Product Management Career Path

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 constantly asking questions and actively listening. They are readers and constant consumers of information. To me, this shows that when they come on the team, they will bring fresh ideas forward. Ask the team questions that others may not consider and bring new information to the table.  2. They are persistent and don't stop at 'no' In this, they are contantly trying to understand constraints and find alternatives. They want to address a problem and flexibly driving towards a solution that will do it. They do not get discouraged when someone says no. Maybe they will flex their soft skills and coax a 'maybe' out of the person saying 'no'. 3. Understand how to balance the art and science Often times when we talk about product management, we talk about the science. Your frameworks, how you manage backlogs, understanding data and tracking metrics and all of those fun items. You'll find a lot of books on these topics because they are measurable and easier to write about. On the other hand, we often forget about the art. The way things get done. How you communicate, show empathy, tell a compelling story and inspire others. How you connect with your customers and their problems, lead individuals without authority. Normally when a PM fails, it's because not enough attention is paid to the art.  4. Focus on problems not solutions Often times when someone is describing a problem, you want to jump to a solution. Technically product management is helping to solve a customer problem... but to truly solve a problem, you must really fall in love with the problem.  5. Able to represent multiple POV They are able to advocate wearing different hats. So they can speak to engineer, executives, marketing, the customer, you name it. They can comfortably devils' advocate ideas and not settle for the first answer suggested. Often in the interview process, you are meeting with different stakeholders and really they are each approaching you with a different lens (or hat) to evaluate your ability to breakdown a problem.

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: 1. They have a sense of what they know and don't know, and are always eager to learn more. They question their own assumptions. 2. They're humble and curious in trying to figure out what they don't know and leverage the expertise of others. 3. They frequently seek feedback from others and try to challenge themselves, not just to achieve more but to be a better colleague and partner to others.

1. 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 customer of Verizon Wireless. I walked out of that interview having learned so much about telco companies, their business model, what they optimize for, how they segment their customers, etc. In the stories the candidate told about her work experiences she concisely weaved in the basics of the telco in a digestible way and was very aware of the learnings and insights she had from her product launch successes and failures.  As a product manager you’re responsible for the “what” and the “why.” What should we build and why should we build it? If you’re able to succinctly describe the what and the why of your current or previous roles -- no mater the industry -- that’s a great indication of a strong PM. 2. They make it a two-way conversation. (See answer to “What are the most common mistakes you see candidates make” question above)

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 exactly was the need?) as well as any case study (are they asking intelligent questions to understand the need). * User-first approach: While solving the problem they identified, are they putting the user at the forefront? Are they clear about who the users are for the problem? * Clear communication * For more experienced positions and specific for B2B products, are they mature to understand roll-out considerations for a large group of stakeholders? What are the people and processes needed to make a roll-out successful?

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 into digestible, actionable chunks, as usually shown via some kind of case interview. * Excellent ability to ask good, tough questions * A clear track record of having an impact and/or continuous learning/improvement. This may not necessarily be demonstrated through previous work as a PM, but the candidate is able to speak clearly to the impact they distinctly had or the specificity of the learnings they captured. * Genuine interest and energy around the problems discussed in the interview cycle. This may show up in a case interview (ie. clear enthusiasm about the challenge presented) or when asking questions about the role/company. I always like to see how a candidate reacts when I answer questions about the business/product, challenges we face, etc.

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 answers, and genuine curiosity. I always walk out of an interview with a great product manager feeling like I have learned something valuable, and inspired. I spoke to the skills I've seen among successful product managers in another answer to the AMA, but if you are looking to impress hiring managers specifically, I recommend practicing storytelling and becoming a great conversationalist in addition to the core skills you need to the job. The good news is that your conversational and story telling skills get better the more you practice - and you are not limited to interviews only. Any sort of verbal presentation mastery - Toastmasters, Improv and comedy, acting classes etc. will help you become a master storyteller. 

