What is the product manager career path?

how's it going product people this has been from productplan and today I want to talk to you a little bit about the product manager career path now we get a ton of questions on this topic what are the different responsibilities and product management what are the different roles and titles so I'm really excited to be making this video and I think a lot of you will find it to be useful now before we really dive into the details here make sure to check out the blog that I will be linking in the description this video is an adaptation of that post so if you have any lingering questions by the end of this video that's where to look so the first thing I'd like to point out about the product manager career path is that no two careers are the same in this field you hear a lot of people say that they fell into product management and really all this means is that they unexpectedly became product managers from a variety of different fields PMS come from a ton of different backgrounds like engineering design marketing just to name a few and what's really cool about this is that if you're interested in product management someone has certainly made that transition from wherever you are to product management successfully so let's talk about some product roles now again there's no standardized way to enter this field but if you were to start at the beginning in the most entry-level role that would be the associate product manager seeing as it's an entry-level role APM's are not expected to know everything about product management however you should have some domain knowledge and hiring managers will be looking for a clear passion for the customer in terms of the day to day work a PMS can expect to do pretty much everything the product manager does just on a smaller scale you might not set the product strategy your own the product roadmap but you will have your own priorities for your own projects and you'll be expected to report to your peers and your manager once you've proven yourself as a worthy associate product manager the next logical role would be the product manager now whether or not you have product experience you definitely will need some professional experience to land this role ideally that professional experience shows off the development of soft skills like communication prioritization and collaboration as a product manager you'll definitely need to be able to speak basic product concepts and ideas this mid-level role is similar to the APM position just with more responsibilities involved now to really summarize here the product manager is responsible for developing product strategy owning the roadmap talking to customers and being the point person for both the product team and all other teams in the organization and keep in mind the importance of owning this role with confidence this often means making key decisions backed by data and thorough research the next level up is the senior product manager now the senior PM does a lot of the same things that a product manager does just for higher impact and higher visibility products along with this the senior PM is often kind of a mentor figure for more junior PMS in the organization while mid-level product managers might be more heads down in the data interviewing and talking to customers the senior PM takes a broader look at the entire product process along with this they become more of a voice at the leadership table and can kind of vouch for the product team after the senior pm the next level of seniority would be Director of Product now this role definitely would require some leadership experience and the ability to build and trust a team to execute strategic plans again the pattern here is moving to more of a macro focus as opposed to a more micro focus that we see in lower level roles directors of product focus on building better processes honing existing ones improving overall team performance and creating consensus throughout the entire organization they also spend a significant amount of time researching the market that their product lives in and this includes research on things like best practices and competition moving up the ladder once again our next role is the VP of product the VP of product at its core is responsible for an entire product set and they're expected to be a high-level resource for the entire product organization some responsibilities include budgeting for the product organization ensuring that product decisions align with business objectives and protecting the product team from internal politics in just a quick note that at this level we begin to see a growing emphasis on thought leadership it's not uncommon that you'll see a VP of Product participate in a speaking engagement or other thought leadership events now the last role that I will briefly touch on is the chief product officer the CPO might just be an expanded variation of the VP of product or maybe they're overseeing multiple VPS of product within the company at this level you're thinking about the entire product portfolio and you're pretty much thinking as macro as possible so what are some opportunities within the next three to five years from here the CPO might set some aspirational goals to help inspire and motivate the product team I'm gonna stop it right there guys we could go on and on about these different roles and the responsibilities within them but I don't want to take hours on end so again there's a blog in the description with a lot more information and if you have lingering questions definitely go check it out thank you for watching this video enjoy the blog and I will see you next time

Channel: ProductPlan

Views: 51,704

Keywords: product management, product management career, product management interview, product manager career, product manager career path, about product management, associate product manager, product manager, senior product manager, director of product management, director of product, vp of product, chief product officer, product management titles, product roadmap, product roadmaps

Id: kwveytaynAs

Length: 5min 32sec (332 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 16 2019