Types of Product Managers..

A short guide that will help you find your career path in product management.

Product management isn’t something simple to understand, especially at the beginning of your career. This is not an easy job, and for sure it is not easy to start. It requires a lot of planning, confidence, and commitment. But this article won’t be about that.

So let’s get back to the main topic. You already spent some time on self-education. You know what is product management and you are convinced that this something you want to do. That’s great. You have something to work with. But the question is: “where should I start?” or maybe you are wondering what kind of a side project you want to do. Those are not easy decisions to make.

Of course, almost everybody wants to work for some large corporation in the Silicon Value. Let me just add that both CEO`s of Google and Microsoft were working as product managers in their companies. I fully understand your aspiration but let`s be honest. It’s not so easy to get there. For this article let’s assume that you need to look somewhere else.

The first question you need to ask is where do you want to work. To properly select your future employer, first of all, you need to select the area of your specialization. At the moment I’m not talking about the type of industry but about the type of product that you want to work with.

I need to add here a small disclaimer. My whole career is related to the IT sector so I’ll refer to examples from it. But be sure that those groups also fit into other industries. So don’t worry, if you`re not an IT guy like me, you’ll still learn everything that you need to know about different types of product managers.

Ok, now we can divide product managers into three main groups.

Are there any differences besides the names? Of course, and they are quite big. A good understanding of those three groups will be very beneficial for everyone interested in this role. If you know what you want to do, and how you want to start, you will be able to find the proper employer much easier.

Internal Product Manager

For a big group of people, this is the best way to start. If you don’t have a lot of work experience then for sure you should consider this as the best way to make your career moving.

This type of PM works on the company`s internal products. It is a perfect environment for beginners. The risk is much lower than in commercial products. You know your clients very well because you meet them in the corridor every day. The brand of your company is not in danger, even if something bad will happen with the product, it will not have an impact on the companies clients.

Besides a good environment to start you’ll receive a few other benefits that will speed up your career:

• you will gain the possibility to understand the industry from the inside
• you will have a lot of contact with people from the business
• you will be able to develop your skills related to planning, estimating, negotiations, persuasion

As you can see this is a great way to start with product management. One tip from me. Do not allow this safe environment to make you lazy. Even though it’s easier to start as an internal PM, you still need to work hard and learn a lot. If you get this chance, make the most of it.

B2B Product Manager

Ok, no we’re getting to the commercial environment so as I can assume, it will be riskier and harder. But of course, no rule says you can’t start from here.

What is the B2B product? It is a product developed/created by companies for other companies. A typical example will be some kind of SaaS (System as a Service) product.

You probably already understand the main differences between this type and the internal PM:

• your clients are paying for your product
• if there are payments and clients, there is a sales team with which you need to work and plan future steps

Let’s go further. Your actions must be well prepared and planned. Remember that from now on, every mistake with a new version of a product will affect your company brand. Every bug on the production will be seen by people that are paying for your product, and trust me, no one — including you — likes when something that he pays for does not work as it should. Minor bugs might go under the radar, but big problems will affect the brand. Never forget about that.

The good thing about B2B is the fact that the amount of customers is rather small. Why? Because in most cases the customer (person who buys the product) is not the same person who uses it. So even if your product is used by thousands of users, you may have contact only with several dozen of them. Of course, users opinion is very important and you need to take it into account but your contact with them will be very limited.

Last but least we need to talk about money. When you are an internal PM your goals/KPIs are often focused much more on elements like usability, usage comfort, cost reduction and so on. If you go to a commercial environment it is obvious that it shifts more into the direction of the profit, margin, income, and costs. After all, the product must earn money, if not then we have a problem.

B2C Product Manager

Now the big league. I won’t lie to you. This is the hardest way to start with product management. It is related to a big dose of uncertainty and pressure. Your KPIs are focused fully on generating revenue. The amount of customers and users increases significantly. It’s a hard job.

Ok, ok I know. That was a frightening introduction so let’s slow down. B2C product is something that is sold directly to the customer. A great example is an online shop or other platforms on which the customer and user are the same people. That means you have thousands or millions of users and each of them is paying you some money, and yes, each of them has its expectations. Deal with it! You need to find a way to manage them all.

Working with B2C products is related to a much higher risk. As I’ve mentioned everything here happens faster and on a bigger scale. That means every mistake, error, bug can have a significant impact not only on the brand but also on the revenue. When this happens you are in trouble.

You probably ask yourself “who would want to mess with it?”. For example me! In my opinion, this is the most satisfactory job in the world. It’s not easy but in the B2C sector you will learn everything about product management and you will do that very fast. The risk, problems, pressure, those are the cost of that. If you want to have fast gains, you need to sacrifice something.

Summary

In the end, I would like to make a summary of those three groups

Internal

• great for starting out
• possibility to learn a lot about the technology, industry, job without pressure
• safe environment with low risk
• small numbers of users and single (or almost single) client
• a lot of project management work

B2B PM

• still good for starting out
• tight deadlines
• working with salespeople
• KPIs moved from toward financial aspects
• possibility to be more flexible and creative
• working with single or very few platforms
• a small number of customers and a manageable number of users

B2C PM

• high-risk environment
• full focus on revenue
• a very high number of customers and users
• uncertainty, pressure
• multiple platforms and devices
• an environment that allows you to learn fast

I hope that this short description of PM types will help you to understand this role a bit better and help you take the next step...