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 problem helps them take others along in the process. Both these skills can be learnt & cultivated over time. Curiosity - Being curious is an under-rated skill. PMs who are curious keep learning, adding new tools (ideas, PM techniques, s/w tools) to their expanding toolkit and more importantly keep expanding their perspective. Structured Problem Solving - Being able to frame a problem in a simple manner, helps all cross-functional stakeholders & partners align on the problem definition (yes, this is key), the solution and then the execution I try to imbue these two values on a daily basis and this has helped me seamlessly transition across AdTech, Consumer Tech, E-Commerce & Fintech. And, it's a lot of fun!

There are different paths that each product manager takes, but the common ones I've seen are: 1. Joining a tech company as an Associate PM or an intern straight from college. For college grads, I suggest starting by connecting with other product managers (e.g. via LinkedIn) to better understand what we do. There are great books available on this topic as well -- "Cracking PM Interview" is among my favorites. I also created a series of videos explaining tech jobs and what do I do in more detail - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsAz_arwNkiPobhi09VrMFg 2. Transition from other roles e.g. Engineering, Professional Services, Support. This path is easier, as it assumes that you are already in a tech company and can make connections with internal PMs. Picking a PM as a mentor or just becoming a friend with one is a great place to start. I also need to point out that PMs sit at the intersection of Business, Technology, and UX (Customer) -- that is why engineers who transition to a PM team will have an advantage as they understand the technology much deeper. On the other hand, someone in Support who wants to become a PM brings a much deeper understanding of a customer.

There is a fork in the PM career path road: one is becoming a people manager, the other becoming an expert in a deep thinking product area sans managing a team.  My recommendation is to figure out which one is right for you. Many folks want to jump into management simply because they think this is the only way to grow, make more $$$ and so on. That is not true. Big and small orgs I have been a part of value senior individual contributors that are passionate about their individual craft. Speak with folks from both paths, and see which one resonates more with you. Try mentoring people and see if you like helping others succeed through your guidance as a "management path" check.  Then, share your thinking with your manager to get them to help you moving along this path. 

This is a very interesting question and one that I keep touching upon on almost all career conversations with my teams & mentees. There is no one typical career path for PMs, which can be both liberating and challenging at the same time! It's liberating since PMs have the chance to shape their careers to what they would like it to be, playing to their strengths and having a fulfilling life & career. It's challenging since every industry and many firms in the same industry have different definitions & requirements for what a PM is! For instance, even within FAANG firms, the definition of a PM is different - Google requires PMs to market the work of their Engineers, Apple PMs are usually good at their domain of expertise but execute on Sr Management decisions, Amazon PMs are Business/ Program Managers with heightened focus on a few metrics, Netflix PMs are very Technical (most of their PMs were former Engineers or Architects) and Meta offers almost the full buffet but also the most agency & empowerment to PMs. I touched upon some of the PM archetypes in another answer and its great to see that PMs can succeed in any shape or form tht adds value to their firm! PMs who are early in their careers will do well to join established firms to understand the PM tracks and how senior PMs have shaped their careers. Working in a start-up or a 0-1 environment usually turbo-charges a PM's career but only if the PM is aware of their strengths & know-how to leverage them. I have found that alternating between large firms & startups or between established products/ projects and 0-1 initiatives is the best way one can gain the most perspective and shape their careers as PMs.

