How do you decide if you should follow the IC PM path or the people leader PM path?

Different folks would enjoy different things e.g. if you are an introvert -- the IC track might be more suitable as you will be spending a good chunk of your time creating docs, prototypes, etc. It's fun -- just a different kind of fun. If your personality craves people interactions, the people leader track might be more appropriate. 

Being a good people manager is hard, you need to lead by example and support your team whenever they need you. You also need to be comfortable with confronting people by giving them radical candor. Staying "nice job" to something that you think is a "bad job", is not an option. You need to help people grow and it's harder than it seems. 

• Understand if your skills and interest align with the path:

  • IC: Become a topic expert, typically going deep in more technical topics e.g. you really love doing SEOs or healthcare billing. You like to work more independently, actively driving implementation, staying much closer to engineering a solution. You are not shy to take multiple technical courses to become an expert in an area.

  • People Manager: You know enough about a variety of topics to guide the work of someone else, ask the right questions, understand topics w/o having to go too deep into them. You know about a variety of topics but can't execute on everything on your own - while guiding a few more people, you feel confident that you can magnify your impact. You are genuinely interested and vested in making someone else's career a success - you'll have to spend enough time understanding the skills of your team, creating growth opportunities for them.

• Don't feel stuck - people move across roles all the time. If something is not vibing, just don't linger on it for too long.

The great news is that you don't typically need to make this decision early in your career; you can gradually explore both paths to determine which suits you best.

The split between an Individual Contributor (IC) Product Manager and a People Leader PM usually occurs at the Product Lead or Group PM level. As a high-performing Senior PM, you might have the opportunity to take on a slightly larger scope related to your area, which could include managing one or two direct reports. Many companies facilitate this transition by first promoting you to a Product Lead, where you act as a player/coach. In this role, you continue to manage your own team while also overseeing and mentoring a junior PM who leads another team.

This phase is highly instructive. It allows you, as the Senior PM, to experience the initial responsibilities of a people leader and understand what the role requires. If you find it enjoyable and it goes well, you can progress to a Group PM role, where you might still be a player/coach but with additional direct reports.

As you advance further in the people management track, your team size grows, you relinquish direct responsibility for an individual squad, and your role becomes more focused on cross-collaboration. However, if you discover that you don't enjoy the Product Lead or Group PM roles, it's an opportune time to switch back to an IC PM position. You can secure a role as a Senior or Staff PM on a high-impact project or team that requires someone with exceptional skills to drive a large initiative across the organization.

By testing the waters in both paths, you can make an informed decision about which career trajectory aligns best with your interests and strengths

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.