What are the different product management career paths you can pursue?

Associate PM -> PM -> Senior PM -> Group/Lead PM -> Director of Product -> VP Product -> CPO. Also saw Product Leaders turn into Founders, CEOs, or COOs.

My journey: Technical Support > Pre-sales Engineer > Product Management In this journey, I got a chance to interface with customers from diverse segments and regions and at different stages of the buying and product life cycle. It helps design superior product offerings, GTM strategy, RTMs, enablement plans, etc. It also helped me get a good perspective of customer and market needs, make better decisions when it comes to prioritization, and balance internal execution constraints. It also helped me successfully translate customer care about/ business outcomes to product requirements and highlight the value proposition of products/solutions to our customers, partners, and analysts.

My path has been IC > Manager > IC > Manager …. It may seem as a regression to some to become an IC after managing. But the truth is it doesn’t matter. Better to have impact and solve hard problems as an IC than be an administrative manager. PM is one role where you have the opportunity to have impact in both career tracks. So make the most of it and pick what suits you when. Chose the skills and the challenge, not the title.

I've been transitioning under Marketing and Product Management roles for the past few years, and I have to admit being a Product Manager is the most challenging and rewarding role. An amazing feeling of "I'm the Product CEO". The set of mandatory skills (tech background, market knowledge, and business acumen) is just the beginning of performing it wisely. Based on my experience, the most critical piece is communicating and influencing stakeholders.

Consider being a Product Owner if you have a good mix between left brain (technical) and right brain (communication), between the hard skills of product requirements and the soft skills of customer-centric empathy (“value”), between flexibility (pivoting based upon changes in the market or needs) and rigidity (did the demo meet the Definition of Done), and between being a servant leader and a leading servant.

I feel product management needs structural thinking, common sense and ability to zoom out when needed. Mine has been an interesting career path where I moved as BI Analyst >> Data Engineer >> Product/Data Analyst >> Data Scientist >> ML engineer (briefly) >> Analytics Manager >> Growth Manager >> Data Product Management >> Product & Growth Management…. Product management is a very interesting job which is reachable and doable by anyone with few above mentioned traits

Breaking into product management via an internal shift into a Product Owner role is one of the best ways I’ve seen folks become successful at product management. It lets you leverage your knowledge of the company and product early on while giving you a lower risk environment in which to learn product skills. Usually you’re paired with an experienced PM or mentor. That part is key as well.

Product owner is the highway through which the information and communication is delivered between business stakeholders and scrum team. Product owner ensures that the backlog is ordered as per current priority and stories are groomed properly with all the information possible. In short, Product owner's role ensures that correct features are delivered and team is able to deliver the higher business value in each sprint.

The product owner is a role within a scrum team but it’s not a job title in of itself. However refining the backlog, coordinating the daily scrum and carrying out retrospectives are all essential functions to deliver agile development properly. The product owner is a valuable role to achieve that.

In my opinion, PM to PMM is a logical transition if one is more interested in "user perception" than user experience. The "PM DNA" definitely helps, but there has to be a primary shift to "thinking outward". Example: Qn: How do you drive adoption for a particular feature in your product? PM Ans: Build smaller touchpoints across the product for better discoverability of the feature, A/B test different UI/UX methodologies and track user engagement. PMM Ans: Create timely Push/SMS/WhatsApp campaigns to relevant user segments via personalized messaging and track user interaction with the brand, conversions and ROI.

I totally agree, based on my professional experience, in this position you always have to have a bird's eye view to be aware of all the touchpoints. As the person in charge of a product or brand, you create the end-to-end strategy for the consumer, so you need to have a strategic and creative vision to create preference, knowledge of data to define strategies to increase sales and profitability, identify your attitudinal and socio-demographic target through research, develop effective communication strategies in ATL and BTL. Soft skills are also essential in this role, as you have a direct impact on your product and it's important to prepare meetings and create a friendly environment when communicating with other teams.

In my experience, PMM main goal is revenue generation (even if not explicit) by developing and executing strategic Go-to-Market plans. It means this role is crucial for collaborating with sales, conducting market research, and crafting compelling messaging to effectively position the product in the market.

The product marketing manager focuses on go-to-market strategies, messaging, and growth aspects of product management. This role requires a blend of marketing, sales, and customer success skills, along with creativity and data analysis capabilities.

Considering a sales leader who can provide context of the forecast established for the project, as well as the needs of the market, is an important piece within project leaders.

A Technical Product Manager combines technical expertise with product management skills, playing a key role in bridging the gap between business requirements and technical implementation. Here's an overview of their responsibilities: Technical Background: Possess a strong technical background, often with experience in software development, engineering, or a related field. Product Ownership: Take ownership of the entire product lifecycle, aligning technical development with overall business goals. Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with cross-functional teams, including developers, designers, and business stakeholders, to ensure a cohesive approach.

As soon as a new PM is hired a company is looking at an increase of at least 5-6 people's salary. How? A PM gets assigned a project, they need engineers, testers, designers on their project. The stakes are already high. Here comes a tech PM who is working with the costliest function i.e. engineering. This is one of the most misunderstood PM roles. Yes, you need deep technical understanding to succeed here. And yes, you can learn this without having a professional technical degree. All of this hinges on you being comfortable in learning new tech and going deep with your engineers. This role requires a lot of ongoing deep learning. You can't be done with the studies ever in this role. Be prepared.

TPM is responsible for bridging the gap between business and engineering teams. They have a deep understanding of both product development and technology, and they use this expertise to help teams make informed decisions about product features and architecture. TPM works more closer to engineers, they translate biz requirements to tech specs. You got to stay updated with emerging technologies.