My personal acronym for the skills that make product managers succesfull is H.A.C.K. H for Humility. There are two particularly important benefits of humility. First, humble people better navigate the emotional roller coaster of being wrong and having to admit it. They quickly recover from situations where their ego might have gotten hurt and move on to the next experiment or iteration. Product managers make a lot of decisions and the ability to course correct quickly without dwelling produces a huge advantage in retaining velocity over time. Second, product managers need to will things into existence by leading people who do not work for them. The list of stakeholders is often long and involves different personalities. While all leadership styles have their merits, humble, servant-leadership style product managers tend to deliver better outcomes thanks to their ability to get along with others, and drive teams toward a goal. A for Analytical Skills. One of the most underrated quotes from Ben Horowitz’s iconic Good Product Manager / Bad Product Manager: “Good product managers err on the side of clarity.” Clarity of vision, clarity of spec, clarity of progress tracking. Behind all of that is clarity of thinking, which is driven by exceptional analytical skills and the ability to dissect complex systems into core elements. Unlike the whimsical “technical” skills, analytical skills are easier to spot and evaluate regardless of their variety. For example, someone who writes or speaks clearly and concisely, or organizes information well in other contexts, is likely analytical. Product managers with strong analytical skills can quickly master any syntax or context they need to have a productive conversation with engineers, or to communicate the value of technology to the market. C for Creativity. I have observed that a person’s ability to understand and articulate what makes a user experience great often comes from their creative skills. What I mean by creativity is an ability to produce objects or experiences that users enjoy. Whether it’s painting, improv, woodwork, writing or managing a running community, there is something special about product managers who can produce things others enjoy. They understand how to create value not only on the rational, but also emotional level. I have noticed that people with a pronounced sense of aesthetics tend to have strong creativity as well. A strong sense of aesthetics can manifest in how they dress, how they organize their desk, and even how they choose tools to use They all have a style. It’s less important what the style is, but that it is present. This is a clue that a person can produce an experience that at least one user (themselves) enjoys. The best part of creativity is that it is contagious. Having at least one such person on a team helps their teammates develop similar skills. I would argue that without creativity, one can become a good product manager, but never a truly great one. K for Knife. My favorite product management quote is attributed to Michelangelo (the sculptor, not the Ninja Turtle). “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. Understanding and deciding what not to ship is the most important decision a product manager can make about product development. Spotting a future "master carver" PM during interviews isn’t as straightforward as assessing candidates for other skills. Asking a candidate about hypothetical scenarios where they have constrained resources, especially time, certainly helps, but it doesn’t simulate the high pressure that product managers will have to operate under. One approach that I use in interviews is asking about non-product related experience that involve decision making and execution under pressure. For example, you can ask a candidate how they would pack their bag, and what they would pack, if they would have to go on a two week long trip to Europe tomorrow.

This is a tough question to answer because it is so situational. For example - I have seen organizations where PM is so immature that it is essentially a project management function. Melissa Perri even uses such an example in her excellent book Escaping the Build Trap! While in Perri's fictional organization, she was able to develop the PMPs into PMs in the end, many companies would opt to try and hire a few true PMs first. Another dimension is mix of seniority which is critical on any team (just like in engineering). If you have a team of all very junior-to-intermediate PMs, you may find that you cannot develop any PMs fast enough into being sufficiently senior & that you need to hire outside. A great Staff+ PM is worth their weight in gold because not only do they generate great results themselves, but they act as an accelerant to the rest of the organization: engineers and designers become both more productive and happier. You also asked about switching folks from other roles in a company into PM (e.g. engineering, sales engineering, customer success, professional services, support, etc.). In my experience, this can work, but moreso at junior to intermediate levels on the PM career ladder. This is because there are a lot of skills that a PM needs to employ that are sometimes not exercised in these other roles. Many such transferees need to be disabused of the notion that PM is just about having a huge wealth of domain knowledge and employing that to "tell people what to do". Even if you can overcome such a barrier and the candidate truly wants to do PM, the compensation gap from where they are coming (particularly if coming from a revenue-oriented role) and perceived demotion may be unsurmountable & you may need to hire from outside.

Regardless of how you grow your product team, you'll need to establish a healthy culture around the product process, how you work, and the principles you run the team with. This means you have a defined process for how you work, it's clear what you expect from PMs in the team and what it takes to be promoted. In my experience, I've found the best results come by clearly articulating your product philosophy and principles and developing high-potential PMs internally while augmenting and accelerating the team with external hires that match the principles you've created. Here are a few things to consider: 1. Growing PM competence within the organization: * Pros: Developing talent from within the organization can be a cost-effective way to build a strong product management team. It can also foster a sense of loyalty and commitment to the company among team members. * Cons: It may take longer to develop product management skills internally, as employees may need time to gain experience and learn from others in the organization, you must take the time to define the processes and culture you want to foster.  2. Hiring from the broader market: * Pros: Hiring from the broader market can allow you to bring in experienced product managers who can immediately hit the ground running and contribute to the team. It can also help to bring in new perspectives and ideas from outside the organization or seed new ways of working that you'd like your organization to adopt. * Cons: Hiring from the broader market can be more expensive, as you may need to pay a premium for experienced talent. It can also take time for new hires to become familiar with the company's culture and processes.

