How do the skills you need differ across the different levels of product management?

Let me break it down by covering 3 different levels of PMs:

1. Associate PM -- the bar here is that you have great critical thinking, clear communication, energy, and a mix of CS and business degree. 
2. Senior PM -- in addition to the above, you must have a track record of previously released products and features. The experience here is what matters as you learn how to avoid mistakes. You also know what Product Management is all about e.g. market, users, technology, etc. As a Sr PM, you don't need to be told what to do and how to do it. You are expected to tell your manager about the work you have done to come to a strategy you are proposing. 
3. Director PM -- you need to be an inspiring leader with great people skills. Your work shifts more into setting the vision and strategy and helping your team stay on course. You will work with product leadership e.g. VPs, CPOs defending the strategy and updating everyone on where your product is at while helping your team grow.  

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 evolves. 

Individual contributor (IC) PM: Prioritization, trade-offs, taste (sense for what makes a good user/developer/API experience), empathy for users/stakeholders/engineers/designers, knowing how to develop and test a hypothesis, grasp of success and guardrail metrics, growth mindset (ability to change one's mind when new facts become available).

Senior-Principal IC PM: Everything above plus thinking in systems (ability to see how what you're building is making impact in a broader context of your product/solution/business), influencing stakeholders, thinking in bets (Annie Duke's book is a fantastic read on this), sense of product-market fit, knowing how to craft a strategy and 1-year+ roadmap, compelling written and verbal communication skills. 

Between the IC and Manager levels the skillset evolves from being craft-centric to a more generic one:

Manager of IC PMs (e.g. Group Product Manager or Director): vision setting (ability to articulate how a product strategy ties to a set of beliefs about the world/future), clarity (ability to absorb complexity and convey it in abstractions that are easily understood), efficiency in managing dependencies across your group and others, ability to inspire others, ability to identify talent and strengths in others, creating space for others

Manager of Managers (e.g. Head of Product): Everything above plus sourcing context from other parts of organization to keep your team aware, ensuring team alignment and optimization for global goals vs local optimas, managing team headcount growth (e.g. advocating for when the team nees more people), public speaking skills to represent your team/company (you may develop public skills earlier in your career, but at this point you it's a must have), identifying good opportunities the team is not working on helping with exploring them, M&A/ability to integrate an acquired team.

Manager of Managers of Managers (e.g. CPO): Everything above plus crafting internal and external narratives telling the story of what the product(s) and product org stands for, "translation" and mediation between executives and product org, advocacy up and down, dirving cohesion in quality of hiring, defining and maintaining principles and standards of product craft/PM levels/promotions, keen market awareness, sense of global product opportunities and innovation, exceptional listening skills and ability to quickly get to the core of any problem. 

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 processes
• Strong communication and leadership skills to lead cross-functional teams
• Advanced knowledge of prioritization and risk management
• Advanced analytical skills to define OKR's and metrics

For a Director or executive, the skills needed are all of th ePM skills plus:

• Strong leadership and communication skills to guide and inspire many product teams via a vision and strategy
• Advanced stakeholder management and ability to interface and align with leadership on company goals
• Advanced understanding of metrics and company OKR's
• Industry knowledge and thought leadership
• Ability to interface with customers to get a deep understanding of their issues.
• Hiring, and mentoring a team. Help guide through inter personal issues.

Skills vary at different levels of product management, similar to other functions. In large organizations, product management usually has two tracks: 

1) the IC track - PMs can grow as individual contributors to director or even VP (depending on the company size) levels. Again, it's hard to pinpoint the exact skill level for a set PM trajectory as this varies from company to company. But at a high level, an entry-level PM with a good product sense and a curiosity to learn and execute an end-to-end feature is considered valuable. Once you have a couple of feature launches under your belt, and if you had paid attention to signals from the market during execution, you would have noticed your roadmap being constantly tested by customers and sales teams (in B2B). The next level is where you own the strategy for your product or a set of features within a large product. Typically, you are a senior product manager at this level, owning the roadmap along with your manager. The next level, usually a Principal Product Manager, is where your responsibility spans multiple product lines. You are responsible for arriving at a strategy for your product and have to convince cross-functional teams to work with you to help you succeed. The scope of problems at this level is more vague and complex, which can lead to questioning the fundamental user behaviors and system architecture. At this level, the PM is expected to foster collaboration across teams and bring clarity to their and dependent teams. Beyond the Principal PM level, PM jobs become extremely cross-functional and involve crafting the company’s overall product strategy and having a POV across the company, cutting across different business units. Finally, PMs at this level are expected to mentor junior PMs, give them direction based on the high-level strategy, and build executable 1-3-year roadmaps.

2) The management track: PMs at a Principal level in an IC track are usually at a Senior Manager level as a people manager. As a PM people manager, the role changes to mentoring PMs, helping PMs progress in their careers, and finally aligning with cross-functional leaders to ensure their team's success in large projects. PMs at director and higher levels also contribute to the overall company strategy and drive more future-looking initiatives.

Skills Across Product Management Levels

1. Early PM:
   Focus on mastering execution. You'll likely be given problems and potential solutions, so use this time to understand the why behind the work—why it helps customers or the business. Build foundational skills in working with cross-functional teams, especially engineering and support. Treat these as opportunities to learn and refine your craft.

2. Mid-Level PM (Senior / Experienced PM):
   At this stage, you should own problem-solving. You’ll be handed customer or business problems, and it’s your job to devise solutions. Strong critical thinking is essential—break down problems into smaller components, prioritize effectively, and create actionable plans.

3. Director Level:
   Now, you’re expected to identify problems proactively. You should be able to spot opportunities, evangelize why they matter, and influence others on why now is the time to solve them. This requires strategic thinking, storytelling, and cross-functional alignment.

4. VP or Above:
   At leadership levels, the focus shifts to coaching teams and shaping the organizational structure. Your role is to enable others, ensure the team’s work aligns with business objectives, and optimize the product organization for long-term success.

The journey involves scaling your focus from execution to strategy, while continuously honing your influence and leadership skills.