The Difference: Junior PM vs Senior PM

Job titles can often be confusing, especially in a profession as fluid and varied as product management.

Even so, there is a standard hierarchy in place, which looks like this:

• Associate Product Manager
• Junior Product Manager
• Senior Product Manager
• Principal Product Manager
• Director of Product Management
• Vice President of Product Management

While the day-to-day activities may vary across companies, job titles still indicate what the company will expect from you. They’re especially helpful when you’re job hunting, aka if you’ve only had six months of experience as a Junior Product Manager, then you probably won’t be looking for Senior Product Manager roles just yet!

Why is that? What exactly are the differences between a Junior Product Manager and a Senior Product Manager? While the job titles are pretty subjective, we can use a few clues to figure out if someone is one or the other, and if you’re ready for that promotion!

If you’re looking for a more comprehensive breakdown of different PM jobs, check out our guide on decoding job titles.

What Does a Junior Product Manager Do?

A Junior PM, usually just referred to as a Product Manager, is generally in the earlier stages of their career. Often confused with Project Managers, you can think of a PM as the conductor of an orchestra. While they don’t play the instruments themselves, they know exactly what the symphony should sound like and how to help the musicians achieve it.

Some of the tasks you’d usually find in a Product Manager job description are:

• Strategic Work: Lead the strategic side of a product from the development to deployment. Collaborate with leaders in business, from sales to marketing to operations to development.
• Tactical / Execution Work: Facilitate the product life cycle from inception to release and analyze the results to measure success.
• Meetings: Delegate work, give quick overviews on how on track the team is, present the final product, share key insights, and more through meetings.
• Communicate with Seniors: Regularly give status updates to superiors. A good PM can take a roadblock and turn it into an insight or an opportunity.
• Talk to Customers: Know the market and its customers and always have the users in mind. Look for feedback from users to know how hot or not the new product or feature is.
• Work with Consultants & Vendors: When working with a new vendor or a consultant, PMs must be in the loop on what the vendors what to change or what new system they are implementing.

What Does a Senior Product Manager Do?

A Senior PM, which in some organizations may also be called Product Lead, has usually (but not always) wracked up a few years experience as a Junior PM. Often the roles look quite similar in terms of daily tasks, but with a few distinctions.

Rather than managing products, Senior PMs manage the people who manage products. In larger companies where there are teams of PMs working on individual projects, a Senior PM will work with them to keep everyone working in harmony with each other.

They do more high-level thinking, maintain the product vision, and keep it communicated consistently across all product teams.

They oversee product development, but with more of a macro view than a Junior PM, who zooms in and out.

The Main Differences:

1. Leadership Qualities

All Product Managers need leadership skills, but Senior Product Managers are in a position of leadership. It’s a subtle distinction, but it’s perhaps the thing that most separates junior and senior managers. Generally, your first PM role(s) will be very hands-on. You’d be conducting market research, working on the product strategy, and running around between all kinds of cross-functional teams.

Senior PMs do more of the high-level work and empower others to do the nitty-gritty work. They’re also more responsible for the career development of the people in their teams. Depending on the company’s size, a Senior PM may also be responsible for recommending their teammates for promotions, negotiating compensation, and handling conflict resolution.

2. Outcomes Over Outputs

While it’s something that is starting to change, the trend has been that Junior PMs focus on outputs, whereas Senior PMs focus on outcomes. (You can find our full breakdown of Outputs vs Outcomes right here!)

While it’s good for Junior PMs to also keep the outcome of a product or feature in mind, it’s the Senior PMs who more actively work towards it. They work on defining what the desired outcome should be, and work with users after launch to figure out what improvements or new products could be built.

3. Depth Of Experience

Seniority is often the result of cumulated years of experience. This doesn’t necessarily have to be in the product industry, specifically. Someone who has spent time as a Senior Engineer may have collected the right skills for a Senior Technical Product Manager role. There is no single idea of an ideal candidate for a Senior role, and there is a myriad of ways to collect enough experience to become one.

There is no easy formula that says ‘X years of PM experience leads to Senior PM role.’ If someone has been a PM for ten years, but hasn’t branched out and tried new things or developed their skillset in any way, they might be a less ideal candidate than someone with five years of experience whose skillset is broader and more profound.

4. Influence Without Authority

As a Junior PM, you have to influence without authority. This means that you have to guide the teams you work with towards a common goal without actually being authorized to tell them what to do.

This is done through a mix of making personal connections, being empathetic to their problems, and making sure your decisions are backed up with data. Once you’ve built up your reputation as a seasoned professional, this gets easier with time. The longer you are established within your organization, and the longer your track record of success, the easier this will be.

As a Senior PM, you can usually expect to be entrusted with more authority. Your words carry more weight thanks to your position.

Am I Ready to Climb The Ladder?

Climbing the PM ladder isn’t often as simple as ‘have I done this job for long enough?’

When you’re ready to progress in your product career, you’ll need to choose between moving more into people management or continuing primarily as a senior individual contributor.

If what’s keeping you back from moving forward in your career is that you don’t want to stop your work, or that your goal is solely to move into more of a people-leader position, fear not. Not all Senior PM roles are created equal. If you’re faved with moving into a role that doesn’t suit you just because it’s the next natural step, it’s not the end of your PM career.

You could look at transitioning to a Senior PM role within a different team at your company, or even to a new company. The perfect next step is out there. You just have to have the grit and hunger to find it.

If you’re looking for your next big role, check out our jobs portal.