I've found informal mentors to be very helpful throughout my career. These have often been colleagues and peers I work with at a given company where I will buy them a coffee and chat about their career, experience, and problems I may be encountering to get their take. If they give advice or suggest something (a book, a conversation with someone from their network, etc.) I follow up with them to let them know how their recommendation or connection helped me with my problem. This creates a positive reinforcement loop where they feel good about helping me (I took their advice, learned something, and let them know it made a difference), and they, in turn, make themselves available to help me again in the future. There are often many people in your organization you can learn from if you take the time to get to know them.  If you cannot find these informal mentors, or you'd like something more formal: 1. Network: Attend industry events, join professional organizations, and reach out to people in your network to see if anyone is interested in mentoring you. 2. Ask your company: Many companies have mentorship programs or can help you connect with a mentor within the organization. Ask your manager or HR if any internal mentorship opportunities are available. 3. Use online resources: Several online resources, such as LinkedIn or mentorship platforms, can help you find a mentor. You can search for potential mentors based on their industry experience or areas of expertise. 4. Consider a paid mentor: If you're having trouble finding a mentor, you might consider paying for mentorship services. Several professionals offer paid mentorship services or coaching and can help you with your professional development. It's important to do your research and choose a mentor who has the experience and expertise that aligns with your goals and needs. Don't be afraid to reach out to multiple people to find the right fit.

Time management is essential as a PM, and the tools I use have changed over the years as I find what works. Here are some tips: 1. Use a project management tool: A project management tool, such as Asana or Trello, can help you keep track of tasks and progress you have for yourself. I always found it hard to follow up on tasks I delegated to others until I had a specific column in my Trello board dedicated to them. 2. Make use of templates: Use templates, such as meeting agendas or project planning documents, to save time and ensure that you consistently follow best practices. I have created many templates for PMs in my team to follow for interview guides, opportunity canvases, and decision documents. This lets us quickly get to the point of the document instead of needing to wade through the many variations in layout or formatting that can be distracting. 3. Use a note-taking tool: It can help you capture ideas and essential information and keep it organized. At the end of the day, I usually wonder where I put that note on a customer quote or OKR. If it's all in one place, it's easier to find! 4. Prioritize tasks: Use a prioritization method, such as the Eisenhower Matrix, to help you prioritize and focus on the most important things. 5. Take breaks: We all know we should do it but usually don't. Take breaks to rest and recharge, and try to avoid multitasking. 6. Use time blocking: Use time blocking to schedule dedicated blocks for specific tasks or projects, and try to minimize distractions during those blocks. This is invaluable, especially as a people leader with many 1:1s and meetings. 

To make this decision, I think of opportunity, ambitions, passion, and time: 1. Opportunity - obviously there is a matter of compensation, but there is also an opportunity for professional growth. For example, joining a startup allows you to grow much quicker -- you will be wearing different hats and working much closer to the company leadership. You will make a lot of mistakes, but the learnings will be much greater. 2. Ambitions - depending on where you at in life, different things might take a priority and it's important to keep that in mind e.g. you are starting a family or want to work remote from an island in Hawaii. If you are ambitious and feel that you can do more, you can tell your manager you want more work or go to another company or start a project/your own company. 3. Passion - you can gain your initial experience in one company, but if your heart is in the other place e.g. music, you probably want to consider getting a job at Spotify or Apple Music. That is where you will have the most fun.  4. Time - from my experience, it takes ~2 years to get up to speed with a new product area and make significant contributions. That is why it's common to see PMs going to other companies or seeking other roles within the same company. This allows you to grow and shift gears a little. In my 5 years at MuleSoft for example, I worked on 3 different product areas -- I've learned how to build marketplaces, identity products, and API platforms. 

