with company goals Deep understanding of customer/user issues and product development

1. Storytelling. You need to be able to tie many disparate pieces of product work - user needs, business goals, technical limitaitons, competitive landscape, innovation opportunities - into a coherent

Exemplary people leadership (ability to bring people along) Strong relationships across various functions (including non-R&D teams) - get done what's needed to solve a problem, and get products l

1. Communication 2. Execution 3. Domain expertise I'd add stakeholder management as an important one but I can only do the top 3 :)

My answer to this depends a lot on whether the "director" title includes people management or not. Personally, I believe that it should, and that the IC (individual contributor) track should only use

The 3 top areas I think are: Leadership and team management Managing a team of product managers, as well as collaborating with cross-functional teams across the organization is key. Provide feedback

See my answer above on breaking into tech as a PM for one of the options. Another option, if you are a mid-to-senior career professional is to build ties with your product team internally. Product lea

Generally, where I’ve seen people best succeed in transitioning is when you change one dimension at a time. So, either change your company, role or industry. Trying to move across several things is ha

It can be challenging to break into PM space but here are a few tips: 1. Switch roles to PM within your current organization: this is the best path as you already have a good understanding of your com

There are different ways you can think about it, but I like to think about PMs as those that build new products (0-->1) and PMs that come in to manage an existing product (1-->N). 0-->1: Pro

Some key types I have encountered are: UX/UI product managers: These product managers are responsible for the user experience and user interface of a product.  Platform product managers: These produc

Check out my other answer in this AMA to a question asked by someone from a construction industry. You can repurpose the steps I outlined in that answer to your situation. The key parts to figure out

Some key tips are: - Research the industry: what are the specific areas within SAAS you are most interested in? Follow newsletters, influencers and publications/conferences. Network with relevant lead

There are a couple of things that make some candidates stand out from the rest: User-focused: The most successful product managers are those that think deeply about people and want to understand them

- Soft skills such as communication, teamwork, adaptability, and a willingness to learn are also important for any product organization. - Work with Engineering on a day to day basis to help build a p

My personal take is that when I am speaking with strong product candidates, I can see a few qualities shine through in their story. For me, those are:  1. They are constant Learners/curious They are c

For me the biggest differentiator is having a growth mindset. This doesn't just mean they want to make an impact and improve as a PM. For me it comes down to three things: They have a sense of what t

They teach you something in the interview I once interviewed a woman who had extensive experience working for a telecommunications company. I have zero experience in telco – aside from being a custo

A few things: A very deep understanding of the problems they are looking to solve. This gets reflected in how they speak about past experiences (why did you choose to work on a specific problem, what

I'll speak to commonalities in IC PMs since I have less experience hiring other product leaders. It's really just 4 things in my view: A clear ability to break down complex, multi-faceted problems in

Best product management candidates craft compelling, concise and inspirational narratives when they interview. They demonstrate clarity of thinking, knowing both the facts and the "why" behind their a

The best Product managers combine curiosity with structured problem solving skills. Being curious helps them look at problems as opportunities to learn & grow. Ability to frame & structure a p

The best PM's have: - Strong leadership and communication skills. To be able to talk to customers, stakeholders, and leadership with the right context. They are good at leading teams with ambiguous pr

Domain experience is not at the top of the list of things I look for in a candidate. I have changed domains a couple of times in my career and it has helped me get a richer perspective. For this reaso

I like to challenge those I hire with questions that don't fit the usual narrative. Below is an example of my Friday fun question: Imagine humans decided to take the moon and push it through a giant

The best way to get better is framing and articulation is to understand what works best for your organization based on lifecycle stage, market type and product type. You may want to try framing using