Diese Rolle erfordert nicht nur eine solide technische Bildung, sondern auch die F?higkeit, komplexe Sachverhalte klar zu kommunizieren. Mein Hintergrund als Mechaniker und Techniker im Maschinenbau hat mir eine starke technische Grundlage geschenkt, auf der ich aufbauen konnte, um die Brücke zwischen Entwicklung und Markt zu schlagen.

TPM is crucial in startups due to their unique ability to blend technical expertise with strategic vision. They bridge the gap between technology and business, translating business goals into technical specifications and ensuring alignment across engineering, design, marketing, and sales teams. TPMs drive product vision and strategy, prioritize features, and manage the entire product lifecycle from ideation to launch. Their customer focus, agility in rapid iteration, and resource optimization are vital in a fast-paced startup environment. Additionally, TPMs' technical knowledge aids in informed decision-making and risk management, fostering a product-centric culture that is essential for the startup's growth and success.

Every human being working within a company today is a storyteller by nature. The role of a successful Product Designer is to be able to share the product's story through a visual, emotional, and interactive medium. The focus of this role goes beyond the needs of the customer, rather they are creating a digital simulacrum of a real-world system or event. An effective experience of an interface is transparent. It must almost be second nature or obvious to the operator. The best products are the ones you don't need to think about.

Besides the traditional PM role there are other focus areas such as marketing or design possible. You might choose to be a design-minded product manager or opt for a product design role. Being a product designer allows you to lead the design of the app and collaborate with the pm which functionalities might be needed and how they could be implemented. As a product designer you need to develop a deep understanding of the user base, but also extensive design and UX skills. A product designer will usually be involved in UI and UX design questions, but will also collaborate in regards to strategic questions and needs considerable business acumen to cover this.

The product designer is responsible for crafting the user experience and interface design of a product. This role involves creating and testing wireframes, mockups, and prototypes, while collaborating with cross-functional teams and iterating based on feedback. Strong design skills, a solid portfolio, and proficiency in user research tools are essential for success in this role.

Product designer has got a great opportunity to know every details of the work done in their respective domain. Product designer plays a great role as they design the most robust and optimised system for the product. While designing the product, multiple parameters are present which are to be considered. An add on to it, if the designer is able to predict the most apt additon of feature and if can provide some provision to execute the feature, would be great considering save of cost and time.

If you have a flair for fine/applied arts, Product design is a great way to pivot into product management. You'll not just understand how to design beautiful interfaces, but you will learn design thinking which helps you get into the heads of your consumers. You will also learn research and user experience which is very useful to the whole product process.

A product analyst majorly collects and analyzes product data, identifies user trends and patterns, measure product performance and ROI. This is more of an analytical role and an entry level role in PM career.

Consider this role as an entry-level position in Product Management. It primarily focuses on data analysis to identify user trends, user behaviors, measure feature performance, ROI, etc. With approximately one year of experience, you can be promoted to an APM position.

Product Analyst can be a good foot in the door position from which you can branch into Associate PM or go a more technical PM route. Find yourself a good PM mentor and be valuable! Research customer needs, interview as many people inside the building as you can and build bridges. As a PM it sometimes is more about who you know than how much you know. I used to tell people: "I don't know all the answers but I know all the people who have answers so ask me and I'll get you an answer".

The product analyst specializes in data and analytics within product management, responsible for collecting, analyzing, and communicating product insights. This role demands a strong quantitative background, analytical skills, and proficiency in data visualization tools.

Product Analyst ???? Enter the realm of data and insights as a Product Analyst! In this role, you become the detective, deciphering user behaviors, market trends, and product performance. Your toolkit includes analytics tools, statistical methods, and a keen analytical mind. Collaborating with cross-functional teams, you transform raw data into actionable insights, guiding product decisions. A knack for storytelling with data, proficiency in SQL or analytics tools, and a passion for uncovering patterns make you an invaluable asset in shaping successful products. Share your experiences or tips for aspiring Product Analysts in the comments! ???? #ProductAnalytics #DataDrivenDecisions #ProductInsights

I teach product managers how to become AI product managers! All Product Managers will be AI Product Managers in the future. These are the types of AI product managers: https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/marilynika_types-of-ai-product-management-roles-activity-7114640050897731584-fY8W?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Product Lifecycle Manager oversees entire journey of a product, fm conception to retirement. His role involves tailoring strategies for each lifecycle stage. The role extends to end-of-life planning, including exit strategies, enhancments/ facelifts and customer transitions. Additionally, he makes decisions on changes such as product retirements or mid-life upgrades based on market trends. While there's overlap with a product manager, the Product Lifecycle Manager uniquely focuses on optimizing a product's performance, profitability, and relevance throughout its existence. His role differs in the sense that he is also responsible for killing the product (if at all) in favour of an alternate product from his own stable.

Why not transition to Entrepreneurship? This idea stems from the belief that the multifaceted skill set acquired in product management equips individuals for the challenges of entrepreneurship. Navigating technicalities, leading teams, and understanding markets positions a Product Manager as a potential entrepreneur. Let's solve problems!

My Journey: Developer -> Team Lead -> Dev Manager -> Head of Engineering -> CTO -> Director of engineering -> Technical Product Manager -> Inbound Product Manager -> Product Manager -> Senior Product Manager. Understanding the roles and responsibilities within the product team is crucial, regardless of the company's structure. Creating a clear RACI matrix that outlines who is responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed in the product process can prevent wasted time and ambiguity down the line.