There are some absolutes, which may be self-evident, but I'll still mention them for the record: disrespect, discrimination, excessive stress, unreasonable and unhealthy workload, workplace toxicity in all it's forms, the company is unethical or is visibly tanking...and many more.  Otherwise, I suspect the most common reason to leave might be simply put as: a better opportunity elsewhere. Now, this is a very personal calculus that becomes harder if things are not exactly terrible. Perhaps you are holding out for the promotion and it is taking longer. Perhaps the economy is too "risky" at the time. Perhaps you feel like you have something more to learn in the current role that you want to then leverage in the next job search. On some level, any reason is a fine reason to stay, as long as you know that you are consiously making the choice and it is a choice that in your best estimate takes you to where you want to be in the long-run. Most importantly, you don't want someone else to be making that choice for you. It is easier to get a job while in a job vs. when out of a job. And how do you ever know what is a better opportunity elsewhere? So network, look passively, field exploratory calls. From that perspective, it is never a bad time to be passively looking and neither is it necessarily time to leave.  In my own career, I've had situations where I started looking into a new role within a few months, due to some of my "absolutes" above being violated. In practice, I stayed on for many years, despite getting viable offers roughly every 6 months, i.e. it wasn't innertia, but a consious choice taking into account an ever-evolving org, company, and economic backdrop. 

There are a couple of factors to consider here: * Are you learning anything new in your current role? If not, would staying with the company, even if it is in a different role, or a more senior role (be that IC or management), satisfy your learning? * Do you enjoy the domain, vertical, and business model of the company that you work for? * What are the company's growth prospects (or if a startup, prospect for success -- however you define success?) Be very honest and don't just take company management's word for it. * Are you excited and passionate about the product that you're currently working on? * Do you enjoy the people that you work with? (your manager, your peers in engineering/design, your peers in product management, etc.) If not, is it likely to change over the next 6-12 months or whatever is your window of tolerance? * Are you and your ideas respected and given a fair shake? How much autonomy do you have versus how much do you want? * Does the company's appetite for risk match your appetive for risk? (e.g. are you working on a horizon 1 product when in reality you would rather be working on a horizon 3 product) There is no right or wrong answer to these questions but I hope they will spur an honest assessment about what is tolerable (and also if currently intolerable, is it likely to change to tolerable within period of time) versus what is a hard red line for you.

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, so both you and your product area need to grow.  PM Directors are also people managers who hire and build a team of other Product Managers. Having good people skills is important but you also need to be a great PM, so you can lead and help your team of Product Managers grow.  Finally, shifting to be a Director shifts your time allocation -- you spend more time in meetings working with your team and less time creating content, PRDs, etc. 

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 something I have a much deeper appreciation for now vs. earlier in my career when I focused more on getting a launch across the finish line.

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 managers are poor at the mechanics of delegation. As a PM director, you have to learn how to delegate problems to be solved and not orders to be fulfilled (a/k/a solutions) and be comfortable with the ultimate solutions even if they weren't what you would have built as an IC in the shoes of the delegate. You must also learn to see delegation as the manner in which you are granting autonomy and growth opportunities to your direct reports and not as the way to hand off dirty work that you would rather not do to "underlings". * Frequent contemplation of organizational design and areas of responsibility. Every week I am thinking about organizational design and at least quarterly I am having discussions with my peer leadership team in engineering and design to talk about whether we are a) staffed appropriately in the areas we need to be; b) whether we have the right skillsets and mix of seniority on our teams; c) whether we are optimizing for the strengths of PMs/eng leads/design leads while also giving them opportunities to stretch and grow in their current roles. * Employing a variety of communication styles with a wider range of stakeholders. We all have our default, natural communication styles (for example, my management style with my direct reports defaults to Socratic) but a director has to know when to switch styles based on the recipient of the message, their level of seniority, their personality, etc. -- and be able to intuit this very quickly in the course of delivery. I have had to force myself to be more direct ("Crucial Conversations"-style) when a softer message isn't making it through, for example. A corollary here, particularly when dealing with senior stakeholders: knowing what to spend one's political capital on, and when to pull back.

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, compelling narrative. A director can fill in the blanks in the following sentences with ease: "This year, my team is trying to achieve _____ because our comany needs to _____. In order to reach our goal, we need resources of ______ , focus on ______ and ______ and support from ______." 2. System thinking. A common mistake I see in PMs is trying to get *their* work done without thinking through the impact it has on adjacent teams - think, I need to meet MY goal and have MY feature on the home page, without consideration for a global optima. Directors need to think at least one level of abstraction about their own area. Who else will be impacted by your work? Is that impact good? Does it add up to greater good, or is it a local optima?  3. Inspire others. The difference between a manager and individual contributor PMs is that the goal of individual controbutor is to "get sh*t done", and goal of manager is to "make sh*t happen". You need to be able to achieve goals through your own work AND the work of others on your team. This is only possible if people can be inspired by your vision, integrity and leadership. 

1. Exemplary people leadership (ability to bring people along) 2. Strong relationships across various functions (including non-R&D teams) - get done what's needed to solve a problem, and get products launched. 3. Maturity to know when to switch course for a product line, drive tough decisions, and leverage #1 to bring your team along with you in that decision.

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 titles PM 1-3, Senior PM, Staff PM, Principal PM, Distinguished PM, etc. But I don't make the rules for the industry :-) and I recognize a lot of organizations use "director" to mean IC as well. I am going to answer the question assuming you mean that it includes people management. Accordingly, the top skill you want to have is a) knowing that you want to manage (a/k/a model, coach/mentor, care) other humans and that you don't just want to be an IC with more influence, and b) learning how to do that, or at least walking into it having some kind of a philosophy about management. I don't believe it's necessary to have prior experience as a people manager before becoming one (otherwise it's a chicken & egg situation and there would never be any people managers!) but demonstrating coaching / mentoring / feedback behaviors with your peers is a great way to gain these skills before you manage other people. I can't emphasize the foregoing enough because if you do not truly care about understanding human beings in general, what motivates the specific humans on your team, and how you can coach them to being better PMs, then you are going to view the "process" of managing people (HR reviews, hiring / separation duties, compensation management, 1:1s, etc.) as drudgery rather than tools to build an amazing team. I would say that the other two skills that are critical are: * Being able to drive change through your team, representing both their plans and their achievements to senior management and advocating for them, and * Executive presence and gravitas, including the ability to remain level-headed and confident no matter the obstacles in front of you, to give both your team and your management the confidence in you as a leader.

The biggest struggle I have observed is related to transition from an individual level product craft growth to growing that of a group. Andy Grove in High Output Management said "Managers are responsible for increasing the output of their organizations and neighboring organizations they influence". Read this sentence again and again. The learning curve is in learning how to optimize for the outputs of your team vs. your own. This means that you need to make trade-offs across your teammates and their areas, as well as help each of them grow as much as possible.  My recommendation is to read up on team management in all contexts - business, military, sports have great writings on it; there are also many articles and videos from leaders of all kinds. Then, ask yourself (before you were to manage a team), how would I change my prioritization frameworks, rituals, interactions, communication style if I were to optimize for an output of a team of PMs. You can even hypothsize about it using your existing team - if you are a manager tomorrow, what would you do differently to optimize for the greatest output?  Simply thinking and writing your thoughts down on this topic, as well as honing in on skills I mentioned above in the "director level" answer should help you prepare for the transition. 

Love the proactive thinking and the desire to excel :) Not sure if the learning curve is any steeper but there are a few things that can support career growth: * Master the craft for what is required of you in the current seniority. * Get exposure to delegating more work, creating leverage across different teams, and see if you are able to 'let go of the detailed tasks' but still bring a beautiful product to life with your team. * Get exposure to market maps, strategy documents, start asking thoughtful questions in various forums with leadership - not to be the loudest voice but more to build the sharpest brain. * Invest and re-invest in building relationships with cross-functional partners across the company. Learn how they think about their work. * Try unblocking others - what does it take to pinpoint what is holding back someone and how can you help them be successful? What is your personal style as you do that?

In my experience, the learning curve happens in the current role, as a prerequisite to transitioning into the next. You have to be operating at the next level already and there really isn't an easing of the transition beyond that. For example, managing wider scope, solving harder problems, navigating trickier interpersonal dynamics, connecting more "dots", communicating with more clarity on more complex matters, and influencing more people and outcomes, are among some of the skills needed at every PM level, but to different degrees. As you showcase these skills you are already solidifying the foundation for the next level. One of the biggest learning challenges can however come at later levels - when transitioning from IC to manager (irrespective of the accompanying title), partially because it is a binary situation. You are either a manager of people or you are not; there is not much preparing or gradual transition. Relatedly, many PMs are seeking that check-list, that when done, spells promotion. Consequently, one of the most frustrating and non-actionable things that managers can say is "you are not ready yet", perpetuating a bit of the feeling that there is some transition or steep learning that one must overcome. Often it means the manager is not ready to do that for you but is uncomfortable giving you specifics. Or it is not possible in the current org strucure. Sometimes, they just don't know themselves, but they'll know it when they see it. Perhaps, that is a big hint. Observe how others at the next level are operating as preparation. How big are their projects? How much more do you have to know or do? The criteria can be very different by company, that's why it's important to know any published leveling criteria. But generally, even then, there aren't a lot of clear-cut check boxes. Sometime the criteria are only in your managers head. I once had a manager tell me that if I grew my product to $50M or $100M in revenue it would get me promoted. (My answer was to remind them that we were working on 5-year incubation, hence low likelihood of multimillion dollar outcomes on any reasonable timelines, and that this criteria should have been articulated a lot earlier in the job decription. Plus there were plenty of examples of promotions without that criteria - so the aforementioned criteria disappeared from our conversations.)  In all cases, cross-reference everything official with what you actually see happens day-to-day and what behaviors or results are rewarded at the next level. Perhaps, the steepest learning curve is learning what specifically gets you promoted at your particular company and with your particular management chain.

It can definitely be a steep learning curve, because at Staff+ PM level you are expected to have strengths in one or more areas of product management that aren't often exercised at lower levels. Some examples: * Having a much wider aperture and being able to develop and sell portfolio-level (not just product or feature-level) product strategy that can touch other areas of the company * Assessing and making build vs. borrow vs. buy recommendations & understanding how to work with a channel/partner/business development team * Coaching and mentoring other PMs and reviewing their work * Portfolio-level goal setting and roadmap management * Organizational design (how to do it, when to change it, influencing your engineering & design peers to restructure their org structure as the product evolves) * Preparation of executive-level communications (how to convey only the most important information in the most concise manner possible) The good thing is that you are not expected to be excellent in each of these areas right out of the gate. But it helps to do a couple of things if you are aiming for Staff+ IC in your career: * Pick one of these areas and figure out how you can proactively pick up opportunities to learn and improve now. If you plan to stay at your current company, it helps to pick something that is a gap/weakness in the organization to make yourself more valuable. * Focus your reading / learning / professional development / networking in the PM community towards that topic, so you gain some outside perspective on it. * Be transparent with your manager about your career aspirations and what you are doing to level up in at least one of these competencies -- and hopefully align that growth with something that your manager needs in the group. I will mention one exception to all of the above. It is possible at some companies to become Staff+ PM simply by having more historical and domain knowledge than anyone else such that you become the "product oracle" for that area. In these situations, a breadth of skills outside of that domain knowledge is less necessary. Just remember that there can only be one oracle; once you choose that path, it is hard to get a Staff+ PM job elsewhere unless that company specifically needs the same wealth of knowledge.